Hey all,
Some of you may be aware that there is a new requirement for ISP to pass on notices of alleged copyright infringement.
As we receive these requests, we have to pass them on by law. Below is a sample email that we might send. It gives you an idea.
After that, we prepared a FAQ. We'll post it on the site soon. See inline.
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Subject: Notice of claimed copyright infringement
Body:
Hello,
TekSavvy has received what the Copyright Act calls a "notice of claimed infringement". It listed an IP address and time. Our systems indicate that the IP address listed in the notice was likely assigned to your account at the specified time. We are therefore legally required to forward the notice to you. The notice is reproduced, unaltered, below.
First, though, there are some things you should know:
(a) We haven't told the sender who you are. Your privacy is paramount to us. We don't track, or know, what you do. We do know what IP address we assigned to you within the last 30 days. But we don't provide personal information like that to anyone unless a court orders us to -- and we have not done so here. The notice was simply received by us, and we have forwarded it electronically on to you.
(b) We are an intermediary that is required to forward this notice to you. We do not, and cannot, verify its contents or its sender. However, a private partys notice does not mean there has been any legal ruling. Only a court can do that.
(c) It is good practice to make sure you secure your account. Your wireless router should be password-protected; the password should be changed regularly; and those who have the password should maintain good virus protection. Your MyAccount allows you to check your bandwidth usage: do so regularly, and make sure what is happening and what you think is happening line up.
(d) We retain IP address information for 30 days. If your modem has not been powered off during that period, then we may have IP address information going back to the last time you did. In addition to requiring us to forward this notice, the Copyright Act also requires us to retain the records matching the IP address and time to your account for six months. If the people who sent the notice apply to a court, they can require us to hold it for longer.
We have provided some links below. The notice, which we are required to forward unaltered, follows.
Copyright Act (see, especially, sections 41.25-26):
»
laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/ ··· ts/C-42/TekSavvy:
»
teksavvy.com/en/why-teks ··· y-policy»
myaccount.teksavvy.com/Automated translation (you may need to copy and paste):
»
translate.google.com/?hl=fr»
www.bing.com/translator/--- Forwarded Notice of Infringement follows:
*snip this is where their notice is added*
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FAQPrivacy Basics1. What is TekSavvy doing to protect its customers personal information?
Subscriber information, individually-issued Internet Protocol addresses, and the link between them are all personal information. Our users have a strong privacy interest in it. TekSavvy has always fought for our users rights. We take that privacy interest very seriously.
We will not provide your personal information to any copyright claimant unless we are ordered to do so by a court. And we will take every opportunity to make sure that our accountholders receive notice when a court is asked to disclose their personal information.
2. What are IP address logs?
The Internet is federated by a common system for Internet Protocol addresses coordinated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the Regional Internet Registry it has designated for our portion of the Americas, has assigned certain ranges of IP addresses to TekSavvy.
TekSavvy, in turn, leases the use of IP addresses to TekSavvy accounts that log on to our network, so that the associated modem can access the Internet through TekSavvy. Except where the user has purchased use of a static IP address, these addresses are assigned dynamically. The typical TekSavvy IP addresses is therefore assigned to different accounts at different times.
IP address logs keep track of these assignments. They are very automatically generated by our routing and authentication equipment. They are very large text files generated at high volume. In order to meet its legal obligations, TekSavvy now exports most of its IP address logs daily to a database system. The raw logs are then purged to make room for more. All raw log and database processing and storage takes place within our facilities in Canada.
3. How long does TekSavvy store IP address log information?
Log information remains within the database system for 30 days. We have no purpose for that information beyond that point, so it is automatically deleted, on a rolling basis.
In isolated cases, we are required to extract certain information from that system in order to preserve it for longer than 30 days. In some instances, we are required to do this by a court order in a criminal cases. However, the most common reason for a longer preservation period is to comply with the Copyright Act.
Since January 2, 2015, we have been required to forward notices of claimed copyright infringement to the account information that matches the IP address and timestamp indicated on the notice. When we do so, we are also required to retain that IP-address-to-account correlation information, and the associated accountholders identity, for six months. If the copyright owner who sent the notice commences court proceedings, we may be required to retain it for more than six months.
4. So does this mean you can look up who has a certain IP address?
Yes. We use this information for 30 days. It is deleted on a rolling 30-day basis. However, if you maintain a single session for longer than 30 days, and do not power-cycle your modem during that period, then we may have more than 30 days worth of information.
5. If TekSavvy forwards a notice of claimed copyright infringement, does that mean it has given someone else my personal information?
No. We forward the notice, based on a database lookup as to which account was associated with the relevant IP address at the relevant time. We do not provide any information about you back to the sender.
6. How will I know if TekSavvy has received a request for my personal information?
When we become aware of any legal proceeding which contemplates the provision of your personal information to a third party, TekSavvy will notify you by email and provide as much information it has available about the legal proceeding under which the request is made.
7. How will I know if TekSavvy has disclosed my personal information?
TekSavvy will notify affected account-holders if we receive a court order compelling us to disclose their personal information, unless explicitly prohibited from doing so by law.
Notices of Claimed Infringement8. How did TekSavvy handle copyright infringement notices in the past?
TekSavvy had no involvement with copyright infringement notices in the past. We were not a part of the voluntary notice-and-notice scheme developed by copyright owners and incumbent ISPs. As a result, compliance with the new Copyright Act provisions on notice-and-notice that came into force on January 2, 2015, has been a significant and expensive undertaking.
However, TekSavvy was required to take action on copyright infringement allegation in a matter that began in 2012. Then, U.S.-based Voltage Pictures LLC filed a lawsuit demanding we disclose personal information of approximately 2,000 subscribers who Voltage said had infringed its copyright.
