TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Political Discussion / Debate
-- MPAA Enters Piracy Battle: Steps Up Pressure

MPAA Enters Piracy Battle: Steps Up Pressure

I've been loosly watching this story develop for a while. It looks like the MPAA is finally making a strong-arm move to combat piracy. For several years now they have been behind the scenes planning their tactics. The best thing they have going for them is they have been able to watch the RIAA make all the mistakes from the sidelines. The MPAA has been aware of this issue for quite some time.

They are not just taking notice of this. They knew when the whole Napster fiasco unfolded that the file sharing thing would eventually seap over onto their turf. At the time technology wasn't advanced enough to be able to cause a major problem for movies, which are 100000 times larger than mp3s. Unlike the RIAA, the MPAA has had time to plan for this, establish themselves in the key lobby areas, etc. getting themself ready for a major battle. They've already managed to take many people by surprise and push through important legislation. Hold on to your hats kids, this could get ugly.

quote:

From 2003: "These guys are everywhere," said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights advocacy group in San Francisco. "They're pushing their agenda in places we haven't even begun to look at."

quote:

First set of lawsuits filed in November

quote:

Hollywood steps up piracy fight http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/14/new...dex.htm?cnn=yes Major studios announce fresh crackdown on illegal downloads. December 14, 2004: 3:26 PM EST By Krysten Crawford, CNN/Money staff writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Motion Picture Association of America announced a new campaign aimed at slowing the illegal downloading of movies off the Internet. The MPAA, the main lobbying group for Hollywood's major studios, held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to trumpet the latest crackdown, which representatives said included both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions around the world. "We have taken action against over 100 servers in many countries on four continents," said John Malcolm, the director of worldwide anti-piracy at the MPAA. He said steps were taken this week in the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Finland and the Netherlands. The announcement comes one month after the MPAA filed its first batch of lawsuits against more than 200 individuals it accused of stealing movies off the Web. The measures taken this week, however, were not directed at individuals who download movies. Instead, the targets were people who act as conduits between downloaders and three specific "peer-to-peer" file-sharing technologies: BitTorrent, eDonkey, and DirectConnect. These intermediaries provide users with lists of movies, songs and television shows that can be swapped with other users. "This is another category of pirate," said Macolm. "These people are parasites leeching off the creativity of others." Malcolm also said that legal notices have been sent to Internet service providers ordering them to intervene and shut down these middlemen, also known as "trackers," "servers" and "hubs." BitTorrent, the fastest-growing peer-to-peer service on the Internet, and eDonkey together make up the bulk of all peer-to-peer traffic, according to CacheLogic, a Cambridge, England-based market research firm that tracks Web traffic. BitTorrent is especially frightening to Hollywood because it can download movies in just a few hours. And the software is designed so that downloading a film gets easier as more people try to access it. The actions were not directed against the creators of BitTorrent, eDonkey or DirectConnect. Details of the initiative were scant. The MPAA did not dislcose the number of lawsuits filed, whether arrests were made, or the identities of the Internet service providers who received "cease-and-desist" letters. But the announcement follows a decision last week by the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a seminal case that pits the movie and music industries against two other peer-to-peer services, Grokster and Morpheus operator StreamCast Networks. While Malcolm said there was "no connection whatsoever" between the high court's Dec. 10 move and this week's enforcement efforts, the flurry of activity has renewed a debate over whether movie piracy is a problem and, if so, whether anything can be done to stop it. Analysts say that Hollywood does not face the severe crisis that the record industry confronted when the Napster file-sharing appeared a few years ago and music downloads turned into a mass free-for-all. There are several reasons for this, including the enormous amount of time it still takes to download movies and a lack of consumer interest in watching movies on computer screens. For now, reliable data on the prevalence of illegal movie downloads and the cost to Hollywood do not exist. The MPAA itself, which claims its on track to lose $3.5 billion this year to the black market in physical DVDs, does not yet know how much money the industry loses on the Web. The MPAA's Malcolm said Tuesday that the problem of Internet piracy is on par with widespread copying of physical DVDs. In three years, he estimates industry losses from online theft will be "staggeringly high." That is why Hollywood is moving now on two fronts: to use the courts to rein in piracy and to develop technology that, if not impenetrable, at least makes stealing difficult. The industry faces challenges on both fronts. Andrew Parker, chief technology officer of CacheLogic, the peer-to-peer tracking firm, was skeptical that law enforcement tactics can work. He noted that peer-to-peer traffic dropped after the music industry first launched a series of lawsuits against individuals accused of illegal downloading, but that overall downloading has since rebounded. What's more, he said, users have become adept at shifting from one technology to another, which is what he says happened when record companies starting suing users of Kazaa, previously the No. 1 peer-to-peer site. "We saw a sudden shift in usage patterns to BitTorrent and away from Kazaa," said Parker. "A similar thing will probably happen here." But Charles Sims, a New York lawyer who has represented entertainment companies in court cases against peer-to-peer networks, said Hollywood recognizes that litigation is not the panacea. "The (lawsuit) route is not perfect, in the same way that the war against drugs isn't perfect either," said Sims, a partner in Proskauer Rose. "But there's probably less heroine and cocaine out there now than if we weren't doing anything."

