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A un amigo Nebrasqueño le llegó el otro día un email de su ISP (Internet Service Provider) que me reenvió a mí como curiosidad. En resumidas cuentas venía a decirle que dejara de descargarse contenido protegido por copyright desde su ordenador. El mensaje venía como un forward de otro anterior, enviado desde el dueño de los derechos del material descargado al mencionado ISP. Nunca he conocido a nadie en España a quien le hubiese ocurrido esto. En fin, he aquí un jugoso resumen para que veáis cómo controlan aquí el tema. Después hago un pequeño comentario.

Dear Internet Access Subscriber:
[We as your ISP] has been notified by a copyright owner that your Internet account has been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material (music, movies, or software). We are enclosing a copy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that [We as your ISP] received from the copyright holder.
It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as a [ISP] Internet account owner, you can be held liable for this activity.

As a personal computer owner and a user of the Internet, we ask that you be aware of the following: Violations of federal Copyright law can result in civil and/or criminal liability, including payment of monetary damages, costs and attorneys’ fees to the copyright owner. See 17 U.S.C. §§ 504-506. In addition, [ISP]‘s Acceptable Use Policy explicitly prohibits copyright infringement by [ISP] High-Speed Internet users. We ask that you take immediate action to remove the infringing material from your computer and stop its exchange. If [ISP] continues to receive DMCA notices regarding your account, or if you violate any other clause of [ISP]‘s Acceptable Use Policy, we will have no choice but to terminate your account.

Después de ésto, viene el mencionado mensaje del dueño del copyright, esto es lo curioso:

You are being contacted on behalf of [Copyright Holder] and its affiliates ([Copyright Holder]) because your Internet account was identified as having been used recently to illegally copy and/or distribute the copyrighted movies and/or television shows listed at the bottom of this letter. This notice provides you with the information you need in order to take immediate action that can prevent serious legal and other consequences. These actions include:

1. Stop downloading or uploading any film or TV shows owned or distributed by [Copyright Holder] Universal without authorization; and
2. Permanently delete from your computer(s) all unauthorized copies you may have already made of these movies and TV shows.
The illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted works are serious offenses that carry with them the risk of substantial monetary damages and, in some cases, criminal prosecution.

This letter is not a complete statement of [Copyright Holder]‘s rights in connection with this matter, and nothing contained herein constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies or defense, all of which are expressly reserved.

Y a continuación, el “registro”, como en el Cluedo:

> Title: [Nombre de la película]
> Infringement Source: BitTorrent
> Initial Infringement Timestamp: XX [Mes] 2009 XX:XX:XX GMT
> Recent Infringement Timestamp: XX [Mes] 2009 XX:XX:XX GMT
> Infringing Filename: [Nombre del archivo]
> Infringing File size: [Tamaño del archivo]
> Infringers IP Address: [La IP de mi amigo]
> Infringers DNS Name: [El DNS de mi amigo]
> Port ID: [Puerto]

Todo esto es muy curioso, pero sobre todo lo es el hecho de que lo único que el [Copyright Holder] ha podido demostrar es que mi amigo, desde su IP, realizó una visita a la web de BitTorrent, en la cual hizo click sobre el enlace del archivo .torrent marcado con el nombre de esa película (es decir, que tal archivo es metadata, o sea, NO ES la película en sí, la cual, en el caso de haber sido descargada, hubiese sido casi imposible de rastrear debido al envío de información por P2P).

Y vosotros, ¿qué opináis de todo ésto?…