Copyright Legitimacy vs. Defending Clients?

trmj asks: "I run a hosting company, and today I received an e-mail, claiming to be from an animation firm, about one of my clients hosting pirated information. As usual, before entertaining a claim of this sort, I researched the claim (there was a bit of legitimacy in it) and what the laws are governing this issue. After that, I replied in the appropriate manner, however, found that the original e-mail address was not valid, leading to the discovery that neither was the e-mail. As a hosting provider, how far should I go to protect the rights of my clients while upholding the law, and still verify every claim that comes in?"

Comments

As far as I'm concerned . . .

[base3]

. . . you score points with me for not just whacking the user, no questions asked, like the major ISPs seem to be doing.

Re:As far as I'm concerned . . .

[4of12]

you score points with me for not just whacking the user, no questions asked, like the major ISPs seem to be doing.

Amen. Kudoes to you for it.

Seems to me that the volume of specious email like the fabricated one you received is such that you can not practically afford to give an increasing fraction of your valuable time to sifting the claims submitted by email.

Has anyone come up with an auto-responder that ISP's can use that pretty much automate the task of

Dear Spammer:

Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately, no individual here will read it and nor is authorized to formulate the proper response that it deserves.

If you have a specific legal issue to raise, then please send a registered letter to the following address detailing the specific user and specific violation and dates of violations.

<insert address of home office>

I would imagine that would help cut down the volume to genuine concerns.

You now know. Knowing !=plausible deniability

[narratorDan]

First I would notify your client that (s)he is violating copyright (this takes care of your first problem), state what section of your use policy (you have one right?) (s)he is violating. State what your actions will be, removal, reporting, etc. Before the email you had the coverage of plausible deniability, now you don't (anon tip). In the end save your notice and forget it, if anything comes of it, you can state that you had informed him(her) and they removed it, then replaced it at a later date.
But, IANAL
NarraterDan

Errr...

[0x0d0a]

As a hosting provider, how far should I go to protect the rights of my clients while upholding the law, and still verify every claim that comes in?"

You know, if you're looking for crucial legal advice, I really don't think you should be relying on Slashdot. "But, *your Honor*, 'autopr0n' on Slashdot *said* that it would be okay!"

We already know that most Slashdotters would *like* you to do nothing, for example, so your chance of getting a legally useful opinion is about zip.

Re:A similar situation

[bellings]

At that point, the site is either hosting copyrighted content, or they're not.

As far as I know, 100% of all content on all websites is copyright. Hell, this post that you're reading right now is copyright.

I really wish that people wouldn't say "hosting copyright content" when they mean unauthorized reproduction of copyright material that exceeds fair use. It really seems that most of the vocabulary we're using for this discussion has been created by people with a vested interest in promoting the idea that only large companies create any content worth the protection of copyright, and that any unauthorized reproduction is illegal. Neither claim is true...

My Reply

[Lord Sauron]

I'm a SysAdmin in a foreign country (i.e. non-US. Thus I live in a free country and have no fear of DMCA)

This was my real reply to
anti-piracy@sonymusic.com. They didn't reply back, and nothing happened.

A friend suggested me I could also have replied with a "Sory, me not understaind english". But I thought this reply would be more amusing for them.

To: anti-piracy@sonymusic.com
Subject: Response of Notice of Claimed Infringement
From: xxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 16:18:03 -0300

>We are asking for your immediate assistance in stopping this
>unauthorized activity. Specifically, we request that you remove the

Hell no.

>In addition, we ask that you inform the individual(s) involved of the
>illegality of his or her conduct and confirm with us, in writing,
>that this activity has ceased.

Get a life.

>You should understand that under the Digital Millennium Copyright
>Act, if you ignore this notice, your company/institution may be
>iable for any resulting infringement.

Please shove this fucking DMCA in your ass you greedy bastards.

Pedro Tomas de Aquino

Re:Hmmm ... as far as I'm concerned ...

[nelsonal]

Your comment made me remember reading the cell phone manual. Have you ever read the FCC regulations for cell phone usage? You are not supposed to swear or use other obscene language on a cell phone. My hard line didn't come with a manual, but I would guess the rules are similar.