Am I In Big Trouble?? (copyright infringement)
 

Hi
I am a new forum user, and I just received the following email today from my ISP. It sounds ominous but I am not sure what to do about it. I have used Limewire for years but do not really know what Gnutella is. Sorry for the length of my email but I do not want to call my ISP at this time. Thanks to all for your help. **the follow is the email I received from my ISP which is cablevision. Evidentally, they received a notice about my copyright infringement??

THis is from my ISP
We are writing as a courtesy to let you know that we have received
notification from one or more owners of copyrights claiming that their
work has been transmitted over the Internet from your account without
their permission. Copyright owners may include motion picture studios,
the recording industry or others who produce or distribute legally
protected material. (Please see enclosed notice(s)). We are concerned
that either you or a person with access to your account may be unknowingly
participating in certain file sharing or server-related activities that
led to this complaint.

As you may recall, the Optimum Online Terms of Service posted at
www.optonline.net require compliance with all applicable laws and
specifically prohibits the use of the Optimum Online system for copyright
infringement.

We consider you a valued customer, so we wanted to let you know that if
the copyright holder pursues this claim, or if there are additional
claims, it could lead to legal action against you. We may be required by
law to release private information about you and to suspend, or even
terminate, your service. We want to help you prevent this from happening.

In order to assist you in your future use of our service, we encourage you
to visit www.optonline.net/copyright for tips and guidelines that we hope
will give you all the information you need to avoid further action on this
matter or on other matters.

We regret having to send notices like this, and we do not wish to alarm
you unnecessarily, but we have a responsibility to advise you of any
notices concerning your account.

If you have any questions about our Optimum Online policies, please feel
free to contact us at the Customer Service Center, 631-846-5350. We
appreciate your business, and look forward to providing you with
excellence in broadband service for many years to come.
Received: 2007-07-18 03:19:28
Subject: DMCA Notification Notice ID:
****THIS IS WHAT MY ISP RECEIVED ABOUT ME

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Re: Unauthorized Use of NBC Universal Properties
Notice ID: 18 Jul 2007 02:20:46 GMT

Dear Sir or Madam:

Please be advised that NBC Universal and/or its subsidiary and affiliated
companies (collectively, NBC Universal) are the owners of exclusive rights
protected under copyright law and other intellectual property rights in
many motion pictures and television programs, including the title(s)
listed below (the NBC Universal Properties). NBC Universal diligently
enforces its rights in its motion pictures.

It has come to our attention that Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) is
the service provider for the IP address listed below, from which
unauthorized copying and distribution (downloading, uploading, file
serving, file "swapping" or other similar activities) of the NBC Universal
Property or Properties listed below, or portion(s) thereof, is taking
place. We believe that the Internet access of the user engaging in this
infringement is provided by Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) or a
downstream service provider who purchases this connectivity from Optimum
Online (Cablevision Systems).

This unauthorized copying and distribution constitutes copyright
infringement under Section 106 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Depending upon
the type of service Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) is providing to
this IP address, it may have legal and/or equitable liability if it does
not expeditiously remove or disable access to the motion picture(s) listed
below, or if it fails to implement a policy that provides for termination
of subscribers who are repeat infringers (see 17 U.S.C. 512).

Despite the above, NBC Universal believes 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.

The undersigned has a good faith belief that use of the NBC Universal
Property or Properties in the manner described herein is not authorized by
NBC Universal, its agent or the law. The information contained in this
notification is accurate. Under penalty of perjury, the undersigned is
authorized to act on behalf of NBC Universal with respect to this matter.

Please be advised that this letter is not intended to be a complete
statement of the facts or law as they may pertain to this matter or of NBC
Universal's positions, rights or remedies, legal or equitable, all of
which are specifically reserved.

Please send us a prompt response indicating the actions you have taken to
resolve this matter, making sure to reference the Notice ID number above
in your response.

mailto:antipiracy@nbcuni.com?subject=RE%3A%20DMCA% 20Notification%20Notice%20ID%3A%2014%2D15150279

If you do not wish to reply by email, please use our Web Interface by
clicking on the following link:

http://webreply.baytsp.com/webreply/webreply.jsp?customerid=14&commhash=d37426296ca358 ba7fb2c382b69b7362

Note: If your email program has inserted line breaks into either the
email or web links above, you can copy and paste the entire link in to
you email program, or favorite web browser, respectively.


Very truly yours,


Aaron Markham
Director of Internet Anti-Piracy,
Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations
NBC UNIVERSAL
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
tel. (818) 777-4876
fax (818) 866-2155
antipiracy@nbcuni.com

*pgp public key is available on the key server at
ldap://keyserver.pgp.com
** For any correspondence regarding this case, please send your emails to
antipiracy@nbcuni.com and refer to Notice ID: . If you need
immediate assistance or if you have general questions please call the
number listed above.
Title: ***********************
Infringement Source: Gnutella
Initial Infringement Timestamp: *********************** GMT
Recent Infringement Timestamp: ********************** GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename:
************************************************** *
Infringing File size: ***************
Infringers IP Address:
Infringers DNS Name:
Infringing URL:

Please let me know if this is something i have to worry about. thank you.

I think I would be a little concerened or maybe a lot concerened. Sounds like they may be hot on your trail. Do you use Peer Guardian 2 ?? If not you might check into it. Its not a 100% fool proof, but I think its better than nothing.

Phoenix Labs

Peer2?
 

I use Lime Wire but I will not use it anymore.

I do not sell anything I download so why would I be in trouble?

Because your downloading copyrighted material, which is illegal in many if not most countries.

This might help explain. http://www.gnutellaforums.com/open-d...e-sharing.html

If I do not download anymore or share anymore files, do you think I will be ok?

Yea, I think the letter that you recieved is more of a scare tactic. Just lay low for awhile and seriously check into PG2, Thats the BLUE link in post #2 Phoenix Labs. This will block millions of bad IP's from getting to your computer. Hope this helps

Thanks for the info, but I do not think I will take a chance with anything for awhile.
What I do not understand is that I have a router, so I thought my IP is sort of scrambled.
Also, I read somewhere that I might find a log and find out who accessed my pc on 7/15/07 at the time mentioned in the letter. Any idea how I can find this out?

Going back to PG2, as I have above several times I know will generate Logs. Other than that I'm not sure where any other Logs might be generated and saved. I am giving you a Link to take a look at about others that are in your situation.

Copyright Infringement - Phoenix Labs

Thanks for the website info.

Will not use Limewire anymore. Deleted it... Not worth the anxiety

Have a nice day

1. Sorry for you that you are having these problems.

2. Unless I have missed something in all of the above, the message to you was in reference to your sharing activities.

"...we have received notification from one or more owners of copyrights claiming that their work has been transmitted over the Internet from your account without their permission."

No mention was made re: your downloading.
I am not sure of the current state of 'play' in your area regarding Downloading... In many places Downloading is NOT illegal... Uploading IS.

3. Remember, LimeWire is only one of numerous Gnutella Network clients...
It would be incorrect to assume that there is any specific 'fault' attributible to LimeWire.
Further, the Gnutella Network is still one of the 'safest' methods of public p2p, if not the safest.

4. Consider doing what I, and many others do... Share eBooks. No music or movies or apps... Just books.
Nobody out there seems to care about those who are sharing eBooks... Except the 100s and 100s of 1,000s of folks who love them and D/L them all day !

If you would like some info and tips re: finding and sharing eBooks, let me know.


Don't quit p2p !