Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2008/08/29/freedom2surf_copyright_accusation/

Now Hollywood is chasing UK downloaders

And getting the wrong guy

By Christopher Williams

Posted in Legal, 29th August 2008 07:02 GMT

Exclusive Tiscali threatened to disconnect a customer for illegally downloading a TV show last week, after receiving a copyright infringement notice from a Hollywood studio. The only problem was the customer had quit the ISP months before the alleged transgression was made.

Euan MacLay had been a customer of Freedom2Surf (F2S) for two years until it was taken over by Tiscali as part of the Pipex acquisition last year. His past experience of the Italian buyer's customer service was poor, so as soon as his Freedom2Surf line was due to be migrated to Tiscali's budget network he decided to switch.

That was in early March this year, and Euan never expected to hear from Freedom2Surf again.

But he did. On 23 August Eaun received an email from abuse@pipex.net, accusing him of illegally downloading an episode of Stargate Atlantis - a sci-fi show he does not watch - via BitTorrent, a filesharing protocol he does not use. Most unlikely of all, the alleged infringement took place on 16 August, almost six months after he had quit F2S.

The email said:

We have received a complaint regarding an allegation of Copyright Infringement. We were supplied an IP address of the system that was sharing the alleged copyrighted material, which we traced to your PIPEX ADSL account... Failure to respond or further infringements will cause your account to be temporarily suspended,and could also result in your account being terminated.

We've reproduced the whole email on the second page of this article. The complaint was made by BayTSP, a well-known anti-piracy contractor (see also Digiprotect, Logistep), acting on behalf of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), the movie studio. It called on F2S to "immediately remove or block access to the infringing material".

On receiving the accusation, Euan's first thought was that it was a hoax or phishing attempt. But digging out details of his old F2S account revealed that the IP address fingered by BayTSP had indeed belonged to his line many months earlier and must have been reassigned. "I was absolutely shocked," Euan told El Reg. "How could they get something so basic so wrong?"

It seems Tiscali had not been updating the abuse system's list of IP number assignments since it took over. An F2S employee told Euan: "When I had a look at our systems it was clear that your account was closed on 03/03/08 and the IP that you were using was allocated to a new customer after that. Our systems clearly show this so I am not 100 per cent sure how the abuse team got your name associated to the IP."

A spokeswoman for Tiscali told El Reg:

Freedom2Surf apologises for this error. The email was generated by an automatic F2S abuse system managed externally. This system is no longer in place and has very recently been brought in house as part of the integration of Pipex's platforms with Tiscali.

BayTSP uses similar methods for identifying alleged download pirates to those being deployed by the BPI on behalf of the UK record industy, and by the law firm Davenport Lyons on behalf of a group of videogame publishers. They simply monitor public BitTorrent networks and log the files being shared, an IP number, and timestamp. A reverse DNS lookup can then identify the ISP providing the connection and an infringment notice generated.

The process has been automated as rights holders bid to turn the tide of illegal filesharing, and lawyers aim to create a new market in internet copyright enforcement against individuals. Davenport Lyons has boasted it will use IP addresses to obtain the names and addresses of 25,000 UK broadband users via court order. Rather than send an infringement notice to the ISP, Davenport Lyons' targets will get a letter direct, demanding £300 to avoid being taken to court.

For Euan, that the allegations against him were baseless was obvious. However, the fact that such an elementary mistake has been made so early in the government-backed rearguard action against downloaders is concerning. Expect more of this, whether the errors are made at ISP level, or in the flawed (pdf) infringment identification process. ®

Here's the full infringement notice, minus private information, standard email disclaimers and some XML designed for automated processing at cooperating ISPs.

Dear Sir or Madam,
We have received a complaint regarding an allegation of Copyright Infringement. We were supplied an IP address of the system that was sharing the alleged copyrighted material, which we traced to your PIPEX ADSL account.

As I am sure you are aware, this breaches our Acceptable Use Policy, (http://www.pipex.net/legal/aup/) and many copyright laws, namely the Berne Convention. Please reply to this email within 7 days stating that your PIPEX account will not be used for copyright infringement or any breaches of the law or the PIPEX Acceptable Use Policy. Failure to respond or further infringements will cause your account to be temporarily suspended,and could also result in your account being terminated.

We have included the original complaint for you to view.

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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Notice ID: 214-847612 Notice Date: 18 Aug 2008 18:03:32 GMT Freedom To Surf PLC

Dear Sir or Madam:

BayTSP, Inc. ("BayTSP") swears under penalty of perjury that MetroGoldwyn Mayer (collectively, "MGM") has authorized BayTSP to act as its non-exclusive agent for copyright infringement notification. BayTSP's search of the protocol listed below has detected infringements of MGM's copyright interests on your IP addresses asdetailed in the attached report.

BayTSP has reasonable good faith belief that use of the material inthe manner complained of in the attached report is not authorized by MGM, its agents, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate to the best of our knowledge. Therefore, this letter is an official notification to effect removal of the detected infringement listed in the attached report.

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Universal Copyright Convention, as well as bilateral treaties with other countries allow for protection of client's copyrighted work even beyond U.S. borders. The attached documentation specifies the exact location of the infringement. We hereby request that you immediately remove or block access to the infringing material, as specified in the copyright laws, and insure that the user refrains from using or sharing with others, unauthorized MGM materials in the future. Further, we believe that the entire Internet community benefits when these matters are resolved cooperatively.

We urge you to take immediate action to stop this infringing activity and inform us of the results of your actions. We appreciate your efforts toward this common goal. Please respond indicating the actions you have taken to resolve thismatter. The provided link has been assigned to this matter: http://webreply.baytsp.com...

For email correspondence, please reference the above Notice ID in the subject line: mailto:mgm2@copyright-compliance.com?subject=RE: Notice ID 214-847612 Unauthorized Use of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Property.

Nothing in this letter shall serve as a waiver of any rights orremedies of MGM with respect to the alleged infringement, all of which are expressly reserved. Should you need to contact me, I may bereached at the following address: Mark Ishikawa, Chief Executive Officer BayTSP, Inc. PO Box 1314 Los Gatos, CA 95031v: 408-341-2300f: 408-341-2399 paramount@copyright-compliance.com

Evidentiary Information:

Notice ID: 214-847612
Recent Infringement Timestamp: 16 Aug 2008 06:48:42 GMT
Infringed Work: Stargate Atlantis
Infringing FileName: Stargate.Atlantis.S05E02.HDTV.XviD-0TV.avi
Infringing FileSize: 367061894
Protocol: BitTorrent
Infringing URL: http://tracker.mightynova.com:80/announce
Infringers IP Address: *******
Infringer's DNS Name: i-***-***-*-***.freedom2surf.net
Infringer's User Name: *******
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 16 Aug 2008 06:48:42 GMT