Search Slyck
Anonymous
Welcome
Film Maker Receives C and D Letter for Distributing Personal Work
June 7, 2005
BitTorrent has received an excessively negative rap in the last few months. MPAA chief Dan Glickman blamed the entire BitTorrent protocol when Star Wars, Episode III was pre-released. The mainstream media has refereed to EliteTorrents.org as a “pirate network.” On June 3rd, 2005, 1and1 web hosting sent Shawn Rider, owner of ShawnRider.com a cease and desist email for distributing copyrighted material on his BitTorrent indexing site.But here is the problem.
All three torrents hosted on his trackers are home made movies created by Shawn Rider, with assistance from his wife and friends. The torrent files on his tracker are not top 40 mp3 files, they are not Episode III XviDs, nor is his BitTorrent tracker used to distribute the latest Photoshop application. His movies are clearly non-copyrighted, public use, homemade videos.
Mr. Rider's torrent files are indexed by two separate trackers, one on his blog (which has existed since February 2004) and another using Broadcast Machine. Broadcast Machine is a free and open source tracker that allows moviemakers such as Mr. Rider to distribute work. Looking to use different tracking software for his video distribution, Shawn installed Broadcast Machine on June 2nd, 2005.
Within 24 hours of installing Broadcast Machine, 1and1 responded. On June 3, 2005, 1and1 sent Shawn Rider a cease and desist letter, informing him that distributing copyrighted movies was against their terms and conditions.
“Dear Shawn Rider,”
”It has come to our attention that you are hosting copyrighted and/or licensed files and software (aka, 'warez')”
[Reference to torrent files.]
“Please note that the hosting of these files is strictly prohibited by our T&C”
1and1 provided a link to their terms and conditions, which strictly forbids the infringement of any “copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary rights of any third party, including,” etc.
Shawn Rider replied to the email, informing 1and1 that he was in fact the owner of this work and that no copyright laws were being broken. Subsequently, Mr. Rider reported on his blog that 1and1 was restricting his ability to access torrent files indexed by Broadcast Machine. It appears the use of Broadcast Machine alerted 1and1 to the presence of torrent files on Mr. Rider’s site.
While Mr. Rider contended with this issue, his BitTorrent tracker running on his blog remained fully operational.
“What is absolutely insane," Shawn Rider told Slyck.com, "...is that throughout all of this they have never blocked access to my original Blog Torrent installation, which has been running since last February.”
As news began to spread, Mr. Rider’s friends and colleagues began emailing 1and1 to question their motivation. A representative of 1and1 responded, however they appeared to have changed their story. Instead of repeating the alleged copyright violations, bandwidth concerns were cited.
“I am sorry that you feel this way. However bit torrent generates a lot of traffic and is too hard to keep under control. If we allow bit torrent on our shared system this would create a huge influx in traffic. Also even though people using the bit torrent for good purposes such a promoting there own work or whatever it might be. It is mainly used to download copyrighted files of music, video, etc. If we are allow this on our service we could have a lot of legal issues to deal with that could just be avoided. I apologize for this inconvenience again and hope you have a good day.”
Apparently, the 1and1 web host representative answering these inquiries was unaware of the characteristics of the BitTorrent protocol. Mr. Rider’s BitTorrent tracker generates virtually no bandwidth, unless you consider that each of his three torrent files total just over 1 Kilobyte each. Individuals downloading torrent files does not “allow” BitTorrent onto “their shared system” or “create a huge influx in traffic.” This traffic exists on Tier 1 ISP backbones, not on web hosting ISPs.
Interestingly, while 1and1 expressed concern regarding the “huge influx in traffic”, Mr. Rider received another email from his web host that made the situation even more bizarre.
“To add to the silliness of the situation, I received another letter I believe to be auto-generated last night. This one was from their director of online marketing and sales, and it stated that they had noticed shawnrider.com was sending a lot of traffic to 1and1.com and inquired whether I had ever considered becoming a 1and1 affiliate.”
