Slashdot Mirror
Entertainment Software Association Following RIAA?
cavis writes "My organization just received an e-mail from the Intellectual Property enforcement division of the Entertainment Software Association. It accuses one particular IP address with 'infringing the copyright rights of one or more ESA members by copying and distributing unauthorized copies of game products (through peer-to-peer or similar software/services).' It goes on to name the filename and the application: Limewire. Has anyone had any contact with this group? Are they following the RIAA's lead and pursuing litigation for peer-to-peer piracy? I'm just trying to evaluate what I am in for as I try to battle P2P within my network."
Read on for more details.
The letter reads in part (with my redactions):
The Entertainment Software Association ("ESA") is a US 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(hereinafter 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.
Based on the information at its disposal on 24 Nov 2008 01:09:08 GMT, ESA has a good faith belief that the subscriber using the IP address [IP address] infringing the copyright rights of one or more ESA members by copying and distributing unauthorized copies of game products (through peer-to-peer or similar software/services), in violation of applicable copyright laws, through internet access that [agency name] provides directly to the [IP address] or through a downstream provider that purchases this access for [IP address].
The Entertainment Software Association ("ESA") is a US 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(hereinafter 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.
Based on the information at its disposal on 24 Nov 2008 01:09:08 GMT, ESA has a good faith belief that the subscriber using the IP address [IP address] infringing the copyright rights of one or more ESA members by copying and distributing unauthorized copies of game products (through peer-to-peer or similar software/services), in violation of applicable copyright laws, through internet access that [agency name] provides directly to the [IP address] or through a downstream provider that purchases this access for [IP address].
Well, at least they're speedy!
Slashdot is fine too; asking can't hurt, but don't neglect your lawyer.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Make sure this gets mainstream press coverage. Be sure to sensationalize it and compare it to the RIAA. Watch them back down quickly.
Maybe they are finally getting around to busting you for making copies of Leisure Suit Larry and giving them to your friends.
No, I mean that that is the link. From the initial summary:
Click the link below to read part of their letter.
Sure enough, clicking on the link gives you part of the letter.
WRONG
If you are a company, you certainly are responsible for what your employees do with your network resources. Just about the only way the company can weasel out of it is to show good faith attempts at reprimanding the offenders and attempts at preventing their future misbehavior.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Are they merely asking for the infringement to stop, are they threatening to take you court and asking for an out-of-court settlement, are they asking for the identity of the person with the IP address?
If it's the first option then it's easy, find the person who might be infringing and deal with it. Perhaps even block the Limewire service on your network. Setup guidelines for accepted computer usage within your organization. Then ignore the letter unless it demands some form of communication back to them, or threatens legal action if something isn't done about it. If it does ask for a response or you get a second letter, then refer to legal advice on how to deal with it.
The other two scenarios may require legal opinions and official responses.
Get a lawyer.
There may be many people in the /. crowd who, rightly or wrongly think any system where lawyers are needed is bad. That's besides the point. You need legal advice. Lawyers provide legal advice.
Get a lawyer.
It's all well and good to ask for input from /. and Groklaw etc., but get competent, professional, legal advice and trust it over what anyone says here. Nobody here is a lawyer. (And if they are, then they're not being contracted by you to get legal advice, and so are not liable; moreover, they don't have the full details of the letter you got.
An example: Someone said 'take it to the press.' Ask a lawyer before you do that. There are all sorts of procedural reasons why doing that could make a court rule against you. What sort of reasons? IANAL.
So before anything else, get a lawyer to sit down with you and go over the letter, have them research and follow up on the letter, and see what your legal obligations are. Is the ESA asking for a name to go with that IP address? Is this a C&D letter of some kind? Are they threatening your company with legal action? Heck, for that matter, does this organization actually exist? (Someone could be pulling an elaborate joe job. Unlikely, but possible.)
In short, get a lawyer.
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
Ridiculous isn't it. The RIAA are one of the most despised groups in North America now (I want to say the world, but don't know how true that would be), and it's like the software industry looked and thought "WOW! We MUST get a slice of that juicy animosity pie!"
Idiocy.
If their mailing address is in Nigeria, I'd settle immediately. There could be big $$$ in it for you.
Yes, we've been contacted by them (I work for a large university). We got a DMCA takedown notice. However no they aren't acting like the RIAA, they seem to be working like the MPAA. That is to say they send a notice saying "Please remover this shit and yell at the user." We say "Ok we did," and that's the last we ever hear from them. They don't seem to be suing people, they just seem to be trying to get the ISPs to take down the content.
You are in a pitch-black room. A warm glow is coming from a nearby window.
You turn right and are confronted by a man in a suite.
He hands you a slip of paper.
You have been sued by a grue.
Reply with a letter stating "That IP address is a Dynamic DHCP address handed out by an open Wireless Access Point, so I have no idea who was using it at the time. However, we are now putting in place measures to limit access." Then, if you can actually track down the IP to a specific user, beat them about the head and shoulders with a stout cluestick while repeating the mantra "Inappropriate or unauthorized use of the network will be result in severe consequences up to and including termination." Sounds like they're being reasonable here, which means if you can convince them that you are policing yourself, they won't feel the need to come barging in with lawyers to do your policing for you.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I think that if you can sanely, rationaly, and beyond a reasonable doubt prove that someone has violated the copyright, you have the right to make them stop and seek some amount of damages.
(emphasis mine)
Damages for what? A lost sale? Hardly.
Seriously, thousands of people make their living producing the games that I love to play.
And through all the time they have been doing this, piracy has been rampant in the computer game industry. Funny how they keep whining, they should all be dead and gone by now, since there's obviously no money to be made when everyone are copying their valuable intellectual property.
c++;
Funny how they keep whining, they should all be dead and gone by now, since there's obviously no money to be made when everyone are copying their valuable intellectual property.
God, I wish! I miss the good old days when games were made by people who:
a. Like to write code, and
b. Like to play games
NOT c. Like to work unpaid overtime so they can ship a half-baked release that just happens to compile, to appease their foreign shareholders who are going to scuttle the company anyway.
The fact that I see game ads on TV all the freaking time is proof that these companies don't get it. If the game were any good, they wouldn't need to spend 42 bajillion dollars on advertising. The games would sell themselves, because gamers read the rags, troll the forums, loiter at EB... they're not watching Survivor, they're playing their friggin' XBOX!
If anything, I'd say TV advertising actually encourages piracy, because all these non-gamers who DON'T want to spend the money, now they know about this game, and they've been seduced by the misleading FMV clips. They hit Limewire or TPB and devour it whole, while the hardcore gamer's still waiting for his goddamned pre-order to arrive in the mail.
The game houses that do well today, are the ones that are lightweight, nimble and gamer-centric. They don't reskin last year's game and charge another $70 for it, they produce FRESH CONTENT. John Carmack isn't sucking some wall street tycoon's tit, he's writing code! Stardock aren't waiting for the holiday season to release GalCiv 2009, they're producing content-rich expansion packs that deliver real gameplay, not just higher-poly models. Oddly enough, you don't hear those developers whine about piracy much. They drive their ferraris, they pay their staff and taxes, and wouldn't you know, their customers actually have some sense of loyalty.
-Billco, Fnarg.com