IP: Fingered by the movie cops

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 20:05:31 -0700
> From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ultradevices com>
>
>
> Fingered by the movie cops
>
> Under today's copyright laws, you are guilty until proven innocent.
> I know -- it happened to me.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - -
> By Amita Guha
> http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/23/pirate/index.html
>
> Aug. 23, 2001 | One recent Monday, my boyfriend and I returned home
> from a long weekend away. As usual, one of the first things we did was
> check our e-mail, only to discover, to our dismay, that Time-Warner
> Cable, our Internet service provider, had cut off access to our
> account sometime around midnight the Friday before. My boyfriend, a
> software engineer who takes his e-mail seriously, called the tech
> support line and was transferred to several people that evening, none
> of whom could help. All he could find out was that the account had
> been suspended for "security reasons."
>
> The next morning, we received an express-mailed letter from
> Time-Warner Cable, which stated that the Motion Picture Association of
> America (MPAA) had accused us of distributing copyrighted
> material. The MPAA had determined that someone, supposedly with an
> Internet protocol (IP) address assigned to our computer by Time-Warner
> at the time, had distributed the material on July 4. The part that got
> me was the second paragraph: "In accordance with the Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. Section 512, (ISP name) has
> removed or disabled access to that material."
>
> I can't describe the shock I felt reading that someone in my household
> had been accused of breaking the law. Even worse -- we had evidently
> been tried, found guilty and penalized before we were even told of the
> accusation.
>
> The letter went on to inform us that our account would be suspended
> for one week, pending assurance from my boyfriend that it wouldn't
> happen again.  There was no mention of what materials we had
> distributed.
>
> My boyfriend called the number given in the letter. After 24 hours of
> phone tag, he finally spoke to a network technician, who told him the
> details. The MPAA had found out that someone had uploaded a movie to
> Usenet, allegedly from our IP address, on the evening of July
> 4. However, at that time, we were out watching fireworks. There is no
> way we could have been responsible for the infraction. My boyfriend
> logs all network activity on his machines, and there was no activity
> at the time we were allegedly dealing in pirated flicks. When my
> boyfriend suggested that perhaps the MPAA had transposed the IP
> address, the network guy said that that was not possible. When he
> asked for a hard copy of the information the MPAA had sent them on us,
> Network Guy agreed to send one, but as of this writing had yet to do
> so.
>
> Before we could regain access to e-mail, Time-Warner Cable required a
> signed letter from my boyfriend promising that he wouldn't upload any
> copyrighted material. A few hours later, we were able to restore our
> e-mail accounts. It took over 48 hours to clear everything up.
>
> But it'll take a lot longer than that to undo the real damage. The
> incident raises some serious questions about where our society is
> headed, as the corporations who guard intellectual property such as
> movies and popular music get ever more zealous in their attempts to
> prevent unauthorized use.
>
> <snip>
> --
> Robert J. Berger
> UltraDevices, Inc.
> 257 Castro Street, Suite 223 Mt. View CA. 94041
> Email: rberger () ultradevices com http://www.ultradevices.com
> Voice: 408-882-4755 Fax: 408-490-2868



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/