Tracking the Trackers

Sample DMCA Takedown Notice

What is the anatomy of a typical DMCA takedown notice? Check out the anonymized sample below, drawn from the set of complaints we received. (This particular complaint was received for a framed desktop machine)

University of Washington

Dear Sir or Madam:

XXX, Inc. swears under penalty of perjury that YYY Corporation has authorized XXX to act as its non-exclusive agent for copyright infringement notification. XXX's search of the protocol listed below has detected infringements of YYY's copyright interests on your IP addresses as detailed in the attached report.

XXX has reasonable good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of in the attached report is not authorized by YYY, its 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 attached report. The attached documentation specifies the exact location of the infringement.

We hereby request that you immediately remove or block access to the infringing material, as specified in the copyright laws, and insure the user refrains from using or sharing with others unauthorized YYY's materials in the future (see, 17 U.S.C. 512).

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.xxx.com/webreply/webreply.jsp?customerid=AAA&commhash=BBB

For email correspondence, please reference the above Notice ID in the subject line. mailto:YYY@copyright-compliance.com?subject=CCC

Nothing in this letter shall serve as a waiver of any rights or remedies of YYY with respect to the alleged infringement, all of which are expressly reserved. Should you need to contact me, I may be reached at the following address:

Chief Executive Officer
XXX, Inc.
PO Box ZZZ
CityName, State ZipCode

v: xxx-xxx-xxxx
f: xxx-xxx-xxxx
yyy@foo.com

*pgp public key is available on the key server at ldap://keyserver.pgp.com

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 XXX.
Evidentiary Information:
Notice ID: xx-xxxxxxxx
Recent Infringement Timestamp: 5 May 2008 20:54:30 GMT
Infringed Work: Iron Man
Infringing FileName: Iron Man TS Kvcd(A Karmadrome Release)KVCD by DangerDee
Infringing FileSize: 834197878
Protocol: BitTorrent
Infringing URL: http://tmts.org.uk/xbtit/announce.php
Infringers IP Address: xx.xx.xxx.xxx
Infringer's DNS Name: d-xx-xx-xxx-xxx.dhcp4.washington.edu
Infringer's User Name:
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 4 May 2008 20:22:51 GMT

---Start ACNS XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<Infringement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://mpto.unistudios.com/xml/Infringement_schema.xsd">
<Case>
<ID>xxxxxxx</ID>
<Status>Open</Status>
</Case>
<Complainant>
<Entity>XXX, Inc. on behalf of YYY</Entity>
<Contact>Compliance Manager, Compliance Team</Contact>
<Address>P.O. Box ZZZ, CityName, State ZipCode United States of America</Address>
<Phone>(xxx) xxx-xxxx,(xxx) xxx-xxxx</Phone>
<Email>yyy@foo.com</Email>
</Complainant>
<Service_Provider>
<Entity>University of Washington</Entity>
<Address></Address>
<Email>uwdmca@u.washington.edu</Email>
</Service_Provider>
<Source>
<TimeStamp>2008-05-05T20:54:30.000Z</TimeStamp>
<IP_Address>xx.xx.xxx.xxx</IP_Address>
<Port></Port>
<DNS_Name>d-xx-xx-xxx-xxx.dhcp4.washington.edu</DNS_Name>
<Type>BitTorrent</Type>
<UserName></UserName>
<Number_Files>1</Number_Files>
<Deja_Vu>No</Deja_Vu>
</Source>
<Content>
<Item>
<Title>Iron Man</Title>
<FileName>Iron Man TS Kvcd(A Karmadrome Release)KVCD by DangerDee</FileName>
<FileSize>834197878</FileSize>
<URL>http://tmts.org.uk/xbtit/announce.php</URL>
</Item>
</Content>
</Infringement>
---End ACNS XML