Pirate Bay's Response to Warner Brothers' Demand Letter

From: anakata
To: "Dorothy Sherman GrayZone, Inc."
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 13:57:17 +0200
On Wed, 2005-06-08 at 15:35 -0400, Dorothy Sherman GrayZone, Inc. wrote:
> First Notice of Infringement and Declaration

"First Notice of Infringement"? Is that kind of like when I don't pay my
bills on time? "First notice", "Second notice", "Third notice", "WE KILL
YOU!", then a package with the sawed-off head of a pig?

> TO: THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
> Fredrik Neij
> PRQ
> Box 1206
> Stockholm 11479
> SE
> Phone: 46.707323819
> Fax: 46.707323819
> tiamo@prq.se
> info@prq.se

We already know our own postal address - you don't have to inform us of it.

> TO: TFR.ORG
> Tenhults Forenade Rollspelare
> Davidbagares gata 12
> Stockholm 11138
> SE
> Phone: 1.467047954
> tiamo@TFR.ORG
>
>
> REGARDING: http://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=billy+corgan
>
> IMMEDIATELY REMOVE ALL UNRELEASED AND UNAUTHORIZED MATERIAL IN CONNECTION WITH BILLY CORGAN.

IMMEDIATELY STOP SCREAMING. You may also consider not using red, underlined HTML.

> IMMEDIATELY REMOVE ALL TORRENT FILES OF BILLY CORGAN's UNRELEASED
> MATERIAL PLANNED FOR RELEASE ON WARNER BROS. RECORDS, INC. THE
> FOLLOWING LINK AND ALL BILLY CORGAN DOWNLOADS MUST BE COMPLETELY
> REMOVED:
>
> http://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=billy+corgan
> (see below)

Sorry, but I can't remove search.php - our users would get upset if TPB suddenly lacked a search function. The problem here seems to be that the material is unreleased? If that is the case, you can easily fix the problem by releasing it. We'll be more than glad to help you distribute it - free of charge! - to our users.

> WARNER BROS. RECORDS, INC.
>
> I, the undersigned, do solemnly and sincerely declare and CERTIFY
> UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY that:
>
> 1. I am the owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner
> of certain intellectual property rights, said owner being named WARNER
> BROS. RECORDS, INC. ("IP Owner").
>
> 2. I have a good faith belief that the materials identified in the
> addendum attached hereto are not authorized by the above IP Owner, its
> agent, or the law and therefore infringe the IP Ownerÿs rights
> according to the laws of the (check all that apply):
>
> United States
> Australia
> Canada
> EUR
> France
> Germany
> Italy
> Japan
> Mexico
> Netherlands
> Russia
> Sweden
> United Kingdom
> All of the above X
>
> Please act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material
> or items claimed to be infringing.

The material hosted on The Pirate Bay is (check all that apply):
Your copyrighted work
German scheisse-porn
Torrent files X

> 3. I may be contacted at:
>
> Printed Name: Dorothy Sherman
> Title: Consultant
> Company: Warner Bros. Records, Inc.
> Address: 3300 Warner Blvd.
> Burbank, CA 91505
> Attn: Susan Genco, Esq.
>
> Email (correspondence): GrayZone@rcn.com
> Telephone: 212 946-1718
>
>
> You should understand that this letter constitutes notice to you that
> the sale and/or other distribution of this product is unauthorized.
> This letter does not constitute a waiver of any right to recover damages incurred
> by virtue of any such unauthorized activities, and such rights as well as
> claims for other relief are expressly retained.

You should understand that your email and all further communication with
us will be published at http://thepiratebay.org/legal.php , and that we
will charge you for the web publishing and hosting services. Should I
send the invoice to your address above?

> Finally, notwithstanding our use of the required notice form, we
> believe that http://thepiratebay.org 's activities and services fall
> outside the scope of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA").
> Our use of this form, as required by law, is meant to facilitate
> http://thepiratebay.org 's removal of the infringing product listed
> above and is not meant to suggest or imply that
> http://thepiratebay.org 's activities and services are within the
> scope of the DMCA.

We are well aware of the fact that The Pirate Bay falls outside the scope of the DMCA - after all, the DMCA is a US-specific legislation, and TPB is hosted in the land of vikings, reindeers, Aurora Borealis and cute blonde girls.

> I make this declaration conscientiously, believing it to be true and correct, and in accordance with the laws of each of the countries listed above. I am aware and agree that the contents of this statement may be relied upon against me in any court or arbitration proceeding.

So it's OK with you if we bring legal action against you for
a) claiming that we host any infringing files, which we don't,
b) claiming that DMCA has any relation what so ever to the activites of the site, and
c) making my eyes bleed by writing in UPPERCASE, underlined, and red text?

> Fictionally,
>
> Dorothy Sherman
> Digital Signature: Verisign

I fixed the typo for you.