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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Roanoke, VA
    Posts
    36

    1and1 engages in highly questionable "copyright enforcement" tactics

    It seems that a fellow named Shawn Rider was distributing his his home-made movies (this is important: he himself is the author and rightsholder) via BitTorrent, using his 1and1 account to point to the torrent files.

    1and1 has apparently threatened him with termination of his account for this egregious act, seemingly asserting that it is an infringement of copyright (and thus a violation of their TOS) for him to distribute his own work.

    Maybe they'll back off when they realize the problem (it's very likely that they simply sent cease-and-desist notices to anyone hosting torrent files, without regard for the actual content -- a practice which is highly questionable at best), but the fact that they would act in such a way at all has just cost them any future business and referrals from me.
    You cooin' with my bird?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Posts
    1,141

    Re: 1and1 engages in highly questionable "copyright enforcement" tactics

    Originally posted by ubernostrum
    It seems that a fellow named Shawn Rider was distributing his his home-made movies (this is important: he himself is the author and rightsholder) via BitTorrent, using his 1and1 account to point to the torrent files.

    1and1 has apparently threatened him with termination of his account for this egregious act, seemingly asserting that it is an infringement of copyright (and thus a violation of their TOS) for him to distribute his own work.

    Maybe they'll back off when they realize the problem (it's very likely that they simply sent cease-and-desist notices to anyone hosting torrent files, without regard for the actual content -- a practice which is highly questionable at best), but the fact that they would act in such a way at all has just cost them any future business and referrals from me.
    I wonder if they got a C&D order from somebody that they're just following, if they think that its copyright infringement, or if they are just trying to get rid of people hosting torrent files. I am guessing that they don't want him hosting torrent files, and maybe they're assuming that they're copyrighted. Hopefully your friend will get this cleared up with 1&1, or maybe he'll/she'll have to find a new host.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Roanoke, VA
    Posts
    36
    To clarify: I don't know the guy personally, but the story popped up in a couple places today (BoingBoing, for example) and I thought it should be posted here as well.
    You cooin' with my bird?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    87
    It depends if his host has a No Filesharing clause in their TOS or AUP.
    If the host has stated that such service, even if legally done, is not allowed, then they have the right to ask him to C&D.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Roanoke, VA
    Posts
    36
    Originally posted by TacticsFan
    It depends if his host has a No Filesharing clause in their TOS or AUP.
    If the host has stated that such service, even if legally done, is not allowed, then they have the right to ask him to C&D.
    Read his post about it; they're not saying "no filesharing". They're saying "copyright infringement is forbidden". Which implicitly assumes that anything distributed via BitTorrent is copyright infringement, regardless of inconvenient facts to the contrary.
    You cooin' with my bird?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    The whole issue could be an error in judgement on the part of 1and1's employee who handled this, and not a company policy.

    Also, this is just one case, and not enough to conclude that 1and1 is banning the use of "torrent".

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    55

    *

    yeah yeah yeah, but how good is the movie?

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