BREIN

[iAlex]

Stichting BREIN (Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland)
Siriusdreef 22-28
2132 WT Hoofddorp

Datum: 16-09-2010
Betreft: BREIN
Ref.nr.: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dear Sir / Madam,

The BREIN foundation acts against piracy of entertainment content (music, film, computergames and other interactive software) on behalf of rights holders and interested parties such as authors, performing artists, publishers, producers and distributors [1]. Together these rights holders represent the lion?s share of the intellectual property rights on entertainment content worldwide. BREIN takes civil action in the Netherlands against the making available on the internet of files with entertainment content without authorization of these rights holders. In the event that the gravity and extent of the case give cause to it BREIN files a complaint regarding such sites to the relevant authorities for criminal investigation and prosecution.

Through your website you are providing systematic and structural access to content without the authorization of the copyright and neighbouring rights holders. The website is offering a choice of popular titles in the area of film, music, games and interactive consumer software that are published by the rights holders represented by BREIN and which have not been licensed for distribution through your system. By operating that system which facilitates, enables and participates in the distribution of infringing files, you are acting unlawful and violate the copyrights and neighbouring rights of others, including the rights holders represented by BREIN. This causes extensive damage to rights holders for which you and others involved with the management of the site are liable. As you are operating in full anonimity, BREIN and its rights holders at present are unable to recover damages from you and your organization.

Your actions also constitute a crime punishable under Dutch law. In the event gravity and extent so warrant, the public prosecution may proceed with criminal investigation and prosecution. In the course of such investigation servers and administration may be confiscated and suspects of a crime may be arrested and taken into custody. The maximum punishment for (aiding and abetting) professional infringement is 4 years imprisonment or 67.000 euro fine for natural persons and 670.000 euro for legal entities. In addition the prosecution usually claims the proceeds of the criminal activity. At the same time injured parties can join the criminal action in order to obtain damages or file civil action to claim those. With respect to these criminal actions BREIN emphasizes that these too are not theoretical. The public prosecution has announced such actions and has commenced carrying them out, in particular in cases where in spite of warning by or on behalf of rights holders the suspects have persisted in the organising of large scale infringement.

In the interest of and on behalf of the rights holders represented by BREIN and in order to avoid civil action and/or criminal prosecution, we request you and your organization to cease and desist immediately the abovementioned unlawful activities and to provide us immediately with the official name and geographical address of the entity or person(s) providing the website.

mr. B. van Ramshorst
General Counsel
Juridische Zaken Stichting BREIN
tel: 0031 (0)23 799 7870
e-mail: brein@anti-piracy.nl

[1] Participating organizations in the BREIN foundation are amongst others the music authors organization
BumaStemra, the collective rights organization of artists and producers SENA, the Dutch association of producers
and importers of sound and image carriers NVPI, sections Audio, Video and Interactive, the Dutch publishers
association NUV, the Dutch association of film distributors NVF, the international association of American film
producers MPA and the international federation of the phonographic industry IFPI.




What do i do?

iAlex Reviewed by iAlex on 16th Sep 2010. BREIN Stichting BREIN (Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland) Siriusdreef 22-28 2132 WT Hoofddorp Datum: 16-09-2010 Betreft: BREIN Ref.nr.: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Dear Sir / Madam, Rating: 5

[NewEraCracker]

Move to other country

[Mr Happy]

First while in the footer they have listed the email as brein@anti-piracy.nl can you confirm that is the email address it came from. Just want to clarify first that it is a legit email and not someone trying to screw with you.

Who owns the server. Is it you on a dedicated server and just your site or are you a other websites on your server which are warez sites?

If it's just you and your website I'd advise taking the website offline saying your upgrading your server or something as an offline message so as not to worry google, members or visitors. They don't need to know. Then you'll have to look at relocating to another host. Probably in Hong Kong.


It all depends on who owns the server and how much info the company have on you as to what you do or reply next.

[iAlex]

Im hosted on www.wrzhost.com

they use conctact form on vbulletin to send letter to me

[NewEraCracker]

Then it looks like someone is messing with ya.

[Mr Happy]

Ah right your fine so. Just move host to another country. Wrzhost won't pass on your info to Berin so you'll be fine legally. I'd take the site offline as precautionary and start the process of moving to another host or contact Wrzhost and see if they have any Hong Kong hosting and can you do a deal with them to transfer you to it.


You didn't confirm that it actually came from the email address listed. I'm presuming it did.

[iAlex]

happy the email was sent using contact form

[DLow]

@ iAlex

if it was brien they would have got your personal info from your domain registar

[Mr Happy]

happy the email was sent using contact form

Oh shit ya. My bad sorry.

It's most likely fake then. I've no idea how big your site is. If you less than 1000 members then it's definitely fake and I'd just ignore it. No point in replying and drawing attention to yourself. If it was Berin they'd have gone through the host or domain name registrar.

[iAlex]

My forum has 12,000 members