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Comcast Threatens TorrentFreak For Posting Public Court Document

Posted by Unknown on from the cease-and-desist dept.

Despite being part of public court proceedings, Comcast sent a notice of infringement ordering Torrent Freak to stop hosting a letter linking a subscriber to Prenda Law. From the article: "Comcast has sent TorrentFreak a cease and desist letter, claiming copyright over contents of an article which revealed that Prenda Law was involved in operating a pirate honeypot. Failure to comply will result in a lawsuit in which the Internet provider will seek damages, a Comcast representative informs us. In addition, Comcast also alerted our hosting provider, who is now threatening to shut down our server."

8 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Dear Comcast, fuck off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a public court document, you don't own it you fucking douche-bag.

    1. Re:Dear Comcast, fuck off by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe the judge is in their employ and has one of those "anything you create on or off Comcast time is Comcast property" and they think that trumps government.

    2. Re:Dear Comcast, fuck off by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If we're going to have (I wish we did not... they're bad news) DMCA take-down orders, we also need a law WITH TEETH that criminalizes the abuse of same.

      Once you start seeing actual damages for filing false notices, watch them stop.

    3. Re:Dear Comcast, fuck off by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I disagree.

      Dear, Dear Comcast:

      Please spam everyone and everything with these cease and desist letters. For EVERYTHING. Especially politicians and voters who don't generally care about IP laws.

      The sooner everyone realizes how thoroughly stupid it is to give you this as a weapon, the sooner someone will take it away from you and all the other sociopathic organizations out there.

      Hopefully anyway. At the very least, it will be entertaining to watch you claim copyright over "#yolo" on twitter.

  2. Re:fair use by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately, the host seems as smart as the lawyer, considering they're threatening to shut down the server according to the synopsis.

    Because it's easier for the hosting company to just say "fuck it, not my problem".

    This is what happens when the DMCA tells you that if you comply with a takedown, you are off the hook.

    The law is written in such a way that the hosting company has no incentive to care.

    That nobody seems to be doling out punishments for false takedowns is the big problem -- because apparently you can claim almost anything belongs to you with neither facts nor evidence on your side.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Re:fair use by snadrus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    False takedowns are a felony that maybe a Comcast lawyer should experience, you know, to be made an example of.

    --
    Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
  4. Re:fair use by cdrudge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you read the actual message they sent TorrentFreak, the ISP isn't as bad as the summary makes them out to be. The ISP said that TF needs to take appropriate action and need to respond back with the action taken. No where did it specifically state that the action had to be removal of the scanned letter.

    The ISP isn't in and doesn't want to be in a position where they are the legal department for all their customers trying to determine if each and every notice is legitimate especially in very specific incidents like this. They just want to know that you a. received the notice and b. have taken some action regarding it. That's all they are really concerned about and all they are required to do under the DMCA.

    It would be appropriate and satisfy all parties if TF responded to the ISP stating that they contacted Comcast/Cyveillance, asserted their right to use the content under fair use/public domain/whatever, and that it would not be coming down. Appropriate action would be then taken.

  5. Re:Expropriate Comcast under a workers government! by Muros · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would absolutely love to see this go to court. Please, oh please let this go to court. Let Comcast seek damages for your posting of public court documents.

    Never going to happen. These clowns (Comcast's lawyers), as soon as they saw the website was contesting it, realised that this particular line of bullshit litigation would be shot down in flames immediately by the first judge who saw it. Its one thing being creative with interpreting laws relating to technology and explaining it to old men with no idea what you're talking about, quite another trying to do the same with legal procedure to a guy who both knows damn well how the law works, and has the power to slap you down if he thinks you're trying to step on his toes.