The Dunshelm Players: website news

[DarkComet]

Forgive the double post, but the Drama group now has a Twitter account which will be updated whenever a new play/chapter/commentary is released. It can be found at this shiny link here.

[DarkComet]

Just a quick post to inform you fine folks that the drama group now has a twitter account. Fellow twitterers can now keep up to date on our projects and be the first to know when something new has been added, along with links and the ability to easily spread the love.

[DarkComet]

Along with the new batch of episode commentaries being added, we've retweaked the "Current Projects" page to make it easier to find our newest releases and to possibly get tongues waggling about upcoming stuff. Have a look, why not.

[HStorm]

Right, this is certainly not the most positive news imaginable on the eve of KM's 25th anniversary, but today I've received notification from 4Shared, the File-server we use for sharing the Audio Plays, that our service has been suspended with immediate effect. The reason given is that a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) injunction has been slapped on our material. A company called LeakID is claiming to have copyright on The Dunshelm Players' recordings.

Specifically, and very bizarrely, this DMCA has been placed on the Commentary Tracks recorded by Jake Collins, Rosey Collins, Andy Marshall, Ross Thompson, Ricky Temple and myself. Therefore, for the next few days it will not be possible to download any of TDP's material while I and the other members of the team decide how we should respond.

How LeakID have managed to conclude that the Commentaries have anything to do with themselves is quite beyond comprehension, as the Commentaries are in fact the material on the website that is furthest from breaching copyright; to the best of my knowledge, we have never breached copyright with any of our work, but the Commentaries don't even include sound effects or music in the mix, they're just recordings of a few KM fans talking about a TV show. LeakID is a company with a notorious history of filing triggerhappy false DMCA claims with numerous file-sharing websites.

As far as I can see, therefore, LeakID hath not a feather to fly with, and I expect to file a counter-claim with 4Shared to get the MP3's restored. However, I will not do so without firstly getting the approval of others involved, in case anyone has any objections in advance against getting dragged into any potential legal wranglings. Such concerns are entirely reasonable ones.

For now, the team must delay the launch of the next episode of The Techno-Colour Tales while we discuss our options. Any advice from others on this matter will be welcome and taken on board. We will keep the forum posted on developments.

[DarkComet]

A cursory look into LeakID reveals that they are copyright trolls, possess a limited grasp of spelling and basic grammar, and are douchecanoes of the highest magnitude. I strongly suspect that by jumping through the standard hoops, there will be little to no problem in restoring the files.

DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney, but aspire to be Alan Shore from Boston Legal a few years down the line. James Spader is the boss, yo.

[Alex_Smith]

our service has been suspended with immediate effect.

As far as I know you are absolutely right that the commentary tracks are the furthest thing to a copyright breach. The former stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 set up a website a few years ago where they sell (amongst other things) comedy commentary tracks to popular movies. There's no actual material from the films included so they don't need to get permission, at least that is my understanding of it. The website is http://www.rifftrax.com - it's a commercial company. It is based in America of course, but they sell quite happily to the UK. Surely this can be cited as a precedence if you continue to have trouble with them?

[DarkComet]

Agreed. Also, watch out for snakes.

*awaits a high five from Alex_Smith*

[HStorm]

Okay, I've had no word of any objections from anyone involved, so the counter-notification has now been filed with 4Shared. It usually takes them around ten days to cross the t's and dot the i's.

[Alex_Smith]

Agreed. Also, watch out for snakes.
*awaits a high five from Alex_Smith*

Eeeeeeegah! *high fives*

[HStorm]

To coin a cliche, "Sh*t just got real". Our 4Shared account has been hit by a *second* DMCA, 'quarantining' another batch of our MP3s, and forcing the matter to stretch on for at least another ten days from now.

At present, I am unaware of who has placed this request, although it looks like it is LeakID again. I am now considering whether to take full legal action against them.

[shadow6162]

You are kidding me -_-

[HStorm]

Well, I'm afraid the news refuses to get better. We've now been hit by a third DMCA claim by LeakID. For some reason, 4Shared have made no attempt to resolve the two counter-notifications I filed, nor to re-set our 'copyright count' to zero, and so we've now fallen foul of the 'three-strikes-you're-out' rule, and our account has been closed down.

I still plan to take legal action against LeakID - possibly also against 4Shared as they are not following the rules of their 'Safe Harbour' status - but we are now going to have to try and find another server that we can be confident won't cave in to copyright trolls.

Sadly, this looks like it could drag on for a long while.

[shadow6162]

It's official: I'm a lawyer when I'm older >:D

[HStorm]

Right, the good-ish news is that The Dunshelm Players are semi-back-in-business. Basically, after weeks of banging my head against the wall, it's become very clear that 4Shared are not going to give us our server space back, even under pain of death. I was planning legal action against them for violating their own 'Safe Harbour' status, but after taking advice from a member of the family who is in the legal profession, I decided in the end that life is just too short for those kinds of wranglings over a few fanfics. So instead I've started putting our recordings onto a new server called Tindeck, as recommended by Alec Downs.

So far, all the files for Famous For Retreating, When Five Tribes Go To War, and Green have been restored, and should now be downloadable again (touch wood - I haven't had time to test the links properly yet). I'm afraid the interface on Tindeck is very ugly and messy, but at least some access is now open again. You can access the new download pages the usual way, by going to http://dunshelmplayers.wordpress.com/.

Other old files will be restored over the next few days. There may be problems uploading some of the episode commentaries though, as I do not possess all of them, and at present, 4Shared will not allow me to access the 'quarantine' area they were moved to on their webspace for me to retrieve them. We'll see how that goes.

Work will soon resume on mixing Grey, although I am still awaiting some of the voice recordings for that.

[shadow6162]

That's brilliant! Unless Jennie has magically found a way to send you her recordings, then I'll pester her to get them sorted