[tor-relays] Advice on dealing with ISP's response to DMCA takedown notice.

Christopher Jones cpjones at icloud.com
Fri Oct 25 01:10:15 UTC 2013


I’ve been running an exit relay for about 3 days and, sure enough, some BitTorrent bugger caused sh3lls.net to send me a DMCA nastygram:

> We have got the following complain, please remove all illegal torrents immediately from your server:
> 
> Evidentiary Information
> Title: Suits (TV)
> Infringement Source: BitTorrent
> Initial Infringement Timestamp: 17 Oct 2013 22:06:17 GMT Recent Infringement Timestamp: 17 Oct 2013 22:06:17 GMT Infringing Filename: Suits Season 3 Episode 6 (The Other Time) (HDTV x264)-ASAP (1GBps SeedBox).mp4 URL if applicable: 
> Infringing File size: 364405400
> Infringers IP Address: 64.32.14.34
> Bay ID: 7fbb4256bfca558d5a809b9f6536b5fd5e4e782d|364405400
> Port ID: 33788

I followed through with the templates provided by the Tor Project as a response to the DMCA takedown notification. A day later, the ISP sent me this:

> Dear Christopher
> Whether you run Tor or not, we even told you in past, it's your responsibility to stop all abuse
> If Tor is causing it, stop the program Tor on your server, if we get another complain we will have to suspend/terminate your services
> 
> tor always always gets lots and lots of abuse and complains
> 
> Update us within 24 hours
> 
> Thanks

I was never provided with the full text of the original DMCA complaint, so I was unable to respond. Furthermore, I was never “even told…in the past” that I had to stop all abuse caused by Tor. Tor is not singled out in the ToS or AUP. And I was certainly never told anything in the past about abuse and Tor specifically. As I said, first warning. Then there’s the “tor always always gets lots and lots of abuse and complains [sic]”. Which is kind of bizarre, because their position on tor seems a bit cagey. Does the claim about lots of abuse mean they won’t allow exit nodes? Or is that just a “hint” that I’d be better off not trying to run it? 

And this is an ISP I picked from the good list.

Suggestions are welcome. I’m running with the default exit node policy, which should block most of the abuse-laden ports. BitTorrent’s a little harder to deal with. I’ve no qualms working with the ISP to mitigate their concerns, but I’m not sensing their returning the same spirit of cooperation.

.cpj
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