As an intermediary, TekSavvy did not take any position on copyright matters. However, we insisted that the court balance Voltages rights as a copyright holder against our users privacy interest. The courts ruling limited Voltages request. It introduced conditions designed to protect subscribers privacy and discourage copyright trolling, and maintained strong court oversight on how this information is used and when it is disclosed.
No customer information will be provided to Voltage unless and until all conditions of the court order are met. Among the courts requirements are that any subscriber notice clearly state in bold type that no Court has yet made a determination that Subscriber has infringed or is liable in any way for payment of damages.
9. What does the notice-and-notice regime require TekSavvy to do?
Notice-and-notice is the nickname for the regime put into place by sections 41.25 and 41.26 of the Copyright Act, which came into force on January 2, 2015. The rules require digital network providers, like ISPs and VPNs, to handle notices sent by copyright owners to users whose electronic location, like an IP address, the copyright owner claims is the source of possible infringement.
To comply with the regime, the notices must identify:
what infringement is alleged;
the material to which the alleged infringement relates,
the claimants name, address, and right with respect to it, and
the electronic address, date and time of the alleged activity.
When a network provider like TekSavvy receives such a notice, we must do two things: forward the notice to the alleged infringer, providing a success or failure receipt; and retain the information allowing the accountholders identity to be determined for six months. If the copyright owner who sent the notice commences court proceedings, we may be required to retain it for more than six months.
10. How much do copyright owners have to pay to send each notice?
Nothing. The Copyright Act grants the Minister of Industry the ability to fix the fee that can be charged for forwarding notices, sending back receipts, and preserving data. But it also prohibits the charging of any fee if none has been fixed.
The Minister did not fix a fee, so TekSavvy cannot charge one. As a result, the cost to a copyright owner of sending each additional notice, once they have created an automated system for doing so, is zero.
11. Ive received an emailed notice of claimed infringement, what is going to happen to me?
As an intermediary, TekSavvy has no knowledge of the contents of the notice, nor of what you do on the Internet. We cannot take a position on the accuracy of the notice, and we do not know what further steps its sender will take, if any.
What we can tell you is that a private partys notice does not mean there has been any legal ruling. Only a court can do that.
12. The notice of claimed infringement that was emailed to me sounds pretty American. It refers to American laws. Does it apply in Canada?
We dont know, and cant say.
The Copyright Act requires us to forward the notice and put a six-month hold on your correlation information if the notice meets all of the criteria described above. So if it states the infringement alleged; which material it relates to; claimants right, name, and address; and electronic address, date, and time of the alleged activity, then we must proceed.
13. How many customers are affected by this?
In the Voltage matter, we sent out notices to just over 1100 customers that their account information has been requested by Voltage. There were over 2000 IP addresses for which the information was requested.
With notice-and-notice, in early January 2015 we were receiving about 3000 copyright infringement notices each day. Many of them are formatted based on the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requirements, although we expect that to change over time.
14. Did TekSavvy gather the information for the claimant who is alleging infringement?
No. TekSavvy does not monitor our customers use of the Internet. We have no involvement in collecting the IP addresses presented in a claim by Voltages, or in a notice of claimed infringement. That is why we are in no position to speculate on the validity of a claim.
Next Steps15. Theres something funny going on here. Could my account have been hacked?
It is good practice to make sure you secure your account. Your wireless router should be password-protected. The password should be changed regularly. Those who have the password should maintain good virus protection. The accountholder should keep track of who has access to it. Your MyAccount allows you to check your bandwidth usage. Do so regularly, and make sure that what is happening and what you think is happening line up.
16. What is TekSavvys role after it has forwarded a notice, sent back a receipt, and preserved the data it is required to preserve?
TekSavvys role is to ensure that we fulfill our legal and ethical obligations. We must comply with the Copyright Act. We must also make sure our users privacy interests are fully respected:
Our customers must know what personal information we are preserving, for how long, and why. And we must ensure that no information is disclosed to any copyright claimant without a court order. If things progress further, and the claimant goes to court seeking such an order, we must take every opportunity to make sure our customer is aware of this as soon as possible, so that there is an opportunity to address the court before any disclosure is ordered.
17. How will I know if a rights holder intends to pursue a copyright infringement claim?
If things progress still further, disclosure is ordered and takes place, and the rights holder wishes to pursue copyright infringement claim, then you will receive a notification from the rights holder. At that point, the issue will be between you and the rights holder.
18. Where can I go to seek legal advice if I need to?
Many of the provincial law societies provides free lawyer referral services (Lawyer Referral Services - »
www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl ··· -ra.html). They will provide you with the name of a lawyer and, depending on the province: a licensed paralegal and, through the referred lawyer or paralegal, a free consultation of up to 30 minutes to help you determine your rights and options.
19. What are the penalties under Canadian law for copyright infringement?
Copyright owners have the ability to sue infringers for the damages they have suffered due to the infringement and the profits the infringer has made. However, they also have the option of electing statutory damages at any time prior to final judgment, even if they cannot demonstrate their damages or prove an infringers profits.
If the infringement was for non-commercial purposes, statutory damages are between $100 and $5000. If it was for commercial purposes, statutory damages are between $500 and $20,000.
20. Why cant TekSavvy provide me with legal advice?
As an intermediary, its difficult for us to answer many of the questions that notices of claimed infringement provoke. We are not in a position to advise any third party on the application of the law to their particular situation, or the actions that they should take in response to a notice of claimed infringement, a motion for disclosure, or the defense of potential claims that may be made against you.