Buy your movies. There will be nothing to worry about if you pay for what you know you should - that's just how it all works. Hollywood may 'cheat' people every now and then (Gigli), but the numbers they received in return certainly showed that their cheating was unacceptable. There really isn't any justifiable excuse to steal movies - music can be sampled, but entire movies? C'mon...

i dont have enough HDD space for movies.... that alone keeps me away. oh, and respect

i do download movies, but the good ones and the ones from independant smaller companies i also buy
most of the movies i download are movies that have been in theatres but not yet released
i never go to the movies because i don't have enough money to pay to just see it once
but if it's going to be a movie that, over several years, i'd watch multiple times, then i'll definately buy it

there would be no way for them to combat bittorrent lol. it simply way too widespread.

I watch all movies pirated cause 90% of them i think "wow glad i didnt pay for that" I figure im not stealing because i would have never seen the movies in the first place so they arnt loosing money either way

tonight i watched Oceans.Twelve.SVCD.TELESYNC-maVen.

I wonder how they're going to go about it. Seems to complicated to me.

quote:

Originally posted by vhx1 there would be no way for them to combat bittorrent lol. it simply way too widespread.

There is no way for them to completely shut down file sharing through bit torrent... but oooh yes hey can definately "combat" it. Consider the site Suprnova. If you've used bit torrent you've been to that site. Take a site like that offline and you've made a rather large dent. Then there are other smaller community based sites, some where you have to register to be able to download, and may even keep track of your sharing ratio. For these sites they could take it off line and even file suit against everyone registered! That means YOU go to court. Sure more sites will just pop up in thier place but it looks like the MPAA would be ready and waiting for that to do it over again. Continue doing this and you've got some pretty good regulation going. Like the RIAA finally learned towards the end, you don't have to take everyone to court, just settle outside of court and have them pay 2-3K for all your troubles.

quote:

"The (lawsuit) route is not perfect, in the same way that the war against drugs isn't perfect either," said Sims, a partner in Proskauer Rose. "But there's probably less heroine and cocaine out there now than if we weren't doing anything."

As I said before unlike the RIAA the MPAA isn't going to be stupid about this. They understand what they're up against.

I agree that its a huge problem and things like bt could be shut down easily and keep common users away (kill supernova, or just send out a windows update that kills the prog on execution, but really i think they will just come up with more advanced ways of doing things, i mean look at the scene in the past 3 years... we've evolved from crappy p2p progs to a slew of new "non traceable" progs like bt. I really think that the RIAA and MPAA is there to shut down people who are to lazy to cover their basis, and its sad to say that people want to kill the industries like that.

I am a firm believer in supporting artists/movies/games whatever the situtation may be, if you like it you should be willing to pay for it to see it/watch it or play it. I wish there was a better way for the MPAA and RIAA to get into this and crack down better, but as of right now i just see piracy growing at an exponatial rate.

quote:

Originally posted by Petrogad I am a firm believer in supporting artists/movies/games whatever the situtation may be, if you like it you should be willing to pay for it to see it/watch it or play it. I wish there was a better way for the MPAA and RIAA to get into this and crack down better, but as of right now i just see piracy growing at an exponatial rate.

http://www.movielink.com/

Once you try it, you will go back.

damn thats pretty neat, never seen that site.

