It appears that the Peer to Peer networks are being monitored by the Media Industry in their hunt for pirated media. This email to an Australian ISP alias was sent to me by my mate Rich.
> Greetings,
>
> Anyone else seen a “Notice of Claimed Infringement” from “Director of
> Enforcement; MediaForce, Inc.”?
>
> One turned up this evening, allegedly “on behalf of Columbia Pictures
> Industries Inc.”, alledging that a user (presumably tracked via IP address
> and Registry info) did “offer downloads of the above-mentioned work
> through a “peer-to-peer” service” (the above mentioned being a film).
>
> The “Infringement Detail” includes “Network: Morpheus” and “Protocol:
> Gnutella”.
>
> Hmm, an “interesting” bit: on face value, this user is offering a
> download of “Filesize: 142,446k” over a dialup link – ouch! 
>
> So, baring the possibility of this notice being some kind of fraud, it
> would seem that Big Brother is actively watching the P2P networks?
After a quick search on Google I found the company MediaForce, which the email claims sent the request. Sure enough, they offer a service to scan networks and provide reports through to escalating complaints of copyright.
“How It Works
MediaSentry’s approach to anti-piracy delivers a fully-automated, comprehensive solution:
* First, copyright owners provide a list of copyrighted materials to MediaSentry.
* Second, our Internet-based agents patrol every fifteen minutes for violations. Infringements are matched and cataloged 24x7x52, along with up to fifteen identifying characteristics such as the infringer’s username, IP address, file path, bitrate, and file size.
* After locating and confirming a copyright infringement, MediaSentry immediately notifies the service provider in accordance with the infringer’s local copyright law to block the consumer’s access to the network until the infringing works is removed.
* The consumer then has three choices: remove the material; send a counter notice claiming they have the right to use the material; or begin the license application process so that the work can be used legally.
* After removing the copyrighted material from circulation, Mediaforce asks the service provider to restore access to the user.
* Mediaforce continues to monitor for repeat infringements, and immediately reopens a complaint in the event of a repeat infringement.
* In the event that a service provider fails to act in a timely fashion, a team of in-house copyright law experts swiftly escalates the complaint.”
Now I want a job where I have the title “Director of Enforcement”.
Please walk this way for a retinal scan, where we will cross check your details for any link to illegal activity. Don’t mind the large poster on the wall dipicting the blackmoustachio’d man with our companies caption. Please enjoy your day.
One Comment
The sad thing is, the ISP is going to just cancel your account when they get this sort of thing, because they don’t have the resources to monitor whether you’re complying or not, and they can be held responsible for lack of action if they give you access and you keep not complying. The safest thing for them to do is kill your account, and then, even if you do have legal right to use something and these guys are wrong, how do you get that back? It’s guilt by suspicion, no need for proof.