There are some great responses to legal threats published by a bittorrent tracking site from Sweden on their site.
Here is a personal favorite of mine:
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 18:21:43 -0100 (GMT)
From: anakata
To: KMWLAW@flash.net
Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of DreamWorks SKG PropertiesOn Mon, 23 Aug 2004 KMWLAW@flash.net wrote:
> Dennis L. Wilson, Esq.
> KEATS McFARLAND & WILSON, LLP
> 9720 Wilshire Blvd., Penthouse Suite
> Beverly Hills, CA 90212
> Tel: (310) 248-3830
> Fax: (310) 860-0363
>
>
> August 23, 2004
>
>
> VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
> AND U.S. MAIL
>
> ThePirateBay.org
> Box 1206
> Stockholm 11479
> SWEDEN
>
> tracker-40-aa-5f-03-412675c8@prq.to
>
> Re: Unauthorized Use of DreamWorks SKG Properties
> http://www.thepiratebay.org
>
> To Whom It May Concern:
>
> This letter is being written to you on behalf of our
> client, DreamWorks SKG (hereinafter ^ￜDreamWorks^ￜ).
> DreamWorks is the exclusive owner of all copyright,
> trademark and other intellectual property rights in
> and to the ^ￜShrek 2^ￜ motion picture. No one is
> authorized to copy, reproduce, distribute, or
> otherwise use the ^ￜShrek 2^ￜ motion picture without
> the express written permission of DreamWorks.
[...]
> As you may be aware, Internet Service Providers can
> be held liable if they do not respond to claims of
> infringement pursuant to the requirements of the
> Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In
> accordance with the DMCA, we request your assistance
> in the removal of infringements of the ^ￜShrek 2^ￜ
> motion picture from this web site and any other sites
> for which you act as an Internet Service Provider.
> We further declare under penalty of perjury that we
> are authorized to act on behalf of DreamWorks and
> that the information in this letter is accurate.
> Please contact me immediately to discuss this matter
> further.As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States
of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe.
Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here.
For your information, no Swedish law is being violated.Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of medium,
will result in
a) a suit being filed for harassment
b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for
sending frivolous legal threats.It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are fucking morons, and
that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons.Please also note that your e-mail and letter will be published in full on
http://www.thepiratebay.org.Go fuck yourself.
Polite as usual,
anakata
13 Comments
That was awesome.
Does bittorent still fall under the DMCA?
Depends on who you ask, some say no, some say yes.
It’s theoretically the same as other p2p technologies; the “tracker” sites themselves do not serve any of the content, only information about other users who are sharing the content that you can connect to directly, so it’s technically only the users who are exchanging copy written material.
However, the language of the DMCA is very broad, and could probably be interpreted to include anything like the torrent trackers. Technically, it outlaws any attempt to circumvent any type of copyright protection, even for legitimate reasons, such as watching a DVD on Linux, etc.
Too tech, dont know what it is about.
Are they pirating movies?
yes, and other stuff.
Yes, there are plenty of legitimate uses for bittorrent, including distributing free media (music, movies, software, etc.). If you need a Linux distro, it is way faster than getting it the old way (FTP or HTTP).
And downloading TV shows.
Did you ever watch all the Losts? Review?
I did download them all, but I didn’t end up with as much free time on my hands as I thought I’d have. I ended up watching the first two (which I’d already seen) that weekend, and now I a have watched 3 and 4 as well. I remember seeing one more episode before as well (don’t remember if it was the whole thing or just partial), and it must have been after 4, since I haven’t seen it again yet so far.
As for a review, I still like it. I think I remember commenting the first time I saw it that I thought it was good, but apparently not good enough for me to bother watching it anymore, until now. That isn’t a put down on the show, just a reflection of my TV watching habits (or lack thereof).
I don’t have much more to say about it, other than I hope they continue to do a good job of keeping a lot of things unknown, while still revealing little bits as you go, so you don’t lose interest in the mystery part of it.
Maybe I’ll post more at some point, if I ever get around to finishing watching the first 25 (or so) episodes.
i never got on board with the whole lost thing, and now it feels like too much of a commitment to watch all the episodes and get caught up. i guess i’ll have to get used to not knowing what people are talking about.
That’s the way I felt about it too. I’m still not sure if I’ll ever get through all of them, but at least I’ve got them now, so it might happen eventually.
You have all summer and since it’s easier to download them you might as well just watch them on your own time. I do recommend sticking with it because it gets so much better, like you wanted, they have revealed a lot but they have also created more mystery in the process. It’s really awesome how they do it. As I have said before, I love the flashbacks and the intertwining that comes later.
Don’t you have Moxi just record it when it comes back on.
I don’t have “Moxi”, but I do have a DVR now (it’s a Motorola model that comes with the service from Avenue Cable). Assuming that I’ve watched all the previous ones by the time new episodes come up, that’s probably what I’ll do. If I’m still way behind, I’ll just keep downloading them, because I don’t want to just keep letting them pile up on the DVR if I don’t know when I will get around to watching them.
We have the motorola one too. Is is big and silver? What is the UI on it called?
I’m not sure on the UI, it’s kind of crappy, and it has TV Guide branded in it.