A good friend of mine (no, not me) received this e-mail from his ISP (I starred-out his actual IP):
Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:
Comcast has received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast's High-Speed Internet service (the 'Service'). The copyright owner has identified the Internet Protocol ('IP') address associated with your Service account at the time as the source of the infringing works. The works identified by the copyright owner in its notification are listed below. Comcast reminds you that use of the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of any copyrighted work is a violation of Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy and may result in the suspension or termination of your Service account.
If you have any questions regarding this notice, you may direct them to Comcast in writing by sending a letter or e-mail to:
Comcast Legal Response Center Comcast Cable Communications, LLC 650 Centerton Road Moorestown, NJ 08057 U.S.A. Phone: (856) 317-7272 Fax: (856) 317-7319 E-mail: dmca@comcast.net
For more information regarding Comcast's copyright infringement policy, procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy by clicking on the Terms of Service link at http://www.comcast.net.
Sincerely, Comcast Legal Response Center
Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:
Title: Monk (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent Initial Infringement Timestamp: 9 Feb 2007 18:40:43 GMT Recent Infringment Timestamp: 9 Feb 2007 18:40:43 GMT Infringer Username: Infringing Filename: Monk.S05E10.DSR.XviD-NoTV.avi Infringing Filesize: 369140990 Infringers IP Address: 67.187..* Infringers DNS Name: c-67-187-149-236.hsd1.ca.comcast.net Infringing URL: http://eztv.sladinki007.eu:60500/announce Title: Monk (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent Initial Infringement Timestamp: 9 Feb 2007 19:14:59 GMT Recent Infringment Timestamp: 9 Feb 2007 19:14:59 GMT Infringer Username: Infringing Filename: monk.s05e12.dsr.xvid-orenji.[VTV].avi Infringing Filesize: 364616698 Infringers IP Address: 67.187..* Infringers DNS Name: c-67-187--.hsd1.ca.comcast.net Infringing URL: http://85.17.42.17:7001/announce
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ouch!
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OOOOPS!
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My lawyer friend (off-the-record) says it's a warning, a "shot across the bow".
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.... eztv... (swallowing hard)...
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Boy howdy that blows. I read somewhere a couple of weeks ago that Comcast is limiting or cutting off services for those who exceed 200GB in a month. I don't know how one would accomplish that unless they were downloading movies or tv series. I guess you could watch hours and hours of YouTube to accomplish that. Comcast is stinky.
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That's why I use Speakeasy as my ISP.
Down with all the large cable and telcos- they are in cahoots with the copyright cops
Whats really sad is all you have to do to have a copy of the file this person was downloading is hit record on your VCR.
Who is to say this person didn't do that- and their copy got messed and they are dowlnoading this as a replacement
Is it illegal to copy something from television onto my VCR for my personal viewing?
A slippery slope....
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Check out Comcast Connection Blues
(I found that I don't know how to upload mp3's into comments... that's possible, right?)
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According to consumer guru Clark Howard, Comcast is annually the lowest-rated in customer service and satisfaction or in the BottomFive, nationally, among allcompanies (not just cable/ISPs) according to several surveys including J.D.Power.
But they obviously offer exemplary service to other large corporations.
I suspect that Monk wasn't the only thing your acquaintance downloaded to get himself noticed.
Here's an interesting question - how did they find him out?
I can think of three possibilities:
A. Comcast noticed high bandwidth and ratted him out to kiss ass with the RIAA and/or MPAA
B. The copyright owner got into the records of a BitTorrent site
or
C. (most likely, i think) Someone on a fishing expedition set themselves up a BitTorrent download of something they figured was popular - Monk - and just noted down all the ISP addresses their BT client showed for other downloaders and seeders.
If (A) or (B) are the case - anyone who uses BitTorrent could get oppped.
If
(C), only people downloading stuff they decide to check on particularly are in the wind.OTOH, the BBC (e.g.) could, at any minute, decide that something like A Compendium of Obscure and Boring BritComs is theirs and pull the same trick, as could the copyright holders (or anyone else) of any material available via BT.
We Have All Been Warned.
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Wanbli of The Great Mystery says:
Is it illegal to copy something from television onto my VCR for my personal viewing?
Check out the SONY/Disney {Betamax} case at EFF...
(A friend of a friend was an important witness in that case.)
The answer is, yes probably but they can't bust you for it unless you get really blatant about passing it around or selling it. (Or if you exhibit it, for free or otherwise, to the public...)
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us Yanks need to rely on our foriegn friends , for they can rip all they want...fairport , they used that arguement on the Cassette Tape , and VCR - now its CD and DVD...they wont win , because they never have.
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"INTEGRATE NOT DELEGATE I SAY!" -to the record companies
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Nixne Svix says:
fairport , they used that arguement on the Cassette Tape , and VCR – now its CD and DVD …they wont win , because they never have.
But this time they bought enough Congresscritters to pass the -Pro- Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act (otherwise known as the DIsney Protective Act) and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that gives them more rights and us a lot less...
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Ouch... damn the man!
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It's good to hear about what the big guys are up to, so that we little guys can know in which direction to scurry. Any anecdotes about people getting terminated for choosing which streaming non-downloadable 30 seconds of someone else's music they may upload? More than 30 seconds?
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I make a relatively small donation to EFF whenever I can; besides having some cool swag they're fighting for us on several different fronts.
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Dave while you starred-out his actual IP, you failed to notice that his ip is contained within his hostname.
Therefore his ip is 67.187.149.236. Smooth going there.
fairportfan, it is case C. The MPAA employs other companies who monitor torrents by connecting to them, this is widely known.
If you want to avoid getting angry letters from your isp just download peer guardian. This is also widely known. You could also force protocol encryption in your bittorrent client (although this won't stop your IP from showing up on the tracker).
Therefore I conclude that if you are going to partake in illegal activities you should probably do a small amount of research first so that you don't get caught. The word "DUH!" springs to mind.
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Mea culpa, but thanks for the friendly note.