Re: High levels of DMCA notifications

["Lorenz, Eva" <evalorenz () UNC EDU>]

We have only received a couple of pre-litigation letters in 2009 (from a company that started representing copyright 
holders in May 2009). When we met with the students, we informed them that we neither knew the legitimacy of this 
company nor whether there would be a follow up if no settlement occurred. 
I do agree that more companies seem to fill the void left by the RIAA not pursuing any pre-litigation letters. 
Based on formal requirements, the letters that we received met our standards for processing as take down notices. Due 
to new company and a lack of their track record, we did not process the letters as we did RIAA pre-litigation letters, 
but instead chose to inform the students regarding our research into the company (new venture, no evidence of lawsuits 
against infringers etc) and provided the students with additional information, if they decided to seek legal counsel 
and possible consequences of such action. 
I would be nice to have a clearinghouse for representatives of copyright holders to register similar to the 
registration for DMCA agents of universities. Such a registration would alleviate some of the questions on whether a 
notice is legitimate or an attempt to make money of students. 

 - Eva
________________________________________
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Matthew 
Wollenweber [mwollenw () GWU EDU]
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:52 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] High levels of DMCA notifications

This thread is titled "High levels of DMCA notifications" but most of the content doesn't regard take-down 
notifications. It appears we're discussing pre-litigation settlement offers. So before I go further, I should be clear 
that I'm discussing the latter. In that case, everyone on this thread likely knows that spammers and other criminals 
are actively targeting universities (in particular students) with fake settlement offers. The aforementioned policy 
indicates as much. Likewise, such increases in volume counters the RIAA public announcement that it is abandoning mass 
new litigation.

That said, you know your students are being targeted and scammed but you readily pass on the "notices" with a vague 
warning buried in legalese. They're passed on out of policy or as a personal decision based on the supposed obligation 
to the copyright holder. All the while, we acknowledge these aren't law firms, and the letters often lack the required 
details of the infringing material, certification of acting or the copyright holder, or signature.

I'm far too often an idealist but I would think Universities should defend students and misuse of intellectual property 
laws rather than utterly caving to an industry to the point that criminals can prey upon fear of unreasonable monetary 
penalties and steal money.

In a quick google search, I like the Yale page: http://www.yale.edu/its/security/regulations-policy/dmca.html. To 
process claims they appear to require reasonable evidence to independently verify the claim and sufficient formality to 
press perjury charges should the claim be fraudulent.



On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 3:07 PM, Waterhouse, Bill <bill.waterhouse () rochester edu<mailto:bill.waterhouse () rochester 
edu>> wrote:
Even with additional awareness campaigns, we have also experienced an uptick in notices.  We’re running ~30% above last 
year’s rate, averaging 22 notification per week compared to 17 last year.

We have received two Zappa notifications.  We’ve also received pre-litigation settlement letters from Totally Tasteless 
Videos.  With any pre-litigation settlement letters received, we advise individuals to obtain legal counsel before 
replying and/or settling with the following verbiage:

“The University has received a notice regarding alleged copyright infringement associated with your NetID and occurring 
on a system for which you are responsible. The email states you have been served a settlement offer - specifically, if 
you pay now using the provided web link and password, you can avoid costly legal fees later. The University of 
Rochester suggests you retain legal counsel before making any payments, as the settlement offer was not delivered via a 
law firm representing the artist in question.”

Thanks,
Bill

Bill Waterhouse
Methods and Procedures Analyst
University of  Rochester - University IT
bill.waterhouse () rochester edu<mailto:bill.waterhouse () rochester edu>
p: 585.275.9074



From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () 
LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>] On Behalf Of Sweeny, Jonny
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 2:27 PM

To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] High levels of DMCA notifications

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The last four months have been high (~380 to 420 notices per month), but nothing compared to our numbers in April 2008 
(>800 notices).


- --
~Jonny Sweeny, GSEC, GCWN, GCIH, GWAS
Incident Response Manager, Lead Security Analyst
Office of the VP for Information Technology, Indiana University
PGP & S/MIME: http://informationsecurity.iu.edu/Jonny_Sweeny
jsweeny () iu edu<mailto:jsweeny () iu edu> -- phone: (812) 855-4194 -- fax: (812) 856-1011




- -----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Joel 
Rosenblatt
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 15:51
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] High levels of DMCA notifications

Now that you mention it, there does seem to be a big increase - sure am glad I have that nifty automated DMCA system in 
place :-)

Month      #  % of year

Jan . .  237  8.5%
Feb . .  209  7.5%
Mar . .  115  4.1%
Apr . .  246  8.8%
May . .  185  6.6%
Jun . .   85  3.0%
Jul . .  157  5.6%
Aug . .  114  4.1%
Sep . .  222  8.0%
Oct . .  398 14.3%
Nov . .  534 19.3%   <-- this is the all time high for us for 1 month
Dec . .  264  9.5%

Thanks,
Joel

Joel Rosenblatt, Manager Network & Computer Security
Columbia Information Security Office (CISO)
Columbia University, 612 W 115th Street, NY, NY 10025 / 212 854 3033
http://www.columbia.edu/~joel


- --On Tuesday, December 22, 2009 12:00 PM -0700 Bob Bayn <bob.bayn () USU EDU<mailto:bob.bayn () USU EDU>> wrote:

> Yup, I'm processing way more DMCA notifiations than every before, too.
>
> On a related note, we had never received a notofication from the Frank Zappa Family Trust before, but got our first 
> one last week.  But it wasn't a takedown
> notice, it was a presettlement notice.  It was also not sent to our registered DMCA agent address.
>
> Anybody else ever dealth with the Zappas?
>
> Bob Bayn        (435)797-2396      Security Team coordinator
>   Don't let hackers use your computer when you aren't.
>   Turn off your computer at the end of your work day.
> Office of Information Technology   at  Utah State University
> ________________________________________
> From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV 
> EDUCAUSE EDU>] On Behalf Of John Baines [John_Baines () NCSU EDU<mailto:John_Baines () NCSU EDU>]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 6:31 AM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
> Subject: [SECURITY] High levels of DMCA notifications
>
> We are seeing very high levels of DMCA notifications during November and December 2009. They are running two to three 
> times monthly averages for the last
> twelve months, and the November 2009 total volume received is over four times the November 2008 total. Is anyone else 
> seeing the same thing? Is this volume
> of notifications a reaction by the copyright holders to the HEOA including "a vigorous program of accepting and 
> responding to Digital Millennium Copyright
> Act (DMCA) notices" under "a variety of technology-based deterrents"?
>
> JLB
>
>
>
>
> John L. Baines
> John_Baines () ncsu edu<mailto:John_Baines () ncsu edu>
> Voice: 919-513-7482
> Mobile: 919-215-3682
>
> Assistant Director  (AD) Security Standards and Compliance team,
> Security & Compliance unit,
> Office of Information Technology (OIT)
> North Carolina State University
> Hillsborough Bldg, Room 207-D
> 2620 Hillsborough St.
> Campus Box 7109
> Raleigh, NC 27695-7109



Joel Rosenblatt, Manager Network & Computer Security
Columbia Information Security Office (CISO)
Columbia University, 612 W 115th Street, NY, NY 10025 / 212 854 3033
http://www.columbia.edu/~joel


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