Legal threats from FTPPro

[Fyodor <fyodor () insecure org>]

Pardon the off-topic post, but I felt this should be recorded in the
archives.

FTPPro sent me the appended email demanding that I remove a Bugtraq
posting from 2000 or "provide the contact information for [my] legal
department".  Ironically, the message they demand I remove is a bogus
legal threat that they sent to someone else!  They threatened an FTP
server admin with DMCA violation because they think one of his users
connected with an improperly registered version of their FTP client!
Apparently their FTP software secretly sent users' login information
(at least the username and server IP) back to FTPPro corporation.

FTPPro does not dispute the factual accuracy of the original email.
Instead they say I should remove the email because it is
"un-American".

Anyway, here is the message they are complaining about:

http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2000/Jan/0419.html

And here is the "response" they sent back then, demanding that Bugtraq
"immediately remove FTPPro from your Newsgroup/Mailing List
distribution":

http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2000/Feb/0037.html

And here is their new message to me:

Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:49:17 -0800
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0)
From: FTPPro <ds () FTPPro com>
To: fyodor () insecure org
Cc: hostmaster-seclists () insecure org
Subject: Please remove unauthorized content from seclists.org

X-No-Archive: yes

Please reply to confirm that you are the correct contact for seclists.org.

I am sending this email to resolve an issue that occurred seven years ago,
pertaining to the following webpage:
http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2000/Jan/0419.html

For the following reasons, please remove this webpage from your website:

1. The original email contained additional text which was not reproduced on
your website, including the copyright notice that is also shown at the
bottom of this email, and the ‘X-No-Archive: yes’ header.

2. You will notice that the original copy of this email was submitted to
BugTraq by Cedric Armand, who runs “cedric.net”. Search the search engines
for “Cedric Armand crack” or “cedric.net crack”, and you will find that the
person who submitted this email to your list on 1/28/2000 is a known
advocate of “Crack” websites which distribute illegal copies of software
over the internet. I’m sure you would not want your website to knowingly
support the actions of people like this. Please notice his quote “the US and
all of this junk has no meaning whatsoever in 99% of the world”, which
appears to be a rather un-American statement.

I understand that you do not normally remove messages from your archive.
However, I’m sure you will agree that the facts concerning this situation
warrant an exception to that rule.

If you are unable to remove this content from your archive, then please
provide the contact information for your legal department.

Sincerely,

Sabine Schmidt
FTPPro.com

This email is protected by U.S copyright laws. It may not be copied or
reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the author.

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