Slyck.com emailed 1and1 web hosting and questioned the practice of using a blanket policy to deter piracy. In addition, Slyck inquired why Mr. Rider received a copyright violation notice for distributing his own work. Several hours later, we received an email from Dave Donati, 1and1’s U.S. Public Relations Manager
“In recent days a 1&1 Internet support agent incorrectly informed a customer that the use of BitTorrent(c) on certain 1&1 systems is not permitted. The support agent's statement was based on a misinterpretation of company policy and an incorrect analysis of available data. When it was determined that the customer was erroneously advised, the situation was rectified and the customer was notified that the use of BitTorrent is allowed.”
“1&1 deeply regrets any confusion this mistake has caused. To better address customer concerns on this matter in the future, we are in the process of updating the "Q&A" section of our Website to include detailed information clarifying the use of BitTorrent with our various hosting packages.”
In the end, this story ended well for Mr. Rider. However, this situation highlights the misconception that surrounds file-sharing and the P2P world. There are many uses for this technology, and just like any technology, it can be exploited for both good and bad.
“What is absolutely insane," Shawn Rider told Slyck.com, "...is that throughout all of this they have never blocked access to my original Blog Torrent installation, which has been running since last February.”
As news began to spread, Mr. Rider’s friends and colleagues began emailing 1and1 to question their motivation. A representative of 1and1 responded, however they appeared to have changed their story. Instead of repeating the alleged copyright violations, bandwidth concerns were cited.
“I am sorry that you feel this way. However bit torrent generates a lot of traffic and is too hard to keep under control. If we allow bit torrent on our shared system this would create a huge influx in traffic. Also even though people using the bit torrent for good purposes such a promoting there own work or whatever it might be. It is mainly used to download copyrighted files of music, video, etc. If we are allow this on our service we could have a lot of legal issues to deal with that could just be avoided. I apologize for this inconvenience again and hope you have a good day.”
Apparently, the 1and1 web host representative answering these inquiries was unaware of the characteristics of the BitTorrent protocol. Mr. Rider’s BitTorrent tracker generates virtually no bandwidth, unless you consider that each of his three torrent files total just over 1 Kilobyte each. Individuals downloading torrent files does not “allow” BitTorrent onto “their shared system” or “create a huge influx in traffic.” This traffic exists on Tier 1 ISP backbones, not on web hosting ISPs.
Interestingly, while 1and1 expressed concern regarding the “huge influx in traffic”, Mr. Rider received another email from his web host that made the situation even more bizarre.
“To add to the silliness of the situation, I received another letter I believe to be auto-generated last night. This one was from their director of online marketing and sales, and it stated that they had noticed shawnrider.com was sending a lot of traffic to 1and1.com and inquired whether I had ever considered becoming a 1and1 affiliate.”
Slyck.com emailed 1and1 web hosting and questioned the practice of using a blanket policy to deter piracy. In addition, Slyck inquired why Mr. Rider received a copyright violation notice for distributing his own work. Several hours later, we received an email from Dave Donati, 1and1’s U.S. Public Relations Manager
“In recent days a 1&1 Internet support agent incorrectly informed a customer that the use of BitTorrent(c) on certain 1&1 systems is not permitted. The support agent's statement was based on a misinterpretation of company policy and an incorrect analysis of available data. When it was determined that the customer was erroneously advised, the situation was rectified and the customer was notified that the use of BitTorrent is allowed.”
“1&1 deeply regrets any confusion this mistake has caused. To better address customer concerns on this matter in the future, we are in the process of updating the "Q&A" section of our Website to include detailed information clarifying the use of BitTorrent with our various hosting packages.”
In the end, this story ended well for Mr. Rider. However, this situation highlights the misconception that surrounds file-sharing and the P2P world. There are many uses for this technology, and just like any technology, it can be exploited for both good and bad.
This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
Legal/Courtroom :: Individual Lawsuits
BitTorrent :: Independent/Other Development
This story first appeared on TechDirt.com.
You can discuss this article here - 26 replies
| Giganews |   |
| NewsDemon | |
| Thundernews | |
| Binverse |  |
| Newshosting | |
| UseNetServer | |
| Astraweb | |
© 2001-2008 Slyck.com