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Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:17 am
by rknop
I got an email from dmca-agent@sonic.net saying "Sonic has received a notice from a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that your internet account may have been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material."

There was no information about what this was supposed to be, so I have no idea what this was about. The message does say at the bottom that I should disregard it if I believe it was in error, but I'm honestly worried about shutdowns of my Internet service and the like (which would be a disaster, as I work from home 3 days a week).

My questions:

Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit email address that indicates I really got a message from some sonic admin?

Is there any way to figure out *what* I've been accused of doing here, rather than the completely blanket claim that I did something wrong? If, for instance, there's a file up on my web area that shouldn't be there, I want to know *what* it is.

What are my risks here? In the climate of today (and, frankly, the last couple of decades), I'm genuinely worried about my account being shut off on the bases of unsubstantiated accusations.

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:26 am
by fawnandmike
It appears to be - I replied to the email I got this morning asking what files the claim was regarding, and got an autoresponse from sonic.support.

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 2:02 pm
by dane
Check the notice, but generally, these would be related to file-sharing of copyrighted content, likely via Bittorrent. Rightsholders notify us, and we notify customers. If infringement continues, we are required to terminate access. But another significant risk is lawsuit, where rights owners will sue, and this can be very costly.

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 4:36 pm
by rknop
The notice gave no details at all.

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 4:42 pm
by rknop
Is there any due process if you receive another notification? Or do you just cut us off if rightsholder's agents send multiple accusations? What kind of warning will we get?

I would hope that you'd give us a chance to see the evidence and dispute it if it's wrong. But, also, I'd like to know if somebody is piggybacking on my connection. Is there any way I can figure out exactly what I've been accused of?

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 3:22 pm
by dgrogan_richmond
Did you figure this out? I also got a dmca notice today with 0 details. How do I figure out what the infringement was?

The entire message:

Dear Sonic Subscriber:
Sonic has received a notice from a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that your internet account may have been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material.

Use of any services provided by Sonic to transfer copyrighted material is prohibited and repeated infringement may result in termination of your Sonic account. Complete details on Sonic DMCA policies can be found at https://help.sonic.com/hc/en-us/article ... MCA-policy

If you believe this notice has been sent in error, please disregard this message. Otherwise, please discontinue any further infringing activity.

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2023 8:45 pm
by chipdelights
Is there a update on this? What was the outcome , I also received a similar email and I don't have any file sharing on my systems so any help here would be really appreciated as to what do I need to do exactly

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2023 9:16 am
by loherj
Regarding DMCA infringements Sonic does not email you exactly what is infringed upon. The email you receive is the essentially like a warning of the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material. You can call our support team at (707)-547-3400 between 8am and 10pm PST 7 days a week and once we are able to verify your account we can then discuss what caused the infringement. The information Sonic is able to provide is the infringing material and when the infringement occurred.

To hopefully provide some clarification Sonic is not the one making the DMCA claim against you. Sonic is simply passing the claim along to you as we have been notified by the rights owner of the infringement. If you want to refute the claim you would then need to contact the rights owner to do so.

Sonic does not just shut off service with no warning. We provide adequate time and warning's before doing so and put our best foot forward to prevent you from receiving termination of service due to DMCA violations/infringements.

Re: Is dmca-agent@sonic.net a legit address?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:07 pm
by virtualmike
I also received a similar email and I don't have any file sharing...
Note that a lot of DMCA Takedown Notices are generated by 'bots (Google reports over 99% of the ones it receives are fraudulent).

Definitely follow-up with Sonic as Jacob described to get the details of the alleged infringement and see if it has merit.

I've seen anecdotal reports where a video someone uploaded to YouTube that was flagged as a DMCA violation because it was a copy of something the same person uploaded to Instagram.

https://www.dmca.com/faq/I-just-receive ... own-notice
https://www.minclaw.com/dmca-takedown-n ... own-notice
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia ... otice.html