Hi there,

I'm contacting you on behalf of GitHub Support because we've received a DMCA takedown notice regarding your repository https://github.com/xxxxxxxxxxxx/popcorn-desktop.

You can view the notice in the attached file.

In this case only certain files were identified as allegedly infringing. Since it's not possible to disable individual files within a GitHub repository, we're giving you a 24 hour opportunity to remove the content named in the takedown. Please follow the steps in the following article to remove the content from the history:

https://help.github.com/articles/remove-sensitive-data

Once you've done that, please reply to this message to confirm the change. If we don't hear from you that a change is made within the next 24 hours, we will need to disable the entire repository according to our GitHub DMCA Takedown Policy, which you can find here:

https://help.github.com/articles/dmca-takedown-policy/

If you believe your content on GitHub was mistakenly disabled by a DMCA takedown request, you have the right to contest the takedown by submitting a counter notice, as described on the DMCA Takedown Policy page.

PLEASE NOTE: It is important that you reply within 24 hours to confirm whether you have made the requested changes. If you do not, the repository will be disabled.

—

ATTACHED FILE: Please make sure you read BOTH letters for complete information regarding allegedly infringing files.

—

LETTER ONE

MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.

15301 VENTURA BOULEVARD, BUILDING E

SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA 91403

[private]

PHONE: [private]

E-MAIL: [private]

VIA E-MAIL

GitHub, Inc.

Attn: DMCA takedown

88 Colin P Kelly Jr St

San Francisco, CA 94107

copyright@github.com

February 29, 2016

Re: Notice of Infringement for

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop

Dear GitHub, Inc.:

Thank you for your response to our notice letter dated February 18,

2016. We understand that our prior notice may not have met each and

every requirement of your DMCA takedown policy. However, we do not

believe that this should be the end of the inquiry or the end of

GitHub’s responsibility. As you know, GitHub’s Terms of Service

explicitly states that its services may not be used for any illegal or

unauthorized service, including, but not limited to, violation of

copyright and trademark laws. See

https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/. And as we

have notified you in our prior notice letter, the GitHub project in

question (popcorn-desktop, and hereinafter the “Project”) is openly

using your platform to further copyright infringement. We hope you

agree that GitHub’s responsibility to not knowingly assist in a massive

copyright infringement operation does not end with its DMCA policy.

To summarize our prior letter on this issue, the operation and further

development of the Project is contributing to massive infringement of

copyrights in motion pictures and television programs. See

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop. There are multiple

“forks” of Popcorn Time, all of which are 100% unlicensed and

infringing, and many of which have been subject to litigation and court

orders around the world confirming their infringement. Popcorntime.sh

is one of the more recent infringing “forks,” and we attached several

specific examples of that site’s infringement to our prior letter. The

Project provides to any member of the public the software needed to

develop and release additional infringing Popcorn Time forks, and

thereby enables infringement on a massive scale.

None of these facts are contested in your response. Accordingly, we can

only assume that GitHub is in agreement that (i) Popcorn Time (including

popcorntime.sh) is internationally known as an illicit enterprise

dedicated to facilitating online copyright infringement; (ii) the

Project hosted on GitHub is designed to allow an unlimited number of

users to fulfill the unlawful purpose of Popcorn Time (massive copyright

infringement), and (iii) our prior letter provided you with notice of

this massive infringement on popcorntime.sh, including by attaching

screenshots of specific works being infringed.

Rather than dispute any of these facts – and if GitHub does dispute any

of them, please let us know in your response – your letter requests “a

list of URLs to any files that configure the project to access

infringing material, as well as any specific files or sections of source

code that you allege contain infringing material or could be used to

locate infringing material.” As is apparent from even a cursory review

of the Project (and popcorntime.sh), literally all of the Project’s

source code “could be used to locate infringing material”—in fact, this

is its very purpose. This is confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt by

the Project’s inclusion of code referencing APIs that are specifically

designed to locate, provide subtitles for and play infringing television

shows and motion pictures in Popcorn Time forks—for example, the

“providers” folder

(https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/tree/master/src/app/lib/providers) contains these three APIs:

• https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/tvshowtime.js

• https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/ysubs.js

• https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/tvapi.js

In sum, the Project provides the necessary “nuts and bolts” to create

new Popcorn Time forks such as popcorntime.sh—whose sole purpose is

copyright infringement.

