Copyright infringement

[Robert]

So, a friend of a work colleague was sent a notice which originated from the esa, who act as the agent for an unnamed games company. Here are the notices. The names etc have been altered to protect the innocent.

 

Subject: FW: Copyright Infringement - Notice ID # ***

 

Dear Customer (***@tpg.com.au),

 

Attached is an email that TPG has received complaining about certain conduct. The IP address and timestamps provided by the complainant indicate that the conduct occurred over your TPG Service.

 

Infringement IP address: ***

Infringement timestamp (SYD): ***

 

TPG does not condone the use of TPG Services for activities which are offensive, illegal, or infringe on the legal rights of other persons.

Such activities are expressly stated in your agreement with us as being a basis on which TPG may suspend or terminate the supply of services to you.

 

It is alleged in the attached complaint that you, or someone authorised by you, have engaged in such an activity. If you agree that you did engage in the activity, please cease it immediately. If you do not believe that you have engaged in the activity complained about or you believe that the activity is not illegal, offensive or an infringement of another person's rights, please contact the complainant as soon as possible and explain your position to them.

 

If you have any questions about this email or our Terms and Conditions, please contact Customer Service on ***@tpg.com.au or ***.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Internet Abuse Team

TPG Internet

 

 

 

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Hash: SHA1

 

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Copyright Regulations 1969

NOTICE OF CLAIMED INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT BY COPYRIGHT OWNER OR AGENT -

STORAGE, CACHING, OR REFERRAL TO INFRINGING COPYRIGHT MATERIAL

 

05-18-2010

 

ESA Reference Number: ***

TO TPG Internet Pty Ltd.:

1. I, on behalf of the Entertainment Software Association ("ESA"), issue this notice for the purposes of item 1, condition 3 of item 3, and condition 3 of item 4 of the table in subsection 116AH(1) of the Copyright Act 1968 and regulation 20I of the Copyright Regulations 1969.

2. ESA is the agent of the owner of the copyright in the copyright material specified in the below Schedule (i.e., game product that is protected by Australian intellectual property law), that is being infringed by material residing on your system or network, cached on your system or network, or referred or linked to by your system or network.

3. I believe, in good faith, that the storage, caching, linking, or referral of/to the infringing copyright material on your system or network is not authorised by the copyright owner or a licensee of the copyright owner, or the Copyright Act 1968, and is therefore an infringement of the copyright in that material.

4. I have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the information and statements in this notice are accurate.

 

NAME OF AGENT OF OWNER: Entertainment Software Association

ADDRESS: 575 7th Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20004 USA

TELEPHONE NUMBER: (1) 202-223-2400

FAX NUMBER: (1) 202 223 2401

E-MAIL ADDRESS: copyright@theesa.com

 

Intellectual Property Enforcement

Entertainment Software Association

(Agent of owner)

 

SCHEDULE

DESCRIPTION OF COPYRIGHT MATERIAL: Based on the information at its disposal on ***, ESA has a good faith belief that the IP address *** infringes the rights of one or more ESA members by offering for sale or download unauthorized copies of game products protected by copyright. The copyrighted works that have been infringed include but are not limited to:

 

Bioshock

 

LOCATION OF COPYRIGHT MATERIAL RESIDING ON CARRIAGE SERVICE PROVIDER'S SYSTEM: The unauthorized copies of such game product(s) appears on or is made available through the above-listed IP address. Those items are listed and/or identified thereon by their titles or variations thereof, game-related listings/references/descriptions, or depictions of game-related artwork. Such copies, titles, game-related listings/references/descriptions, and depictions are hereinafter referred to as "Infringing Material."

 

ACTION REQUESTED: In light of the infringing material described herein, ESA hereby requests TPG Internet Pty Ltd. to immediately do the following:

 

1. Notify the account holder of the Infringing Material.

2. Remove, or disable access to, the Infringing Material detailed above.

3. Take appropriate action against the account holder under your Abuse

Policy/Terms of Service Agreement, including termination of a repeat offender.

 

 

List of infringing content

- ------------------------------

Bioshock

 

- ------------------------------

INFRINGEMENT DETAIL

- ------------------------------

Infringing Work : Bioshock

Filename : BioShock 2 [PC-DVD][Multi3][English][www.***.com]

First found (UTC): ***

Last found (UTC): ***

Filesize : 7915340130 bytes

IP Address: ***

IP Port: ***

Network: BitTorrent

Protocol: BitTorrent

 

 

If you have some issues please reply to esa.antipiracy@dtecnet.com, reply to no-reply@dtecnet.com will be ignored.

 

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Anyone else ever got something like this?

[veristic]

No. *knocksonwood*

[VT-Vincent]

I received something similar a while back from my ISP. Apparently a torrent I was downloading had something in it that they believed was a copyright infringement. The problem was I only downloading a few specific files from that torrent, not the files that were named to be in violation of copyright laws. It's likely an automated system that simply scans all of the peers, obtains their IP addresses and forwards it on to the ISP.

[Inky]

somebody's not on a private tracker / running peer guardian.

[Skythe]

Weird

[emsley]

Hes been busted pure and simple some IPs crack down some dont.

I downloaded the exact same Bioshock 2 torrent and people were giving heads up on IP sending copyright messages.

[ken_cinder]

somebody's not on a private tracker / running peer guardian.

 

You still believe in that junk? Peer Guardian?

 

I've had friends who have had their personal IPs on the lists, I've found MYSELF blocked back when using Direct Connect because MY IP address was on the list. You really think the morons who make this program know where the people watching, will be coming from? They don't stupidly come from domains tied directly to publishers/the ESA/RIAA etc

 

Peer Guardian is a goddamn joke, always has been and always will be. It's tinfoil hat wearing, parents basement dwelling, paranoid nerd created software and nothing more.

 

Private tracker won't save you either, though it's less likely that a company will take the time to register, they may very well do just that and track their own property.

 

I continue to scoff at the idea that PG and Private Trackers will somehow magically protect anyone, placebo at it's finest. Never worried about either, and I will be the first to admit I have DJ cases FULL of pirated shit (Got boxes full of stuff I've paid for too mind you), and nary a peep has come my way.

[Inky]

number one, you sure do seem like someone pissed in your fruit loops lately. It's not that serious dude, you're gonna pop a vein.

 

number two, no on is saying that private trackers and peer guardian will 100% save you. but it's a hell of a lot better then just hitting piratebay with a clean install of utorrent.

you give far to much credit to the ESA/RIAA/Publishers. what do you think they are going to do.. hop through multiple proxies hacker style? no they are suits. suits don't think like pirates. they run simple searches from thier office networks. they do not camp high end private trackers for months waiting for an open registration.

they are more then happy to settle for the dumbass uploading unprotected to piratebay. there are plenty of targets available with out all that trouble.

 

It comes down to luck as much as anything... but so does surviving a car accident. but you still wear a seatbelt and have airbags. it's just additional layers of protection.

 

One of the biggest online piracy busts ever was Napster/Metallica back in '99 or 2000. something like 500,000 users banned and flagged and Napster forced to shut down. how do you think that was done? l33t hax0ringz? no, Lars downloaded napster and did a simple search for "Metallica" and turned over all the users who came up. Did Metallica go after anyone using Newsgroups or DC? no, because that's to hard. they took (and continue to take) the path of least resistance.