Caught Downloading

[CliffyG]

Dear Sir / Madam,

We have received the following notice from the Entertainment
Software Association, regarding illegal file sharing from a
host on your network.

Please can you take immediate action to prevent further occurrences and
advise when the situation has been fully resolved.

Your prompt attention to this matter is appreciated.

Regards,

Faz

--
Abuse Desk
Pipex Communications

Web: http://www.pipex.net

This e-mail is subject to: http://www.pipex.net/disclaimer.html


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Hash: SHA1

Entertainment Software Association
575 7th Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20004 USA

Attention: Intellectual Property Enforcement
Telephone: 202-223-2400
E-mail: esa@copyright-compliance.com

27 Sep 2006 19:09:02 GMT


ISP: Freedom To Surf plc
ESA Reference Number: 182-353251

Dear Freedom To Surf plc:

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is a U.S. trade association that represents the intellectual property interests of numerous companies that publish interactive games for video game consoles, personal computers, handheld devices and the Internet in the United States and in other countries (collectively referred to as ESA members). ESA is authorized to act on behalf of ESA members whose copyright and other intellectual property rights it believes to be infringed as described herein.

ESA is providing this letter of notification to make Freedom To Surf plc aware of material on its network or system that infringes the exclusive copyright rights of and is unlawful towards one or more ESA members.

Through the Berne Convention and other international treaties covering intellectual property rights, ESA believes that its members' rights in such entertainment software products are entitled to the full protection of the intellectual property law as well as other relevant laws of your country.

Based on the information at its disposal, ESA has a good faith belief that the IP address below infringes the rights of one or more ESA members by offering for sale or download unauthorized copies of game products protected by copyright, or offering for sale or download material that is the subject of infringing activities. The copyrighted works that have been infringed include but are not limited to:

Title: Super Mario Bros.
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Infringement Timestamp: 27 Sep 2006 18:04:12 GMT
Infringement Last Documented: 27 Sep 2006 18:04:12 GMT
Infringer Username: -UT1600-Ú?Ì+7²Ðù»??ü
Infringing Filename: New_Super_Mario_Bros_USA_NDS-pSyDS/psy-nsmb.zip
Infringing Filesize: 14498830
Infringer IP Address: 195.137.86.148
Infringer DNS Name: i-195-137-86-148.freedom2surf.net
Infringing URL: http://www.mininova.org/get/303787



The unauthorized copies of such game product(s) or the material that is the subject of infringing activities appears on or is made available through the above-listed IP address. Those items are listed and/or identified thereon by their titles or variations thereof, game-related listings/references/descriptions, or depictions of game-related artwork. Such copies, titles, game-related listings/references/descriptions, depictions, and material that is the subject of infringing activities, are hereinafter referred to as "Infringing Material."

Accordingly, ESA hereby requests Freedom To Surf plc to immediately do the following:

1. Notify the account holder of the Infringing Material.
2. Remove, or disable access to, the Infringing Material detailed above.
3. Take appropriate action against the account holder under your Abuse Policy/Terms
of Service Agreement, including termination of a repeat offender.

Please inform us whether you will remove or disable access to the Infringing Material as requested. Freedom To Surf plc or the account holder may contact ESA at the above-listed contact details, with email preferred. Please include the above-noted Reference Number in the subject line of all email correspondence.

Thank you for your cooperation and prompt response in this matter.

Sincerely,

Intellectual Property Enforcement
Entertainment Software Association


I will be responding later on to say it wont happen again (then make sure i turn off Allow Incoming Legacy Connections in uTorrent) but should i mention that i own the original game anyway so am fully in my rights to own the ROM?

Seems odd that of all the crap i've downloaded in the past i get pulled up on just this 1 download from last night.

[Haly]

I don't think you are fully within your rights if you own the original game but Davey will know the law better :)
I'd suck it up and just say 'I won't do that again sorry' and cover your tracks better next time personally rather than try to argue it.

