On Salon.com the experiences of someone that has been cut of by their ISP because the MPAA had found out they downloaded or uploaded a movie to Usenet.
In the article the person denies to have distributed movies over the internet, but the MPAA did make their ISP connection cut off the ISP required a signed letter promising that they wouldn't upload any copyrighted material.
Why did Time-Warner take the word of the MPAA and immediately cut us off without even asking us about the allegations, or even notifying us about what was going on? We were our ISP's customers, not the MPAA -- although, of course, Warner Brothers is a member of the MPAA too. But when we asked Time-Warner about it, we were told that they "had to take immediate action." |
I later learned that under the provisions of the DMCA, an ISP does indeed have to take action immediately when it is told about a case of copyright infringement. Doing so protects the ISP from liability for the transgression.
But how exactly did the MPAA get its information about the movie that we supposedly uploaded to Usenet? Is our every move in cyberspace being watched?
Basically, yes. As I researched further, I discovered there is a burgeoning industry based on patrolling the Net for copyright abuses. There is, for example, Ranger Online, a company that provides "Intelligent Online Scanning" technology to organizations such as the MPAA.
Source: Salon.com
