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If You Are Issued a Copyright Infringement Notice

 


On this page:
Takedown Notices
Preservation Requests
Early Settlement Letter(s)
Lawsuits and Subpoenas
Resources

 

Note: Unless served with a proper subpoena, the Institute will not disclose the name of, or other identifying information pertaining to the user, to the holder of the copyright and/or their agents. The information on this page is not meant to be used as legal advice. You should contact a legal representative should you have any concerns or questions.

Unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted material violates the US Copyright Law as well as MIT Policy and the MITnet Rules of Use. MIT's responsibility under the law is to respond expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing by forwarding the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notifications issued by the copyright holders to the accused infringers.

There are four types of notices you may receive from a copyright holder who claims copyright infringement. Copyright holders can choose to send one or any of these for activity that they detect on our network. For the most part, only the RIAA has been issuing Early Settlement Letters. The other three most common types of notices are Takedown Notices, Preservation Requests, and Lawsuits and Subpoenas. Below is a summary of each one. This information may help you to determine the right steps to take for each of the notification situations.

Takedown Notices

Takedown Notices are the most common notice and ask to remove or disable access to the infringing files from a computer. If you receive a DMCA Takedown Notice, you should immediately remove or disable access to all infringing materials (not simply those files listed in the notice). If the materials are removed and you have not previously engaged in unauthorized use of copyrighted material, the case is quickly resolved by removal of the unauthorized material.

Take the following steps:

  1. Remove the works cited in the notice and any other copyrighted material for which there is no explicit permission from the copyright holder to possess. A good rule of thumb to follow is: If you didn't pay for it, you shouldn't have it on your computer.
  2. Disable file sharing of any copyrighted material for which there is no explicit permission from the copyright holder to redistribute.
  3. Respond to DMCA agent ( dmca-agent@mit.edu) when the copyright infringement has been halted. To avoid an interruption in network service, you should respond no later than 5 days after the notice was sent to you. If we do not receive a response, we will expeditiously block the computer's access to the network.

Do not:

  1. Ignore the notice.
  2. Contact the company directly. They do not need to know who you are and may be confused about whom to contact in the future.

Additional things to consider:

If the infringement is not promptly resolved, MIT will suspend network access to the computer in question, and, in addition, for repeat infringers, MIT may file disciplinary complaints with the Dean of Students, the department of Human Resources, or the Provost's Office, as appropriate. Visit the Copyright Infringement Policy for Students page to learn more about the steps MIT takes regarding infringers who are students.

Be sure to read the entire notice of infringement. You will find this attached at the end of your email from the DMCA agent. Read the notice even if you don't believe your machine is in violation.

For music and movie files, you may be using peer-to-peer (p2p) sharing software, such as Limewire, BitTorrent, KaZaA, or Gnutella. If you do have the rights to use the files, you most likely do not have the right to share the files with the world and should disable sharing immediately. You can find steps on how to disable sharing on the University of Chicago's site. Remove all infringing material from the shared folder before re-enabling sharing.

Preservation Requests

At the outset, the RIAA typically sends to ISPs (such as MIT) "preservation requests" that notify the ISP that a subpoena may be served on it seeking identifying information about a network user. These preservation requests identify an alleged infringer's IP address at a particular date and time. The preservation request asks the ISP to preserve contact information for the user, which MIT does in concert with established legal practice.

MIT also sends a copy of the preservation request to the user, but does not release any information about the user to the RIAA based on a preservation request.

Early Settlement Letter(s)

Next, the RIAA will usually send an "early settlement letter" to the ISP. The settlement letter is directed to the user of a particular IP address and asserts that the user has violated copyright laws. It purports to provide an opportunity to settle the claim at a reduced amount compared to what a court might award.

Although not legally required to do so, MIT forwards settlement letters together with an explanation to the affected users. This is a decision that was made after carefully considering the pros and cons of such a practice. Not forwarding the letters would mean that MIT had made a decision that is ultimately up to the student affected, i.e., whether to settle a claim or not. Again, MIT does not tell the RIAA the identity of the student based simply on an early settlement letter. By forwarding the letter to the student, students can, if they so choose, resolve the matter for a reduced amount and without having their name appear in a public court filing. In addition, there is no evidence to suggest that if MIT did not forward these letters, students would not be sued. If anything, not forwarding the letters may cause fewer students to settle, and more to get sued.

Lawsuits and Subpoenas

If a user does not settle after receiving a settlement letter, RIAA member companies have been filing lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in Boston against unnamed MIT students ("John Does"). The companies then serve subpoenas on MIT seeking identifying information of the users of particular IP addresses. MIT complies with court orders and lawfully-served subpoenas, including, after providing appropriate notice to them, releasing contact information as to the individual users. Once the companies receive the contact information, we understand they again try to reach a settlement, and if settlement is not reached, amend the lawsuits to name the identified individuals and proceed in court.

Resources

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