Email from Cox regarding Copyright Infringement

[mrheihachi]

Hey all, would like some feedback on this one... My ISP (Cox) sent me this email the other day <sigh>

Thoughts, feelings, similar experiences? Maybe this is why it seems there are so few seeders for torrents sometimes... anyways, here it is:

This message is to advise that Cox Communications has received a notice claiming that you are using your Cox High Speed Internet service to post or transmit material in violation of U.S. Copyright law. We have included a copy of the complaint, which identifies the party raising it and the material claimed to be infringing.

We ask that you review the complaint and, if it is valid, promptly remove or disable access to the infringing material. If you disagree with the claims in the notice, you should contact the sender, and not Cox, to resolve the matter.

As an Internet Service Provider, Cox is responsible, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), to advise when we receive a notice asserting infringement by you. We are also required to take appropriate action if further claims are received that you do not resolve.

The material that you post or share online is your responsibility. Cox encourages responsible Internet use, but we do not monitor nor control the information you share. We have a duty, however, to take progressive steps when we received complaints of infringement.

If we continue to receive infringement claims such as this one, concerning your use of our service, we will suspend your account and disable your Internet connection until you confirm you have removed the infringing material.

To learn more about your responsibilities concerning copyrighted material, please refer to our help article at:

http://support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp/contentredirect.asp?sprt_cid=81c4f03a-42ba-4de7-92da-4c6448f22d05

General information & FAQs about DMCA notices:

http://www.respectcopyrights.org/

https://www.riaa.com/toolsforparents.php?content_selector=resources-music-copyright-notices

If you would like to reply to this email, please keep the subject line intact for tracking purposes.

Sincerely,

Cox Customer Security

--- Original Message ---

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hash: SHA1

Notice ID: 318-4637722

Notice Date: 26 Jul 2011 04:00:53 GMT

Cox Communications Inc.

Dear Sir or Madam:

Recently BayTSP detected an infringement of TV TOKYO Medianet Inc.'s copyright interests on your IP address. TV TOKYO Medianet Inc. appreciates that you enjoy their anime and hopes you can support them and the original creators directly by watching their programs at &lt;http://www.crunchyroll.com/watchbleach> where they are making a strong effort to provide their content legally.

Supporting the content legally ensures that TV TOKYO Medianet can continue to broadcast more of the high quality anime which you crave. Crunchyroll.com gives anime fans access to the anime they want as soon as possible, allowing fans to watch episodes of their favorite series as they premiere in Japan. TV TOKYO Medianet urges you to show your support by going to the website below and watching content legally.

&lt;http://www.crunchyroll.com/watchbleach>

TV TOKYO Medianet appreciates your interest in their anime and hopes you continue to be a fan.

BayTSP, Inc. ("BayTSP") swears under penalty of perjury that TV TOKYO Medianet Inc.has authorized BayTSP to act as its non-exclusive agent for copyright infringement notification. BayTSP's search of the protocol listed below has detected infringements of TV TOKYO Medianet Inc.'s copyright interests on your IP addresses as detailed in the below report.

BayTSP has reasonable good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of in the below report is not authorized by TV TOKYO Medianet Inc. its agents, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate to the best of our knowledge. Therefore, this letter is an official notification to effect removal of the detected infringement listed in the below report. The below documentation specifies the exact location of the infringement.

We hereby request that you immediately remove or block access to the infringing material, as specified in the copyright laws, and insure the user refrains from using or sharing with others unauthorized TV TOKYO Medianet Inc. materials in the future (see, 17 U.S.C. 512).

Further, we believe that the entire Internet community benefits when these matters are resolved cooperatively. We urge you to take immediate action to stop this infringing and watch anime legally to support the creation of more enjoyable anime. We all appreciate your efforts toward this common goal.

In the event you need to contact us, please reference the Notice ID number above in your response and click the following link. anime_p2p@copyright-compliance.com <mailto:anime_p2p@copyright-compliance.com>

Nothing in this letter shall serve as a waiver of any rights or remedies of TV TOKYO Medianet Inc. with respect to the alleged infringement, all of which are expressly reserved. Should you need to contact me, I may be reached at the below address.

Regards,

Osama Hussain, Esq.

In-House Counsel

BayTSP.com Inc. - as an Authorized Agent of TV TOKYO Medianet Inc.

PO Box 1314 - Los Gatos, CA 95031

Phone: 408-341-2305 Fax: 408-341-2399

anime_p2p@copyright-compliance.com

*pgp public key is available on the key server at http://pgp.mit.edu

Note: The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, reproduction, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all computers.

