A while back, I posted a rant about our local UPN affiliate for not airing the Star Trek: Enterprise episode called “The Council.” This was a pivotal episode near the end of the third season which contained details critical to the story arc. (As you recall, on Wednesday, when the show was supposed to be aired, it was pre-empted by coverage of ECHL hockey, then on Sunday, instead of the usual Enterprise rerun, UPN showed a fitness infomercial instead.)
Well, I mentioned that I was going to have to go online and find a digitized copy of the episode to download if I wanted to see it. Using the eMule file sharing network, I grabbed a DivX rip of the episode, burned it to a VCD and watched it in all its graininess on my big screen TV. That was it. Now, I check my Comcast master account email today—only by accident, mind you, since I don’t receive email there and rarely ever check for any—and discovered that on June 28th, Comcast sent me an official Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In other words, SCOLDING ME FOR SHARING THE ENTERPRISE EPISODE! Sure enough, the “infringement timestamp” is May 17th, the same day I posted that rant about UPN from the office. While I was ranting, my eMule client was crunching away on the Enterprise episode at home. It wasn’t even fucking finished transferring.
Text of the email follows.
Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Abuse Incident Number: [removed]
Report Date/Time: Tue, 18 May 2004 12:38:56 -0700[account information removed]
Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:
Comcast has received a notification of claimed infringement made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the ‘DMCA’). This notification, made by a copyright owner or its authorized agent, reports an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast’s High-Speed Internet service (the ‘Service’). The works identified in the notification of claimed infringement are listed below. In accordance with the DMCA and Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy, Comcast request that you immediately remove the allegedly infringing works from the Service or Comcast will be forced to remove or block access to the works.
If you believe in good faith that the allegedly infringing works have been removed or blocked by mistake or misidentification, then you may send a counter notification to Comcast. Upon Comcast’s receipt of a counter notification that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA, Comcast will provide a copy of the counter notification to the party who sent the original notification of claimed infringement. We will then follow the DMCA’s procedures with respect to a received counter notification.
For more information regarding Comcast’s copyright infringement policy, procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy by clicking on the Terms of Service link at http://www.comcast.net
Sincerely,
Comcast Network Abuse and Observance TeamCopyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:
Infringed Work: Star Trek Enterprise
Infringing FileName: (Mp)(Divx3) Star Trek Enterprise s3e22 The Council.avi
Infringing FileSize: 499533824
Protocol: eDonkey
Infringers IP Address: [removed]
Infringer’s User Name:
Infringer’s DNS Name: [removed]
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 17 May 2004 03:38:33 GMT
Recent Infringement Timestamp: 17 May 2004 03:38:33 GMT
Now, receiving this letter means very little. Most people don’t even respond to them (I’m not sure how I would respond even if I wanted to, given that Comcast didn’t provide contact details, and the email address this notice came from is a virtual box marked “no-reply”). In fact, according to the provisions under the DMCA, sending a “counter notification” can actually set you up for a legal battle if someone wants to pursue it. Other users say that as long as you stop sharing the file, no one’s going to force the issue. Of course, I stopped “sharing” it a long time ago. The only reason I was sharing it at all is because eMule forces you to share any chunks of a file that you have downloaded, even if you have not finished downloading the entire file yet. Hmph. Fuck eMule!
Of course, the fact that sharing a TV episode that’s not available for commercial purchase is actually illegal is part of a whole other nebulous argument. I don’t see why this is illegal at all, but the entire MPAA and movie/TV industry can be blamed for their unusually tight stranglehold on materials such as this. Christ, how is this any different than me begging a friend to record the show for me and then sending me a VHS tape? It’s not in principle, but the difference here is that the authorities became privy to it. Morons.
Anyway, the file’s long gone from my hard drive, and I probably ought to get rid of eMule altogether so I’m not even tempted anymore. Despite the fact that I think the law is bunk on this issue, if Comcast has to warn me again, they could disable my service…and on a third warning, I hear they cut you off permanently and install filters on your line. (In that case, it would be DSL, here I come—wink.)
Sigh. I’ll say it again: UPN 8 sucks.