* * *

By this second notification, we are asking again that you remove or

disable access to the infringing Project’s repositories and all related

forks in accordance with either 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A)(ii) (DMCA

“representative list” provision), 17 U.S.C. § 512(i)(1)(A) (DMCA “repeat

infringer” provision), GitHub’s Terms of Service (which prohibit use of

your facilities for copyright infringement), and/or based on

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., 545 U.S. 913, 940

n.13 (2005) (“the distribution of a product can itself give rise to

liability where evidence shows that the distributor intended and

encouraged the product to be used to infringe”). At a minimum, we would

hope that GitHub will follow the express terms of its own Terms of

Service.

We are providing this notice based on our good faith belief that the use

of motion pictures and television programs owned by the MPAA Member

Studios in the manner occurring via the Project is not authorized by the

copyright owners, their agents, or the law. The information in this

notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, we are

authorized to act on behalf of the MPAA Member Studios, which own or

control exclusive rights under copyright that are being infringed in the

manner described herein. This letter is without prejudice to the rights

and remedies of the MPAA Member Studios and their affiliates, all of

which are expressly reserved.

If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone at

[private], or via email at [private].

Regards,

[private]

—

LETTER TWO

MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.

15301 VENTURA BOULEVARD, BUILDING E

SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA 91403

[private]

PHONE: [private]

E-MAIL: [private]

VIA E-MAIL

GitHub, Inc.

Attn: [private] GitHub Support

88 Colin P Kelly Jr St

San Francisco, CA 94107

copyright@github.com

March 9, 2016

Re: Notice of Infringement for

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop

Dear [private]:

Thank you for your response and your willingness to take action against

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop.

To clarify up-front, our prior notice letters refer to the DMCA and

request removal of popcorn-desktop based, in part, on the DMCA’s

representative list and/or repeat infringer provisions, but they were

not limited to the DMCA. As we confirmed before, and as you undoubtedly

know, the entire Popcorn Time project is 100% unlicensed and infringing

– indeed, it was created and distributed expressly for copyright

infringement, and has been used overwhelmingly for precisely that

purpose. Accordingly, in addition to the DMCA, popcorn-desktop violates

GitHub’s own Terms of Service (precluding use of its platform for

copyright infringement), as well as the Supreme Court’s decision in

Grokster (confirming that “the distribution of a product can itself give

rise to liability where evidence shows that the distributor intended and

encouraged the product to be used to infringe”). Accordingly, we repeat

our request that you remove the entirety of popcorn-desktop.

If, however, you are only willing to consider GitHub’s obligations under

the DMCA (and ignore its broader obligations under its own Terms of

Service and under U.S. copyright law as confirmed by the Supreme Court),

in response to your request for further identification of other “parts

of the project that configure it to infringe,” in addition to the urls

identified on our prior correspondence, we identify the following

additional parts that are most clearly and unambiguously designed to

find and deliver infringing content to end-users:

- https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/providers/ysubs.js and https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/development/src/app/lib/providers/ysubs.js

(providing subtitles for infringing titles used by proven pirate sites)

- https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/src/app/lib/views/torrent_collection.js and https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/development/src/app/lib/views/torrent_collection.js

(providing content from KickassTorrents (KAT), a notorious pirate site,

and rarbg, a notorious pirate release group)

- https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/master/package.json and https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/blob/development/package.json

(providing infringing endpoints and allowing for circumvention of

site-blocking via CloudFlare)

* * *

We are providing this notice based on our good faith belief that the use

of motion pictures and television programs owned by the MPAA Member

Studios in the manner occurring via popcorn-desktop is not authorized by

the copyright owners, their agents, or the law. The information in this

notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, we are

authorized to act on behalf of the MPAA Member Studios, which own or

control exclusive rights under copyright that are being infringed in the

manner described herein. This letter is without prejudice to the rights

and remedies of the MPAA Member Studios and their affiliates, all of

which are expressly reserved.

If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone at

[private], or via email at [private].

Regards,