first cut at the dmca-respo...
Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago
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38) <div class="main-column">
39)
40) <!-- PUT CONTENT AFTER THIS TAG -->
41)
42) <h2>Response template for Tor node maintainer to ISP</h2>
43) <hr />
44) <p>Written by the Electronic Frontier
45) Foundation (<a href="http://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>). Last updated 19 Feb 2005.</p>
46)
47) <p>Note to Tor server operators: In this litigous era, anyone
48) providing routing services may face copyright complaints under the
49) Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Thankfully, the DMCA safe harbors
50) provide immunity from many of them -- both to you and to your
51) upstream provider. If your Internet host forwards a DMCA complaint
52) to you, here's a template you can use to write a response. You can
53) tailor this to your own circumstances: if you think your host would
54) be disturbed to hear you're running a server on the network, you may
55) want to take that part out. Of course it's up to you to comply with
56) your ISP's terms of service. If you're not comfortable including so
57) much legal explanation, feel free to invite the ISP to contact EFF
58) for a fuller discussion.</p>
59)
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add clearer disclaimer to t...
Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago
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60) <p>This template letter is for informational purposes only and does not
61) constitute legal advice. Whether and how you should respond when you or
62) your ISP has received a DMCA notice will turn on the particular facts
63) of your situation. This template is intended as a starting point. Before
64) sending any response to your ISP, you may want to seek the advice of an
65) attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.</p>
66)
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first cut at the dmca-respo...
Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago
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67) <p>Also, if you received this document from anywhere besides <a
68) href="http://tor.eff.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html">http://tor.eff.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html</a>,
69) it may be out of date. Follow the link to get the latest version.</p>
70)
71) <hr />
72)
73) <p>Dear [ISP]:</p>
74)
75) <p>Thank you for forwarding me the notice you received from [copyright
76) claimant] regarding [content]. I would like to assure you that,
77) contrary to the assertions in the notice, 1) I am not hosting or
78) making available the claimed infringing materials, and 2) you are
79) already protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ("DMCA")
80) safe harbor from any liability arising from this complaint. The
81) notice is incorrect, probably based upon misunderstandings about law
82) and about some of the software I run.
83) </p>
84)
85) <p>
86) First, in terms of legal liability, this notice does not create any
87) risk for you as a service provider. As you know, the DMCA creates
88) four "safe harbors" for service providers to protect them from
89) copyright liability for the acts of their users, when the ISPs
90) fulfill certain requirements. (17 U.S.C. � 512) The DMCA's
91) requirements vary depending on the ISP's role. You may be most
92) familiar with the "notice and takedown" provisions of DMCA 512(c),
93) but those apply only to content hosted on your servers, or to linking
94) and caching activity. The "takedown notice" provisions do not apply
95) when an ISP merely acts as a conduit. Instead, the "conduit" safe
96) harbor of DMCA 512(a) has different and less burdensome requirements,
97) as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held in RIAA v. Verizon (see
98) <a href="http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/RIAA_v_Verizon/opinion-20031219.pdf">http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/RIAA_v_Verizon/opinion-20031219.pdf</a>)
99) and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed in RIAA v. Charter
100) (see <a href="http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/Charter/033802P.pdf">http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/Charter/033802P.pdf</a>).
101) </p>
102)
103) <p>
104) Here, any content that came from or through my computers merely
105) passed through your network, so DMCA 512(a) applies. Under DMCA
106) 512(a), you are immune from money damages for copyright infringement
107) claims if you maintain "a policy that provides for termination in
108) appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the
109) service provider's system or network who are repeat infringers." If
110) you have and implement such a policy, you are free from fear of
111) copyright damages, period.
112) </p>
113)
114) <p>
115) As for what makes a reasonable policy, as the law says, it's one that
116) only terminates subscribers who are repeat infringers. A notice
117) claiming infringement is not the same as a determination of
118) infringement. The notification you received is not proof of any
119) copyright infringement, and it certainly is not proof of the "repeat
120) infringement" that is required under the law before you need to
121) terminate my account. I have not infringed any copyrights and do not
122) intend to do so. Therefore, you continue to be protected under the
123) DMCA 512(a) safe harbor, without taking any further action.
124) </p>
125)
126) <p>
127) You might be curious, though, about what did trigger the notice. The
128) software that likely triggered the faulty notice is a program I run
129) called Tor. Tor is network software that helps users to enhance
130) their privacy, security, and safety online. It does not host or make
131) available any content. Rather, it is part of a network of nodes on
132) the Internet that simply pass packets among themselves before sending
133) them to their destinations, just as any Internet host does. The
134) difference is that Tor tunnels the connections such that no hop can
135) learn both the source and destination of the packets, giving users
136) protection from nefarious snooping on network traffic. Tor protects
137) users against hazards such as harassment, spam, and identity theft.
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slight rewording of nrl's r...
Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago
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138) In fact, initial development of Tor, including deployment of a
139) public-use Tor network, was a project of the U.S. Naval Research
140) Laboratory, with funding from ONR and DARPA. (For more on Tor,
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first cut at the dmca-respo...
Fix forgotten EFF pages
Updated to point to volunte...