Over the last few weeks I've received several copyright violation notices that have been sent to my university by way of a company hired by Viacom to track illegal activity of their content. Actually, I've received eight of these notices, however each one was for downloading the exact same episode of The Daily Show, the episode from early August with Will Ferrell. These notices especially confused me given that I do not actually download The Daily Show via BitTorrent, since Comedy Central provides new episodes for free online the following day.

Here is part of the text of the complaint that was sent to my university and thus forwarded on to me, eight times. Note that the "Infringing File Name" is identical in each of these notices, of an episode that I've never actually seen.

*** COMPLAINT ***
Notice ID: 337-4621171
Notice Date: 9 Sep 2010 18:47:23 GMT

University of Pennsylvania

Dear Sir or Madam:

BayTSP, Inc. ("BayTSP") swears under penalty of perjury that it is authorized
to act on behalf of Viacom International Inc., Atom Entertainment, Inc., Black
Entertainment Television LLC, Comedy Partners, Country Music Television, Inc.,
Network Enterprises Inc., 51 Minds Entertainment, LLC, and Mindring
Productions, LLC (collectively, the Rights Owners), one of which is the owner
of exclusive rights alleged to be infringed herein. BayTSP's search of the
protocol listed below has detected infringements of exclusive copyright or
trademark interests on your IP addresses as detailed in the below report.

BayTSP has a reasonable good faith belief that use of the material in the
manner complained of in the below report is not authorized by the Rights
Owners, their agents, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate
to the best of our knowledge. Therefore, this letter is an official
notification to effect removal of the detected infringement listed in the below
report. The below documentation specifies the exact location of the
infringement.

We hereby request that you immediately remove or block access to the infringing
material and ensure the user refrains from using or sharing with others the
Rights Owner's materials in the future.

Further, we believe that the entire Internet community benefits when these
matters are resolved cooperatively. We urge you to take immediate action to
stop this infringing activity and inform us of the results of your actions. We
appreciate your efforts toward this common goal.

Please respond indicating the actions you have taken to resolve this matter.
The provided link has been assigned to this matter.
http://webreply.baytsp.com/webreply/webreply.jsp?customerid=337&commhash=17010f174f6c1b85c763d5be2ab8ab93

For email correspondence, please reference the above Notice ID in the subject
line.
mail to:
mailto:mtvn_p2p@copyright-compliance.com?subject=RE%3A%20Notice%20ID%3A%20337%2D4621171%20Notice%20of%20Unauthorized%20Use%20of%20Intellectual%20Property

Nothing in this letter shall serve as a waiver of any rights or remedies of the
Rights Owners with respect to the alleged infringement, all of which are
expressly reserved. This notice is without prejudice to the positions that (1)
17 U.S.C. 512 does not apply and (2) you have an affirmative obligation to
prevent or limit infringement of the Rights Owner's exclusive rights without
regard to receiving a specific takedown notice.

In complying with this notice, University of Pennsylvania should not destroy or
spoliate any evidence which may be relevant in a lawsuit relating to the
infringement alleged herein, including the infringing files and all associated
electronic documents and data relating to their presence on University of
Pennsylvania's IP addresses, which shall be preserved while disabling public
access, irrespective of any document retention or corporate policy to the
contrary.

Should you need to contact me, I may be reached at the below address.

Regards,

Mark Ishikawa
Chief Executive Officer
BayTSP.com Inc. PO Box 1314 - Los Gatos, CA 95031
Phone: 408-341-2305 Fax: 408-341-2399
mtvn_p2p@copyright-compliance.com <mailto:mtvn_p2p@copyright-compliance.com>

*pgp public key is available on the key server at http://pgp.mit.edu

Note: The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the
person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or
privileged material. Any review, reproduction, retransmission, dissemination or
other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by
persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you
received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from
all computers.

This infringement notice contains an XML tag that can be used to automate the
processing of this data. If you would like more information on how to use this
tag please contact BayTSP.

Evidentiary Information:

Notice ID: 337-4621171

Initial Infringement Timestamp: 9 Sep 2010 17:23:48 GMT

Recent Infringement Timestamp: 9 Sep 2010 17:23:48 GMT

Infringers IP Address: REMOVED

Protocol: BitTorrent

Infringed Work: Comedy Central- The Daily Show

Infringing File Name:
The.Daily.Show.2010.08.03.Will.Ferrell.HDTV.XviD-FQM.[VTV].avi

Infringing File Size: 183435402

Bay ID: 13fe458a67a8faa36cf40f6c58fa374990ee8ac7|183435402

Port ID: 57814

Infringer's DNS Name: REMOVED

Infringer's User Name: REMOVED

 

I find it particularly ironic that MTV Networks engages in this type of track-and-seek copyright activity against individual downloaders on college campuses. I do not endorse or condone copyright infringement, and I do feel that MTV Networks and Viacom have a right to get paid for the content they produce. However, they receive no additional money from me or anyone else by sending these notices, and they alienate dedicated fans of their content.

The final point I'd like to make is this: content providers need to all make concerted efforts to get their content online, monetize it at no or minimal cost to consumers, and get it there quickly and in high quality formats that can be watched in HD on TVs or on a computer. Because, personally, before I do anything that could be considered illegal (disclaimer: I don't do anything illegal), I check Hulu, iTunes and other legal sources first. Ads? Fine, so long as it's free and available. Stop wasting your efforts on copyright notices and focus on monetizing Internet distribution of your content. And more importantly, stop alienating and harassing your viewers.