Screen Shot torrent2crazy.com

Here we go again, yet another website that offers copyrighted material for free. According to torrent2crazy.com my book “A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network” has already been illegally downloaded more than 27,000 times (Click on picture to the left to enlarge)! If  that number is correct, it translates into a sales loss of roughly $220,000! I immediately send them a request to remove copyrighted material; they made the conditions for removal very clear, but at least they promise to comply to US law. They also recommend to involve legal counsel to send the request.

However, they ask you to “Note that emailing your complaint to other parties such as our Internet Service Provider will not expedite your request and may result in a delayed response due the complaint not properly being filed.”

After sending the request for removal I found the following:

8 Important Torrent2Crazy Facts!
1. Torrent2Crazy does not host .torrent files in any way, shape or form.
2. Torrent2Crazy links to other independent web pages that do host .torrent files. We have absolutely no control over those pages.
3. Torrent files are simply metadata and cannot be copyrighted, and we don’t host any, nor link directly to any.
4. Torrent2Crazy is similar to Google. Google might sometimes link directly to a .torrent file, we do not.
5. Torrent2Crazy will gladly ban any search queries that may contain links to sites with copyrighted content.
6. Torrent2Crazy respects reasonable copyrights.
7. Torrent2Crazy has a spotless relationship with copyright owners.
8. Torrent2Crazy loves you.

Especially items 1. and 2. got my attention, and the claim is true. The largest illegal distributor of my books is a website, downloadaccess.net, that charges for membership, but not for the actual content. This is apparently an overseas operation, because on their contact form they write: “DOWNLOADACCESS.NET does not comply with the DMCA or any other American laws.”

The full message is:
“If you’re contacting us regarding a takedown notice, please keep in mind that DOWNLOADACCESS.NET does not comply with the DMCA or any other American laws. If you send us a kind mail, you will get a kind response. If you are rude, you will get a rude response. If you send us a DMCA notice or threat us with any American penalties, you will not get any response.”

Screen Shot DownloadAccess.Net - Click to enlarge

Well, I did send a very polite request, explaining I was the author of the book and that I was losing a good amount of money. I can only hope they comply with my request. Since they make it clear that US law does not apply to them, I am at their mercy.

Supplement

I just received an e-mail from DownloadAcess.Net stating: “We don’t host any files or link to any files. It’s not possible to download your copyrighted material by joining our website. All search results are generated from scratch, you get search results for any keyword, fake or not.”

So, the question now is, who is actually offering the downloads they are offering…? If you have any background information, or any similar experiences, please feel free to post a comment at the bottom of this post.

Supplement April 9, 2010

As of today I have not received a response from Torrent2Crazy. However, in retrospective I have to say that the website is absolutely useless, probably does not attract any attention, and has been abandoned by its owners as far as the updating of the site is involved.