Cheers

quote:

Originally posted by mezzir i do download movies, most of the movies i download are movies that have been in theatres but not yet released

The only thing i hate about theaters are the stupid 12 year old kids in a rated r movie that are yelling and screaming the entire time, i wish there was a way to phase these idiots out. Or at the late night shows where you are able to get away from these kids, you have the 21 year olds who just get hammered and ruin the movie, id much rather pay the 7$ (goign rate here for a theater movie) and watch it at home with no distractions from retards.

/venting

cheers

Shutting down the hub sites would lower the use of bittorrent by quite a bit. The good thing about hub sites like suprnova is that (I think) the users are anonymous.

If you're using a register site, you could easily be screwed.

I think anyone surfing these boards has most likely pirated something at some point, so I won't claim that I'm a saint, but I've definitely cut my movie intake down to nothing over the last year, mostly because I knew this was coming. It's not tough either, because there are only so many movies worth seeing, and I go to the movies two or three times a month, so I figure I'm not missing much.

DC on the other hand is a minefield. People warn of hubs created by these agencies that take down your info once you join, and other random stuff. I'm not sure how much of it's feasible, but it's a frightening thought. Have to be careful if you're going to use it.

In related news shareconnector has been shutdown as of Tuesday December 14 2004:

ShareConnector and Relases4U taken down

quote:

ShareConnector and Relases4U taken down Posted 14.12.2004 20:52:52 by Simon Moon in Legal The dutch authorities have taken action against the owners and operators of ShareConnector.com and Releases4U. The details below, in a translation from BadM: (By Laurens Verhagen) Investigation agency FIOD (FIOD-ECD, tax and economic crimes police) closes large edonkey sites Tuesday, december 14th 2004 - After complaints from Brein, the FIOD has seized the server that run the edonkey sites Releases4u and Shareconnector. Tuesday morning the fiscal investigation agency FIOD-ECD seized 4 servers in Rotterdam that hosted the 2 biggest edonkey sites in Holland, Brein has declared. In 9 places a total of 8 people were arrested and 11 computers were seized. Releases4U and ShareConnector offered links to illegal files that were checked for content and quality, especially the latest movies, games, music and other content. Brein had been talking with the people behind these sites for a while now, but these talks yielded no results. "Our patience was up, after which we went to the authorities", says Tim Kuik, director of Brein. According to him this is the first in a series of moves against "services that play an essential role in the exchange of illegal files". These files aren't offered from the abovementioned sites itselfm but are hosted on the computers of the users of p2p service edonkey. "Illegal files in good quality are often hard to find", says Brein. "Not Illegal" The 8 persons were arrested for suspicion of committing copyright infringement and accessory to that crime. SC and R4U offered about 10.000 links to illegal files for about 50.000 registered users, and a multitude of that of consumers. The people behind the sites told Webwereld a while ago that there is nothing illegal about so called ed2k links. The hostingprovider of the 2 sites, Mindlab, earlier refused to take down the 2 sites. "As long as offering these links is not a crime, we will let them run their sites", Zefanja Nafzger declared to Webwereld earlier. Millions in damages The damage of this kind of illegal practice can reach significant amounts, Kuik says. He points out that the owner of the site Film88.com recently was convicted to paying $23,8 million in damages. Brein will hold not only SC and R4U responsible for the damages, but also Mindlab, the provider. Kuik estimates the damages sought to be "several millions (of Euros)". Besides that the OM (prosucutor's office) is likely to start a criminal procedure against the site owners. The maximum penalty is 4 years in prison, according to Kuik. Kuik says that services like SC and R4U hide behind "false reasoning that illegal files are actually hosted on different servers and that the actual exchange doesn't take place on their own servers". "However, it is clear they are the ones responsible for the illegal spreading of these files", Brein concludes. Here the original in dutch: Opsporingsdienst FIOD sluit grote eDonkey-sites Dinsdag, 14 december 2004 - Na actie van Brein heeft de FIOD servers in beslag genomen waarop de eDonkey-sites Shareconnector en Releases4u draaiden. Door Laurens Verhagen De fiscale opsporingsdienst FIOD-ECD heeft dinsdagmorgen in Rotterdam vier servers in beslag genomen waar de twee grootste Nederlandse eDonkey-sites op draaiden, zo heeft Brein bekendgemaakt. Er werden op negen plaatsen in totaal acht aanhoudingen verricht en elf computers in beslag genomen. Releases4u en Shareconnector boden links aan naar illegale bestanden die op inhoud en kwaliteit gecontroleerd zijn. Het gaat daarbij vooral om bestanden van de nieuwste films, videospellen, muziek en andere content. Brein was al langer in gesprek met de mensen achter deze sites, maar deze gesprekken liepen op niets uit. "De maat was voor ons vol, waarna we naar Justitie zijn gestapt", zo zegt Tim Kuik, directeur van Brein. Dit is volgens hem de eerste in een serie acties tegen 'dienstverleners die een essenti�le rol spelen in het uitwisselen van illegale bestanden'. Deze bestanden zelf worden niet via de bewuste sites aangeboden, maar staan op computers van gebruikers van de p2p-uitwisseldienst eDonkey. "Illegale bestanden van een goede kwaliteit zijn vaak moeilijk te vinden", aldus Brein in een verklaring. Portalsites als Releases4u voorzagen in deze behoefte, zo stelt Brein. 'Niet illegaal' De acht personen zijn aangehouden op verdenking van het plegen van auteursrechtinbreuk en medeplichtigheid daaraan. Shareconnector en Releases4U boden ongeveer 10.000 links naar illegale bestanden voor bijna 50.000 geregistreerde deelnemers en een veelvoud daarvan aan consumenten. de initiatiefnemers verklaarden eerder tegenover WebWereld dat er niets illegaals is aan de zogenoemde ed2k-links. De hostingprovider van de twee sites - Mindlab - weigerde eerder de sites uit de lucht te halen. "Zolang het aanbieden van deze links niet strafbaar is, laten we ze draaien", verklaarde Zefanja Nafzger van Mindlab eerder tegenover WebWereld. Miljoenenschade De schade van dit soort illegaal aanbod kan volgens Kuik behoorlijk oplopen. Hij wijst erop dat de eigenaar van de site Film88.com onlangs nog werd veroordeeld tot betaling van 23,8 miljoen dollar schadevergoeding. Brein zal naast Shareconnector en Releases4U ook de provider Mindlab medeaansprakelijk houden voor de schade. Kuik schat de schade op 'enkele miljoenen'. Daarnaast is het aan het OM om een strafrechtelijke procedure te starten. De maximale straf is vier jaar, aldus Kuik. Dienstverleners als Shareconnector en Releases4U verschuilen zich volgens Kuik achter 'drogredenen dat de illegale bestanden zelf op andere servers staan en dat de feitelijke uitwisseling niet via de eigen servers plaats vindt'. "Het is echter duidelijk dat zij verantwoordelijkheid dragen voor de illegale verspreiding", zo besluit Brein.

NOTE TO ANYONE WHO CLAIMS (aka MPAA, RIAA, etc) THAT ED2K LINKS ARE FILES:
ED2K links are just links. Like http and ftp that precedes a web url address, it lets the ed2k network know that you are looking for a certain file on the network and not on the webpage. It is normal text and cannot therefore take any space on a webserver since it is a link.
An e2dk link is a combination link and hashset similar to md5 in nature.

Ouch several millions in fines..4 years in prision ..i wonder if any of the 50,000 subscribers should be worried as well..but referring back to the origional post about how organised the industry is..ive noticed on irish and british tv several lawyers popping up on different tv programmes in recent weeks discussing this..seems like the battle has begun

I used to work in a movie theater, and honestly, I still think there's something special about seeing a movie for the first time on the big screen. Sure there are bad movies out there, but in the off chance its a movie you like, I think its worth the risk to shell out the dough to experience it like it was meant to be experienced.

Though I agree, loud/annoying/crying people in the audience suck, and should probably be given a swift kick to the balls (if applicable).

quote:

Originally posted by josh4 ...Take a site like that offline and you've made a rather large dent...

http://suprnova.org/

It seems you can predict the future?

Don't download movies. You can rent them for cheaply enough.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.