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4) #include "head.wmi" TITLE="Response template for Tor relay operator to ISP"
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10) <h2>Response template for Tor relay maintainer to ISP</h2>

11) <hr>

12) <p>Written by the Electronic Frontier
13) Foundation (<a href="http://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>). Last updated 19 Feb 2005.</p>
14) 
15) <p>Note to Tor relay operators:   In this litigous era, anyone
16) providing routing services may face copyright complaints under the
17) Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Thankfully, the DMCA safe harbors
18) provide immunity from many of them -- both to you and to your
19) upstream provider.  If your Internet host forwards a DMCA complaint
20) to you, here's a template you can use to write a response.  You can
21) tailor this to your own circumstances: if you think your host would
22) be disturbed to hear you're running a relay on the network, you may
23) want to take that part out.  Of course it's up to you to comply with
24) your ISP's terms of service.  If you're not comfortable including so
25) much legal explanation, feel free to invite the ISP to contact EFF
26) for a fuller discussion.</p>
27) 
28) <p>This template letter is for informational purposes only and does not
29) constitute legal advice. Whether and how you should respond when you or
30) your ISP has received a DMCA notice will turn on the particular facts
31) of your situation. This template is intended as a starting point. Before
32) sending any response to your ISP, you may want to seek the advice of an
33) attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.</p>
34) 
35) <p>Also, if you received this document from anywhere besides <a
36) href="https://torproject.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html">https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html</a>,
37) it may be out of date. Follow the link to get the latest version.</p>
38) 

39) <hr>

40) 
41) <p>Dear [ISP]:</p>
42) 
43) <p>Thank you for forwarding me the notice you received from [copyright
44) claimant] regarding [content].  I would like to assure you that,
45) contrary to the assertions in the notice, 1) I am not hosting or
46) making available the claimed infringing materials, and 2) you are
47) already protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ("DMCA")
48) safe harbor from any liability arising from this complaint.   The
49) notice is incorrect, probably based upon misunderstandings about law
50) and about some of the software I run.
51) </p>
52) 
53) <p>
54) First, in terms of legal liability, this notice does not create any
55) risk for you as a service provider.  As you know, the DMCA creates
56) four "safe harbors" for service providers to protect them from
57) copyright liability for the acts of their users, when the ISPs
58) fulfill certain requirements. (17 U.S.C. � 512)   The DMCA's
59) requirements vary depending on the ISP's role.  You may be most
60) familiar with the "notice and takedown" provisions of DMCA 512(c),
61) but those apply only to content hosted on your servers, or to linking
62) and caching activity. The "takedown notice" provisions do not apply
63) when an ISP merely acts as a conduit.  Instead, the "conduit" safe
64) harbor of DMCA 512(a) has different and less burdensome requirements,
65) as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held in RIAA v. Verizon (see
66) <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>)
67) and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed in RIAA v. Charter
68) (see <a href="http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/Charter/033802P.pdf">http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/Charter/033802P.pdf</a>).
69) </p>
70) 
71) <p>
72) Here, any content that came from or through my computers merely
73) passed through your network, so DMCA 512(a) applies.  Under DMCA
74) 512(a), you are immune from money damages for copyright infringement
75) claims if you maintain "a policy that provides for termination in
76) appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the
77) service provider's system or network who are repeat infringers."  If
78) you have and implement such a policy, you are free from fear of
79) copyright damages, period.
80) </p>
81) 
82) <p>
83) As for what makes a reasonable policy, as the law says, it's one that
84) only terminates subscribers who are repeat infringers. A notice
85) claiming infringement is not the same as a determination of
86) infringement. The notification you received is not proof of any
87) copyright infringement, and it certainly is not proof of the "repeat
88) infringement" that is required under the law before you need to
89) terminate my account.  I have not infringed any copyrights and do not
90) intend to do so.  Therefore, you continue to be protected under the
91) DMCA 512(a) safe harbor, without taking any further action.
92) </p>
93) 
94) <p>
95) You might be curious, though, about what did trigger the notice.  The
96) software that likely triggered the faulty notice is a program I run
97) called Tor.  Tor is network software that helps users to enhance
98) their privacy, security, and safety online. It does not host or make
99) available any content.  Rather, it is part of a network of nodes on
100) the Internet that simply pass packets among themselves before sending
101) them to their destinations, just as any Internet host does.  The
102) difference is that Tor tunnels the connections such that no hop can
103) learn both the source and destination of the packets, giving users
104) protection from nefarious snooping on network traffic.  Tor protects
105) users against hazards such as harassment, spam, and identity theft.
106) In fact, initial development of Tor, including deployment of a
107) public-use Tor network, was a project of the U.S. Naval Research
108) Laboratory, with funding from ONR and DARPA. (For more on Tor,
109) see <a
110) href="https://www.torproject.org/">https://www.torproject.org/</a>.)
111) As an organization committed to
112) protecting the privacy of its customers, I hope you'll agree that
113) this is a valuable technology.
114) </p>
115) 
116) <p>
117) Thank you for working with me on this matter.  As a loyal subscriber,
118) I appreciate your notifying me of this issue and hope that the
119) complete protections of DMCA 512 put any concerns you may have at
120) rest. If not, please contact me with any further questions.
121) </p>
122) 
123) <p>

124) Very truly yours,<br>