This infringement notice contains an XML tag that can be used to automate the processing of this data. If you would like more information on how to use this tag please contact BayTSP.

Evidentiary Information:

Notice ID: 318-4637722

Initial Infringement Timestamp: 10 Jul 2011 05:48:29 GMT

Recent Infringement Timestamp: 25 Jul 2011 03:04:41 GMT

Infringers IP Address: 72.192.204.43

Protocol: BitTorrent

Infringed Work: Bleach

Infringing File Name: Bleach

Infringing File Size: 29964595536

Bay ID: 07168f2c9cc299894a632713801eee8cae045784|29964595536

Port ID: 0

Infringer's DNS Name: ip72-192-204-43.dc.dc.cox.net

URL (if applicable): http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce

Infringer's User Name:

- ---Start ACNS XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Infringement xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.movielabs.com/ACNS http://www.movielabs.com/ACNS/ACNS2v1.xsd" xmlns="http://www.movielabs.com/ACNS" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<Case>

<ID>318-4637722</ID>

<Status>Open</Status>

</Case>

<Complainant>

<Entity>BayTSP</Entity>

<Contact>Compliance Team, Compliance Manager</Contact>

<Address>P.O. Box 1314, Los Gatos, California 95031 </Address>

<Phone>(408) 341-2300,(408) 341-2399</Phone>

<Email>anime_p2p@copyright-compliance.com</Email>

</Complainant>

<Service_Provider>

<Entity>Cox Communications Inc.</Entity>

<Address></Address>

<Email>abuse@cox.net</Email>

</Service_Provider>

<Source>

<TimeStamp>2011-07-25T03:04:41.000Z</TimeStamp>

<IP_Address>72.192.204.43</IP_Address>

<DNS_Name>ip72-192-204-43.dc.dc.cox.net</DNS_Name>

<Type>BitTorrent</Type>

<UserName></UserName>

<Number_Files>1</Number_Files>

<Deja_Vu>Yes</Deja_Vu>

</Source>

<Content>

<Item>

<TimeStamp>2011-07-25T03:04:41.000Z</TimeStamp>

<Title>Bleach</Title>

<FileName>Bleach</FileName>

<FileSize>29964595536</FileSize>

<URL&gt;http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce</URL>

</Item>

</Content>

</Infringement>

- ---End ACNS XML

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Version: 8.0

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-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Koby]

It's something that happens occasionally if you download via a torrent that is being tracked. Which is why I usually only torrent the latest subbed episodes of anime and the latest TV shows and remove them shortly after the download gets finished. To avoid companies like that from loading the torrent and collecting all the IP Addresses in the swarm.

There isn't really anything you can do about it. Peer Guardian and the like that promise anonymity are false protections because to be able to send data back and forth it must still somehow track you, and they can figure it out. So pretty much if you're worried about it then just don't use torrents. For the most part Kametsu has everything you'd need in direct downloads and if we don't we can get it. Only thing is we don't always have or get all the latest subtitled series, but that can change if we get more active uploaders and more who actually try to help fill requests.

I've only been caught on a torrent once and it was for a movie made in Hollywood, in which my ISP didn't even send me a letter, they just automatically suspended my internet and wouldn't turn it back on. Had I not contacted them I would have never known the reason why it was down and while I had no service they said they would have continued billing our card for payment every month but would not give back the service so I had to actually go in and cancel the service they weren't providing.

ISP's don't have to listen to these claims actually, and it seems COX and COMCAST are two of the biggest companies that actually do something when contacted as I am constantly hearing of people being contacted by them for this. Comcast though actually monitors their customers browsing habits and throttles connections of offenders.

[† TheChaosLegion]

Gotta watch out for torrents these days. They just aren't safe anymore unless you use a seedbox or some other similar service. Anything that's popular is surely being watched by the copyright fags, with hollywood movies being at the top of that list.

Long live file hosts!

Speaking of comcast: I was excited that comcast is moving into my area soon, and had planned on switching over since they offer faster upload speeds with their service, but after everything i've heard about them I think I would rather just stick with the lower upload speeds than constantly be under their axe.

[Pinkie Pie]

Oh come on guys, Comcast isn't really that bad :V I've been downloading all kinds of things for years and I have them as my ISP. Not even one letter has come. But that's because I do it smart and stay far, far away from torrents.

[RikuoAmero]

If you look carefully in the evidentiary information you see

Infringed Work: Bleach

Infringing File Name: Bleach

What...the file name is literally just the word Bleach? Why not Bleach_S1E1_720p.avi? Simply saying you torrented a file called Bleach, which could be about anything, is like being accused by a random stranger that you stole a vehicle, but doesn't elaborate on whether or not it was a car, truck or a bus. After all, if I'm torrenting Child_Porn_Hot_Banned.mp4 and its actually just a renamed linux iso, doesn't mean anything.

