My own Copyright Infringement

I have to admit: I download Torrents… there I said it. Everybody does it, Why can’t I… I have 10Meg sitting there, waiting to be used. I’ll also admit: I like the NBC TV show Las Vegas. So I record every episode on my PVR, except one week when I was having trouble with it. So I decided to jump on Torrentspy to get that episode. 20 min download.. wa-bam I’m watching it. 3 weeks later I get an E-mail from my ISP (Charter) about copyright infringement. I didn’t think too much about it, I thought it was fairly common, until I read this:
http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/
2006/12/28/torrentspy-is-monitored-by-copyright-thoughtpolice/

So.. heres the nice E-mail I got served:

Dear Internet Access Subscriber:

Charter Communications (”Charter”) has been notified by a copyright owner that your Internet account has been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that Charter received from the copyright holder.of copyrighted material (music, movies, or software). We are enclosing a copy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that Charter received from the copyright holder.

It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as a Charter Internet account owner, you can be held liable for this activity.

As a personal computer owner and a user of the Internet, we ask that you be aware of the following: Violations of federal Copyright law can result in civil and/or criminal liability, including payment of monetary damages, costs and attorneys’ fees to the copyright owner. See 17 U.S.C. §§ 504-506. In addition, Charter’s Acceptable Use Policy explicitly prohibits copyright infringement by Charter High-Speed Internet users. Specifically, Section 3 states:

NO COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT
Customer will not use, or allow others to use, the Service to send or receive, or otherwise use any information which infringes the patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets or proprietary rights of any other person or entity. This includes, but is not limited to, digitization of music, movies, photographs or other copyrighted materials or software. Customer must obtain appropriate authorization from such other person or entity prior to sending, receiving or using such materials. Customer represents and warrants that Customer is the author and copyright owner and/or authorized licensee with respect to any hosted content and Customer further represents and warrants that no hosted content violates the trademark, copyright, domain name or intellectual property rights of any third party. Charter assumes no responsibility, and Customer assumes all risks regarding the determination of whether material is in the public domain, or may otherwise be used for such purposes.

Charter is registered under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). Under the DMCA, copyright owners have the right to notify Charter if they believe that a Charter customer has infringed the copyright owner’s work(s). If Charter receives a notice from a copyright owner alleging any Customer has committed copyright infringement, Charter will notify the Customer of the alleged infringement. Charter may determine that Customer is a repeat copyright infringer if Charter learns that Customer has engaged in online copyright infringement on more than one occasion. Charter reserves the right to suspend or terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.

We ask that you take immediate action to remove the infringing material from your computer and stop its exchange. If Charter continues to receive DMCA notices regarding your account, or if you violate any other clause of Charter’s Acceptable Use Policy, we will have no choice but to terminate your account. You may view Charter’s rules and policies at http://www.charter.com/site/policies.aspx.

If you need assistance in removing the referenced infringing material, please refer to the Security Center at http://www.charter.com.

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact us at 1-866-229-7286. Representatives will be available to take your call from 9am – 11pm, seven days a week. (Central Time)

Sincerely,

Charter High-Speed Internet Security Team http://security.charter.com

— The following material was provided to us as evidence —

[Part 0 (plain text)]

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Re: Unauthorized Use of NBC Universal Properties Notice ID: 14-9667805 20 Dec 2006 02:06:03 GMT

Dear Sir or Madam:

Please be advised that NBC Universal and/or its subsidiary and affiliated companies (collectively, NBC Universal) are the owners of exclusive rights protected under copyright law and other intellectual property rights in many motion pictures and television programs, including the title(s) listed below (the NBC Universal Properties). NBC Universal diligently enforces its rights in its motion pictures.

It has come to our attention that Charter Communications is the service provider for the IP address listed below, from which unauthorized copying and distribution (downloading, uploading, file serving, file “swapping” or other similar activities) of the NBC Universal Property or Properties listed below, or portion(s) thereof, is taking place. We believe that the Internet access of the user engaging in this infringement is provided by Charter Communications or a downstream service provider who purchases this connectivity from Charter Communications.

This unauthorized copying and distribution constitutes copyright infringement under Section 106 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Depending upon the type of service Charter Communications is providing to this IP address, it may have legal and/or equitable liability if it does not expeditiously remove or disable access to the motion picture(s) listed below, or if it fails to implement a policy that provides for termination of subscribers who are repeat infringers (see 17 U.S.C. 512).