[Stan_Lite]

OOPS!!!
:(

Stan :)

[Zirax]

Hmmm this is why I use PeerGuardian and Azureus with safepeer, you can block out all known government/RIAA etc ip's from connecting. I have looked them up and they are a US based company, so unless they have some kind of possible enforcement over here?

Its another reason why I am going to switch to newsgroups, they seem to be being left alone at the moment.

[petemc]

Hmmm, mininova. Even if you use PeerGuardian etc surely they can still list all the ip's connected can't they?

[Daz]

Nope, because you cant make the connection in the first place. I do all my torrent downloaing in a virtual machine wrapped in tin foil, and I've never had any trouble.

Never really looked at newsgroups before. Paying for something illegal just seems daft to me :/

[Admiral Huddy]

Ouch! I would have craped myself :goatse:


I only download porn!

[Zirax]

Never really looked at newsgroups before. Paying for something illegal just seems daft to me :/

I hadn't really considered it until I saw how many e-books/exams there are on there. Its certainly easier to get them over newsgroups rather than BT. Also being able to constantly max my connection appeals as well :)

I'll look into it a tad more when I get chance, but £8/month isn't too bad for unlimited access

[Matblack]

Newsgroups is the way forward :)

I D/L at 1000kbps and just search one place for you downloads www.newzbin.com (http://www.newzbin.com)

MB

[Desmo]

Heheh that is awsome. I want an email like that :D

I've always used newsgroups (Easynews) for my stuff and always avoided torrents and other P2P stuff anyway.

[Stan_Lite]

I've always used P2P until now but that's becoming a bit of a minefield.

I might give these newsgroups a go. I had a look at the site Matt linked to and it seems to have a hell of a lot of stuff.

Stan :)

[Daz]

How come newsgroups haven’t been smacked down like torrents and other p2p networks have? For the convenience I wouldn’t be against paying for it, if there was no obvious danger of being bum raped by some company on a legal front.

[Robert]

I use a private tracker (araditracker.com), so I think I'll be ok.

[Desmo]

How come newsgroups haven’t been smacked down like torrents and other p2p networks have?
Because it would be like trying to shut down email, just not gonna happen :D

[Zirax]

Because it would be like trying to shut down email, just not gonna happen :D

Also if my understanding is correct, the roots of newsgroups of old are firmly in the old BB's that predate most of the net.

[CliffyG]

I like the idea of newsgroups but don't really want to pay for something I'll only use sporadically. What are PeerGuardian and Azureus with safepeer?

[Zirax]

Ok, Peerguardian is a standalone app which acts like a firewall which prevents governments/riaa etc from connecting through your machine. No special configuration is really needed to get it to work. It runs with windows and updates every time you boot

Azureus is like utorrent in that its a bittorrent client. Safepeer is a plugin for azureus that does a similar job to peerguardian.

The "bad lists" for both of these are regularly updated with known ranges of organisations. For instance you could let college networks through, but block government ip's

[CliffyG]

OK, think i'm sold, shame though as i really like uTorrent. Will look at getting it all setup for my next batch of downloading.

[Zirax]

If you like utorrent, use Peerguardian. That will protect you from them all

[CliffyG]

Ah misread the bit about peer guardian being stand alone. Have it running now, you think thats all i need to do then? I've turned off the Allow Incoming Legacy Connections in uTorrent so should be relatively safe there.

[Jasper]

oops. i downloaded that exact same file yesterday :o

[Davey_Pitch]

I don't think you are fully within your rights if you own the original game but Davey will know the law better :)

Correct. Even if you own the original game, you're not allowed to own the rom, simply as it's not legal to make a backup of the original game. As the rom is already illegal, distributing it becomes illegal, as does downloading it. I still believe it to be a very stupid law (not being able to make a backup of software that you own), but it is indeed the law.

[CliffyG]

Ah ok, thought it was legal to possess but never mind. I've sent them a humble pie email and i won't download anything for a few days and then i'll leave myself in the hands of peer guardian :).

[CliffyG]

oops. i downloaded that exact same file yesterday :o

You might well have a nice email come to you soon, if it doesnt turn up by tomorrow then i guess you probably escaped ;).

