May 11th, 2006 by Atomictumor
My status as the teflon kid is now totally in dispute, and I’m not entirely sure what to do about it…
Its been a mighty week, and many monumental things have happened while the Tumor has been down, almost like it was all… planned… by somebody listening to my phone calls and peeking through the window.
No, that’d be paranoia…
Many of those monumental things we’ll discuss in coming days here, as we recover huffing and puffing from this weird week at the beginning of May, some of them you don’t ever need to know about, and some of them are too insignificant to dwell upon.
To me, the biggest thing in my mind is… they caught me…
Kinda.
See, I’ve been ranting all big and loud about how the pigs in the content industry are tightening the thumbscrews on Fair Use, (not that you can read the posts, at least not until I get the friggin archives loaded into the SQL table) and I feel strongly that we’ll all lose something nice when they get their way and lock down every piece of technology from doing anything they don’t want you to do with their content. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Read ArsTechnica)
Regardless, right now Johnny law is on their side, and they busted me on the wrong side of it, with a nice fat DMCA cease and desist order. BaDOOM!
The sad thing is,
1) We just started dl’ing movies when we canceled Netflix to save a buck
2) The movie they clocked me downloading didn’t even work. I thought about emailing them bitching that if I’m going to be busted downloading movies, they damn well better send me a real DVD.
Because this is how I feel. It ain’t stealing. Flat out. If I were getting packaging and quality of recording/image exactly like what they sell at Best Buy, then yes. Its probably somewhat ethically wrong on some level or another, but so is not getting over in the left lane so that guy can turn right onto your road.
Anyway, it ain’t legal action, in that I’m not getting sued. If they busted me getting music, it might be a different story, which is why I’m being cagey with that these days, but it was a movie. The interesting thing is that none of these cases have been ruled on by a judge yet. Yep, in the 2 years or so, only a handful have made it to court, and none have got the hammer laid down. I’d be of the representing myself to save a buck mindset, so I’d be the first to lose.
Wanna see what it looks like? Check it out:
Abuse Incident Number: NA000000
Report Date/Time: Mon, 1 May 2006 19:xx:xx -0700
ATOMICTUMOR
OAK RIDGE, TN 37830
Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:
Comcast has received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized
agent, reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made
on or over Comcast’s High-Speed Internet service (the ‘Service’). The copyright
owner has identified the Internet Protocol (’IP’) address associated with y our
Service account at the time as the source of the infringing works. The works
identified by the copyright owner in its notification are listed below. Comcast
reminds you that use of the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner
that constitutes an infringement of any copyrighted work is a violation of
Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy and may result in the suspension or termination
of your Service account.
If you have any questions regarding this notice, you may direct them to Comcast
in writing by sending a letter or e-mail to:
Comcast Legal Response Center
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
650 Centerton Road
Moorestown, NJ 08057 U.S.A.
Phone: (856) 317-7272
Fax: (856) 317-7319
E-mail: dmca@comcast.net
For more information regarding Comcast’s copyright infringement policy,
procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy by
clicking on the Terms of Service link a t http://www.comcast.net.
Sincerely,
Comcast Legal Response Center
Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:
Title: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 30 Apr 2006 19:xx:xx GMT
Recent Infringment Timestamp: 30 Apr 2006 19:xx:xx GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) [ENG]
[DVDrip]
Infringing Filesize: 1468467200
Infringers IP Address: x.x.x.x
Infringers DNS Name: x.comcast.net
Infringing URL: Why give up a good thing, eh?
May 11th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
LiteOn/ILO makes a nice HDD+DVD recorder… it’s not free, but the quality is better. It works like TiVo, but without the monthly service charge.
They haven’t made it illegal YET, but the day is coming. See the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s [URL=http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/?f=unintended_consequences.html] article[/URL] on the DMCA’s unintended consequences.
May 11th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I am wondering how they caught you. Were they a seed of the torrent or something?
May 11th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
What is really funny is that over the past year my wife has purchased dozens and dozens of movie dvd’s on ebay. She still hasn’t paid over 9 bucks for any of them.
I wonder what your little speeding ticket is gonna run?
Sorry…that didn’t sound very sympathetic did it?
May 11th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Since at this stage of the debacle it’s not a charge, just a cease and desist, it probably won’t “run” anything, daco.
When you’re on a budget as tight as ours, even $9 for a dvd is pricey.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Ooooouch.
Makes you feel all violated, don’t it? Then scared. Then worried. Then dismissive. Then sorta angry. Then defiant and angry.
Been there, done the Cease and Desist shuffle with Herb Newton Nissan, baby ;)
May 12th, 2006 at 5:25 am
Netmom: Last I heard, the broadcast flag being snuck into some sort of appropriations bill (like the REAL ID act) is going to kill off those kind of HDD recorders. Heck, Intel is coming out with an enhancement to future processors that’d write the friggin DRM into the CPU itself. I’ve always been an AMD man, myself, tho…
Stephan: Yeah, they were sitting on the other side of the torrent. Bittorrents are handy in that they’re fast, and easy to use, but a 5 yr old can find all of the IP addresses you’re connected to.
Daco: GAC’s right, we consult advisors before spending entertainment money. She’s also right in that this is most likely to be a done deal, as the MPAA isn’t currently suing suckers like me, they’re going after either the people uploading gigs and gigs of stuff (and not just a Michel Gondry movie), and they haven’t been suing individuals like the RIAA has, apparently because they’re not interested in completely trashing their public image like the RIAA has.
May 12th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
AT did you and GAC spend 9 bucks on admission and beers at the TMBG gig last night? If you did then you probably spent what my better half spends on a dvd movie on ebay.
Sorry pal…still no sympathy for those that try to steal the property that others produce.
May 13th, 2006 at 10:38 am
Well, daco, since it was Sundown, there was no admission, and we actually didn’t drink any beers there.
If I wanted your sympathy, I’d ask for it. Since I didn’t, you can kiss my grits.
May 13th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Daco, is this the Oak Ridge Forums, where you can blather on in every thread you go to about how nascar and the forum administraton sucks? No. If you had something to say about peer to peer downloading, you should have had the marbles to say it in that post.
Furthermore, Daco, is it stealing? Would I have bought the DVD? No. So, nobody’s losing money on the deal. Ponder that, mon ami, in the black and white world you inhabit.
May 20th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
I’ve received a similar notification from Comcast. What steps have you taken to resolve the problem? And how successful have they been?
I’m also curious: is this the kind of situation that gets taken to court? Or will they drop the case if steps are taken to resolve the matter?
May 20th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Well, we’ve done dick all. The letter that we got was pretty much a “We know what you did, you naughty boy, and don’t do it again.” We’ve not heard back from them since, but we’ve also not downloaded any movies since then, either. No cases of movie piracy have been to court yet, either.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:07 pm
[…] What about me? Well, after my little brush with Johnny Comcast and the C&D Blues, I’ve been laying low on the downloading movies front. Instead, I’ve been renting em, ripping em, and copying em to DVD. […]
May 31st, 2006 at 9:42 pm
“Instead, I’ve been renting em, ripping em, and copying em to DVD.”
Oy. WWDD?
(What would daco do?)