203 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
203 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.
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15301 VENTURA BOULEVARD, BUILDING E
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SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA 91403
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[private]
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PHONE: [private]
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E-MAIL: [private]
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VIA E-MAIL
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GitHub, Inc.
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Attn: DMCA takedown
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88 Colin P Kelly Jr St
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San Francisco, CA 94107
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copyright@github.com
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February 29, 2016
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Re: Notice of Infringement for
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https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop
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Dear GitHub, Inc.:
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Thank you for your response to our notice letter dated February 18,
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2016. We understand that our prior notice may not have met each and
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every requirement of your DMCA takedown policy. However, we do not
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believe that this should be the end of the inquiry or the end of
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GitHub’s responsibility. As you know, GitHub’s Terms of Service
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explicitly states that its services may not be used for any illegal or
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unauthorized service, including, but not limited to, violation of
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copyright and trademark laws. See
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https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/. And as we
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have notified you in our prior notice letter, the GitHub project in
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question (popcorn-desktop, and hereinafter the “Project”) is openly
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using your platform to further copyright infringement. We hope you
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agree that GitHub’s responsibility to not knowingly assist in a massive
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copyright infringement operation does not end with its DMCA policy.
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To summarize our prior letter on this issue, the operation and further
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development of the Project is contributing to massive infringement of
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copyrights in motion pictures and television programs. See
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https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop. There are multiple
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“forks” of Popcorn Time, all of which are 100% unlicensed and
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infringing, and many of which have been subject to litigation and court
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orders around the world confirming their infringement. Popcorntime.sh
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is one of the more recent infringing “forks,” and we attached several
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specific examples of that site’s infringement to our prior letter. The
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Project provides to any member of the public the software needed to
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develop and release additional infringing Popcorn Time forks, and
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thereby enables infringement on a massive scale.
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None of these facts are contested in your response. Accordingly, we can
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only assume that GitHub is in agreement that (i) Popcorn Time (including
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popcorntime.sh) is internationally known as an illicit enterprise
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dedicated to facilitating online copyright infringement; (ii) the
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Project hosted on GitHub is designed to allow an unlimited number of
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users to fulfill the unlawful purpose of Popcorn Time (massive copyright
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infringement), and (iii) our prior letter provided you with notice of
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this massive infringement on popcorntime.sh, including by attaching
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screenshots of specific works being infringed.
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Rather than dispute any of these facts – and if GitHub does dispute any
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of them, please let us know in your response – your letter requests “a
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list of URLs to any files that configure the project to access
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infringing material, as well as any specific files or sections of source
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code that you allege contain infringing material or could be used to
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locate infringing material.” As is apparent from even a cursory review
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of the Project (and popcorntime.sh), literally all of the Project’s
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source code “could be used to locate infringing material”—in fact, this
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is its very purpose. This is confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt by
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the Project’s inclusion of code referencing APIs that are specifically
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designed to locate, provide subtitles for and play infringing television
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shows and motion pictures in Popcorn Time forks—for example, the
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“providers” folder
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(https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/tree/master/src/app/lib/providers) contains these three APIs:
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• https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/tvshowtime.js
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• https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/ysubs.js
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• https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/tvapi.js
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In sum, the Project provides the necessary “nuts and bolts” to create
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new Popcorn Time forks such as popcorntime.sh—whose sole purpose is
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copyright infringement.
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* * *
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By this second notification, we are asking again that you remove or
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disable access to the infringing Project’s repositories and all related
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forks in accordance with either 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A)(ii) (DMCA
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“representative list” provision), 17 U.S.C. § 512(i)(1)(A) (DMCA “repeat
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infringer” provision), GitHub’s Terms of Service (which prohibit use of
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your facilities for copyright infringement), and/or based on
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., 545 U.S. 913, 940
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n.13 (2005) (“the distribution of a product can itself give rise to
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liability where evidence shows that the distributor intended and
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encouraged the product to be used to infringe”). At a minimum, we would
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hope that GitHub will follow the express terms of its own Terms of
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Service.
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We are providing this notice based on our good faith belief that the use
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of motion pictures and television programs owned by the MPAA Member
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Studios in the manner occurring via the Project is not authorized by the
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copyright owners, their agents, or the law. The information in this
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notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, we are
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authorized to act on behalf of the MPAA Member Studios, which own or
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control exclusive rights under copyright that are being infringed in the
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manner described herein. This letter is without prejudice to the rights
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and remedies of the MPAA Member Studios and their affiliates, all of
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which are expressly reserved.
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If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone at
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[private], or via email at [private].
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Regards,
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[private]
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---
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MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.
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15301 VENTURA BOULEVARD, BUILDING E
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SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA 91403
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[private]
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PHONE: [private]
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E-MAIL: [private]
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VIA E-MAIL
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GitHub, Inc.
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Attn: [private] GitHub Support
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88 Colin P Kelly Jr St
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San Francisco, CA 94107
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copyright@github.com
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March 9, 2016
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Re: Notice of Infringement for
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https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop
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Dear [private]:
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Thank you for your response and your willingness to take action against
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https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop.
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To clarify up-front, our prior notice letters refer to the DMCA and
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request removal of popcorn-desktop based, in part, on the DMCA’s
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representative list and/or repeat infringer provisions, but they were
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not limited to the DMCA. As we confirmed before, and as you undoubtedly
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know, the entire Popcorn Time project is 100% unlicensed and infringing
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– indeed, it was created and distributed expressly for copyright
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infringement, and has been used overwhelmingly for precisely that
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purpose. Accordingly, in addition to the DMCA, popcorn-desktop violates
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GitHub’s own Terms of Service (precluding use of its platform for
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copyright infringement), as well as the Supreme Court’s decision in
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Grokster (confirming that “the distribution of a product can itself give
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rise to liability where evidence shows that the distributor intended and
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encouraged the product to be used to infringe”). Accordingly, we repeat
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our request that you remove the entirety of popcorn-desktop.
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If, however, you are only willing to consider GitHub’s obligations under
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the DMCA (and ignore its broader obligations under its own Terms of
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Service and under U.S. copyright law as confirmed by the Supreme Court),
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in response to your request for further identification of other “parts
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of the project that configure it to infringe,” in addition to the urls
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identified on our prior correspondence, we identify the following
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additional parts that are most clearly and unambiguously designed to
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find and deliver infringing content to end-users:
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- https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/ysubs.js and https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/development/src/app/lib/providers/ysubs.js
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(providing subtitles for infringing titles used by proven pirate sites)
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- https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/views/torrent_collection.js and https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/development/src/app/lib/views/torrent_collection.js
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(providing content from KickassTorrents (KAT), a notorious pirate site,
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and rarbg, a notorious pirate release group)
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- https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/package.json and https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/development/package.json
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(providing infringing endpoints and allowing for circumvention of
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site-blocking via CloudFlare)
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* * *
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We are providing this notice based on our good faith belief that the use
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of motion pictures and television programs owned by the MPAA Member
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Studios in the manner occurring via popcorn-desktop is not authorized by
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the copyright owners, their agents, or the law. The information in this
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notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, we are
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authorized to act on behalf of the MPAA Member Studios, which own or
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control exclusive rights under copyright that are being infringed in the
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manner described herein. This letter is without prejudice to the rights
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and remedies of the MPAA Member Studios and their affiliates, all of
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which are expressly reserved.
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If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone at
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[private], or via email at [private].
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Regards,
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[private]
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