[Jasper]

You might well have a nice email come to you soon, if it doesnt turn up by tomorrow then i guess you probably escaped ;).

not really sure what my ISP's procedure is on telling people off for Bittorrent. i was chatting with one of their techsupport guys about it last time i had to call!

[CliffyG]

Mine appears to be a friendly warning, i guess if it happens again i'll get a more official one.

[rich99]

Ah ok, thought it was legal to possess but never mind. I've sent them a humble pie email and i won't download anything for a few days and then i'll leave myself in the hands of peer guardian :).

maybe they saw you selling the original in the MM :D

I'll be sure to get peerguardian on any of the family machines which use torrents from time to time

[iCraig]

I'm with Huddy, I just stick to downloading the porn.

They will have to kill me first if they want me to stop watching Eva Angelina! :angry:

[Jasper]

I'm with Huddy, I just stick to downloading the porn.

They will have to kill me first if they want me to stop watching Eva Angelina! :angry:

Teagan > Eva

[iCraig]

Teagan > Eva

Early Eva > Teagan.

Teagan > Recent Eva.

[Jonny69]

You don't think it might be some clever spam?

[Gilly]

You don't think it might be some clever spam?

It'd have to be very clever to pick up the file name and the ISP the downloader is using, generate an originating email address and mail and send it to the correct and valid mail addy of the user.

Especially within such a timeframe.

[Kell_ee001]

You don't think it might be some clever spam?

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/kell_ee001/Smilies/spam.gif

[Baddass]

i've seen letters like that before and it looks legit. Peerguardian can help....i remember some torrent files being entirely fake and designed to trap users who were downloading something (think it was an ep of prison break once)...but PG blocked all the connections so nothing would be downloaded and they wouldnt catch you connecting to them to get it :) Good little app, worth using

[LeperousDust]

Newsgroups guys, go do some reading paying a little each month is worth everything ten times over. Fastest speeds on the net, actually max out your internet, and no comeback (as of yet) from and companies, for a start YOU don't actually share, the 0-day release hacker type group people upload it cleverly for you. Check sylcks guide to newsgroups, google :).

To newsgroups!

[Matblack]

Newsgroups guys, go do some reading paying a little each month is worth everything ten times over. Fastest speeds on the net, actually max out your internet, and no comeback (as of yet) from and companies, for a start YOU don't actually share, the 0-day release hacker type group people upload it cleverly for you. Check sylcks guide to newsgroups, google :).

To newsgroups!

Couldn't agree more less than £10 a month will get you all the latest movies coming down at the max speed for your connection, thats 10Mb for me :) Movies arrive quicker than it takes to watch them and you get all the parity files so any missing data is repaired :)

MB

[iCraig]

I'm interested in NewsGroups but wouldn't know where to start?

I don't trust the results I get back from Google on what's what.

[Matblack]

Lots of info here http://forum.shemes.com/
http://www.newsgroupservers.net/
I use Grabit and it works very well :)

MB

[Gaijin]

CliffyG, don't worry about it too much, just wait for your second warning and then move ISP ;D

[CliffyG]

Nah i'm not worried, well especially not now i've moved isps :D (not for that reason though).

[LeperousDust]

Couldn't agree more less than £10 a month will get you all the latest movies coming down at the max speed for your connection, thats 10Mb for me :) Movies arrive quicker than it takes to watch them and you get all the parity files so any missing data is repaired :)

MB
Edinburgh HTTP (easynews :p one of the few HTTP binary news providers) internet 40Mb+ Films in <10min I was sick when i got home and had to wait for everything!

iCraig, personally when not behind a sodding annoying firewall I used newsleecher (get that through P2P somewhere first) then find yourself a news provider, i used http://www.newshosting.com i think in ranking they come about second to giganews which are awesome but terribly expensive. Newsprovider is like an ISP for your internet so-to-speak. Then you sign up to a site that indexs usenet (newzbin is the ONLY place that does this decently 25p a week) then your ready to go, you'll pick it up in no time i did :)

Ask away and we will help, but its only confusing to begin with.