Despite the above, NBC Universal believes that the entire Internet community benefits when these matters are resolved cooperatively. We urge you to take immediate action to stop this infringing activity and inform us of the results of your actions. We appreciate your efforts toward this common goal.

The undersigned has a good faith belief that use of the NBC Universal Property or Properties in the manner described herein is not authorized by NBC Universal, its agent or the law. The information contained in this notification is accurate. Under penalty of perjury, the undersigned is authorized to act on behalf of NBC Universal with respect to this matter.

Please be advised that this letter is not intended to be a complete statement of the facts or law as they may pertain to this matter or of NBC Universal’s positions, rights or remedies, legal or equitable, all of which are specifically reserved.

Please send us a prompt response indicating the actions you have takento resolve this matter, making sure to reference the Notice ID number above in your response.

mailto:X?subject=******

If you do not wish to reply by email, please use our Web Interface by clicking on the following link:

******

Note: If your email program has inserted line breaks into either the email or web links above, you can copy and paste the entire link in to you email program, or favorite web browser, respectively.

Very truly yours,

Aaron Markham
Director of Internet Anti-Piracy,
Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations
NBC UNIVERSAL
100 Universal City Plaza 1220/2
Universal City, CA 91608
tel. (818) 777-4876
fax (818) 866-2155
X

*pgp public key is available on the key server at ldap://keyserver.pgp.com
** For any correspondence regarding this case, please send your emails to X and refer to Notice ID: 14-9667805. If you need immediate assistance or if you have general questions please call the number listed above.
Title: Las Vegas (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 9 Dec 2006 22:43:34 GMT Recent Infringment Timestamp: 9 Dec 2006 22:43:34 GMT Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Las.Vegas.S04E04.History.of.Violins.HDTV.XviD-FQM.avi/Las.Vegas.S04E04.History.of.Violins.HDTV.XviD-FQM.avi
Infringing Filesize: 365662208
Infringers IP Address: 24.***.179.***
Infringers DNS Name: 24-***-179-***.dhcp.stls.mo.charter.com
Infringing URL:

- —Start ACNS XML

9667805
Open

NBC Universal
Aaron Markham, Director of Internet Anti-Piracy

100 Universal City Plaza (2160/7E), Universal City, California 91608 United States of America

818-777-4876,
X

Charter Communications

X

2006-12-09T22:43:34.000Z
24.***.179.***

24-***-179-***.dhcp.stls.mo.charter.com
BitTorrent

1
No

Las Vegas (TV)
Las.Vegas.S04E04.History.of.Violins.HDTV.XviD-FQM.avi/Las.Vegas.S04E04.History.of.Violins.HDTV.XviD-FQM.avi
365662208

- —End ACNS XML
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
Version: 8.0

****
—–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

So there it is! Boy was I impressed when I got that. Maybe next time I will think about this when I try to download the newest movie or NBC show! Turns out they use a piracy-tracking company called Bay TSP.

UPDATE 10/27/08 -
It’s been almost 2 years since I created this post. As an update, I received another letter from charter for copyright infringement later that year. I’ve learned a few things then. First, I would strongly recommend using PeerGuardian in conjunction with any P2P software. This software protects you from these letters. I now work for a small ISP with about 5,000 clients and we get about 1-2 a week. We have to inform our customers that this is illegal activity and make them delete the infringing material. We, like most ISPs, have a 3 strikes & you’re out policy. On the 3rd letter we receive, we cancel their internet service immediately, no questions asked.
I no longer use P2P software. While it was fun back then, in the long run it is not worth it. Honestly, it is stealing no matter how you look at it. The copyright holders own this intellectual material and make a living by selling this material. It is not right to steal others’ property, whether with a gun or with P2P. I use Amazon’s MP3 store which offers 256kbps MP3’s with no DRM. To get my TV show fix, I look to iTunes if the shows are not are their websites, which most are today.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Copyright Infringement Cases Can Teach Us To Obey Copyright Laws
• Charter Reaches Agreement With NBC Universal To Offer 2008 Beijing Olympic …
• Copyright Guidelines For Newsletter Editors in Singapore