Now, to re-iterate, TV Tokyo have literally zero evidence that you have the file. Plenty of trackers actually input false I.P. addresses, to throw off detection efforts like this one. I don't know if the tracker in this case, publicbt.com, do this, but there's no way for TV Tokyo to disprove it.

What I would do is reply back to Cox and tell them that you are completely innocent. Remind them that we live in a country (supposedly) run on the principle of innocent until proven guilty, not guilty upon accusation by a third party. Detail what I said about fake I.P. addresses, try and research if publicbt.com do this. State that your wireless internet connection is password protected (even if you don't have a wireless router or have one left open), because then Cox can't turn around and demand that you shut the barn door. State that even with modern protection standards, routers can still be hacked. Mention that that file name, Bleach, means fuck all, after all, real torrented episodes tend to be written like Bleach_Ep143_EngDub.avi or something like that. TV Tokyo did write under penalty of perjury that the file is a Bleach episode, but how are they to know unless they also downloaded and seeded it? (If they also seeded the episode, then that would grant an implied license to downloaders). Also state that if you receive another infringement warning from Cox, that you will terminate service (even if they're the only one in your area) and start defamation of character lawsuits against whoever is accusing you (even if you don't actually plan to).

Fight this all the way, do not take it lying down. We must have the world recognize that accusations cannot and should not result in automatic punishment.

EDIT - As a kicker, not sure you should do this, but write to TV Tokyo if you can, or their American office (if they have one). Tell them they falsely accused you of infringement, and as a result, you will boycott watching any of their shows, you won't purchase their DVDs, etc.

[Kasoivc]

I'm unsure of what's going on but from a completely outside view and reading from what I've read so far in this thread, I have a hard time believing this is real...

Regards,

Osama Hussain, Esq.

In-House Counsel

Idk, Maybe I'm just ignorant and don't know any better when it comes to this because I've torrented without any problems thus far - though I might be more careful about it now because of this.

[mrheihachi]

I'm unsure of what's going on but from a completely outside view and reading from what I've read so far in this thread, I have a hard time believing this is real...

Idk, Maybe I'm just ignorant and don't know any better when it comes to this because I've torrented without any problems thus far - though I might be more careful about it now because of this.

I just don't know why my ISP would send me an email threatening to suspend my account if that were the case though. It's just a pain in the ass because they claim NOT to monitor what I am doing but DO threaten to shut me down.

[RikuoAmero]

I just don't know why my ISP would send me an email threatening to suspend my account if that were the case though. It's just a pain in the ass because they claim NOT to monitor what I am doing but DO threaten to shut me down.

Just to make things clear, let's assume that Cox don't monitor their customers. What you got was a message from Cox saying that they had gotten a letter/email from TV Tokyo/BayTSP saying you infringed.

Just to show you why Cox is doing this.

Every hear of the DMCA? It stands for the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, signed into law by President Clinton. Long story short, before the DMCA, if you were on the internet and someone infringed copyright, then both the guy doing the downloading and the site itself could be sued in court. What the DMCA does is provide a safety net for web services. If they receive notice that one of their users/customers is infringing copyright, then if the site cancels your account, then the site/service won't be sued. That's why most sites, especially Youtube, have this three strike plan.

As you can pretty much guess, the major failing of the DMCA is that it relies entirely upon accusations. Yes, you can file a counter-notice to get your account back or your youtube videos back up, but its a guilty-until-proven-innocent system. In the counter-notice, you have to show why you're innocent, rather than challenge the accuser to prove their claim.

[azdave]

well your first mistake is d/l from publicbt.tracker..this why i dont d/l from public trackers..they are watched..especially if you d/l from popular sites like demonoid..avoid publicbt tracker if you can..d/l ur anime from irc..no trackers no ddl's..just d/l straight from server..or at least d/l from a private tracker if you can..and i wouldnt try and fight it..they traced it..they show hash of torrent..and your i.p..they know what you got..regardless of how they presented the title of the file you got..just accept it..

[TheAlterUser]

Oh great . . . I just now realized some of the stuff I downloaded had the same tracker as one of the tracker thingys. Yet, I haven't gotten any emails or letters anything relating to something like this. Strange. At least I now know what to NOT do. *Sigh* All I need to do now is to just find a website where I can download all the cartoons I desperately want and need without having to get torrents . . . great . . .

-

EDIT: Wait, couldn't you just go ahead and delete that one tracker while you're downloading the file from the torrent? So that they couldn't track you or what?