Hi, I'm Tuffy. 
If you’ve been downloading eps of your fave TV shows, you may want to reconsider. Lately I’ve been getting Heroes and The Office off Bittorrent, just as I have any number of TV shows in the past. Then last week something unprecedented happened:
I got a series of cease & desist emails from my Internet provider, Comcast.
Comcast has apparently been sending these out to erring subscribers for at least a year, but if you haven’t heard about it, here’s the text of the letters I got. There were four of them, each citing specific episodes of Heroes and the Office (both NBC shows, note) that I’d downloaded.
Subject: Notice of Claim of Copyright Infringement.
Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Abuse Incident Number: XXX
Report Date/Time: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:44:50 -0700Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:
Comcast has received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast’s High-Speed Internet service (the ‘Service’). The copyright owner has identified the Internet Protocol (‘IP’) address associated with your Service account at the time as the source of the infringing works. The works identified by the copyright owner in its notification are listed below. Comcast reminds you that use of the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of any copyrighted work is a violation of Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy and may result in the suspension or termination of your Service account.
If you have any questions regarding this notice, you may direct them to Comcast in writing …
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 Legal Response CenterCopyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:
Title: Heroes (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 23 Mar 2007 16:24:30 GMT
Recent Infringment Timestamp: 24 Mar 2007 11:14:50 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Heroes S01E04.avi
Infringing Filesize: 366540800
Infringers IP Address: XXXX
Infringers DNS Name: XXXX
Infringing URL: http://tracker.podtropolis.com:2710/announce[plus a bunch of other records for other eps]
Comcast didn’t go so far as to cut off my service, but still, I’m gonna quit downloading NBC shows. Unless somebody knows a good anonymizer. At least Heroes is back on April 23.
technorati tags: comcast, bittorrent, copyright, network+abuse, nbc, heroes, the+office
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Sure
http://torrentfreak.com/secureix-offers-anonymous-bittorrent-downloads/
Free of charge too.
If you want a faster one, try http://www.relakks.com, although that will cost you a little each month
Enjoy
Thanks enigmax!
Cisconohunt at Digg points out:
“understand what Comcast is accusing you of in this notice…you used bit torrent to download, however, Comcast isn’t dinging you for downloading, you were UPLOADING also, thus sharing copyright material.
Turn uploading off and enjoy.”
http://digg.com/tech_news/Comcast_cracking_down_on_downloaders#c6026335
Turning off uploading is pretty selfish — and don’t trackers use your uploads to allocate your download bandwidth, or something? — but it’s worth knowing.
Wait, isn’t Heroes distributed through the NBC website anyway? How can it be infringement if you are paying nothing to get it from another source.
You’re still getting the same content.
I know, isn’t it stupid? And have you ever tried to watch Heroes on the site? It hangs every 4 seconds or so, and if you pause to let it cache it will only cache about a minute and a half. I don’t know why NBC bothers to put it up.
I got one of these the other day from my ISP (Charter Communications). One of them was NBC, and the other was from the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Also, thanks to enigmax for those two references. I’ll be sure to check those out!
Hey I also got hit with the copyright thing also for 4 files within 2 weeks.
As you know if you use a proxy especially behind a Router.And you go to whatismyip.com
It will list your Real IP and say something like behind proxy.
Not much help if your trying to DL anymonous.
From what I saw unless your directly hooked up to the box.The proxy will not work http://www.whatismyip will see you no matter what.
And you have to constantly update your proxy list.
This can be very annoying.
What I found is an amazing program it fully mask your ip and geographic location.
It even works behind a router and gives all torrent trackers fake ip’s
The url is http://www.privoxy.org/
make sure you activate ip local host in your connection setting in IE. port 8118
Go to http://www.whatismyip.com and will list what country your in etc. IP changes every 30 mins.
You also do not have to update the proxy list this is done for you.If you get a slow proxy theres a onion icon in the tray just click changed identy switch to one closer for a faster ping back.
Not on whois or whatmyip site can see who I really am anyways good luck and fuck comcast hack life.
PS: Also use peeer gaurdian 2 for extra security they ban these trackers IP so the torrent wont even start. And then you know why.
privoxy.org is also free and is 99% anymnous
Argh! You mean the second season of Heroes has already started?!
I got a notice from Comcast last week. Same thing, only it was Heroes ep13 and the tracker cited was something like tv.sladink.com … I wonder whether NBC are watching paticular trackers, or if they just search popular torrent search engines for Their Stuff and start noting the IPs in the bit swarm?
I replied to Comcast asking, “May I know the originator of this complaint?” because the email seemed strangely passive-voiced about that — y’know, “We have received a complaint” but not naming any names. This was Friday, I think, and the very next business day I got a *phone call* at my home from a Comcast representative. I was torn between feeling pleased that they responded to my query (and quite politely, too; they told me that in this case the complainer was NBC their-own-selves, and the rep pretty much told me “go forth and sin no more), and squicked out that they called me. I mean, obviously no surprise that they’ve got my number since I’m a cable subscriber, but still… brrrr!
(I hadn’t seen any Season 2 torrents in my searches last month – how much have I missed?)
Anyone received any subpoenas from these groups?
A phone call?!? Yikes! Next thing you know you’ll have a suspicious white van parked outside.
Thanks again to everyone who’s posted the addresses of proxy thingies. I haven’t gotten around to figuring out how to use these yet (it will probably be when I succumb to curiosity about the current status of Jim/Pam). So if anybody finds a page that straightforwardly tells how to use proxies, or figures them out and has any tips, post them here.
(Jimmyjohn: Not me.)
Hey, good post on bittorrent and associated issues. You should do a post on people who play “board games” (as opposed to role-playing games). My friend Christopher is part of that, and has been getting me into it. Apparently it’s a whole subculture or something.
And it’s not a bunch of noobs playing Monopoly.
hey tuffy what ever came from those letters i got a couple of them 2 weeks ago … did comcast ever contact you >?
They haven’t followed up yet. I did get another of the same type of letter a couple weeks ago, though. It was in reference to “The Bourne Ultimatum,” which, incidentally, I had only downloaded a tiny bit of in order to test my connection. For what that’s worth.
I noticed most of the warnings are over music, shows and movies. Anyone receive any emails over downloaded software or games?
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