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MPAA Sues Movie-Swappers
aacool writes "The MPAA has filed a first wave of lawsuits against individuals they say are offering pirated copies of films using Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing programs." From the article: "The MPAA said it would also make available a computer program that sniffs out movie and music files on a user's computer as well as any installed file sharing programs. The MPAA said the information detected by the free program would not be shared with it or any other body, but could be used to remove any 'infringing movies or music files' and remove file sharing programs."
Somebody at the MPAA must be crazy if this is true.
So this program, presumably similar to what they use to find movies and music, is actually available to everyone? So, for example, I can "check" "my" drive for any "illegal" music or movies? I've ripped most of my CDs onto my hard-drive. Of course the MPAA doesn't know if I own those CDs (they would have to prove I do not), but I will gladly direct them to the boxes downstairs where I keep all the jewel cases (for the record, since file-sharing, my music purchasing has gone from 1-2 CDs per month to 3-4 CDs per week).
Other people might use the program as "insurance" to make sure they are safe from any one tracking them.
As I don't have anything to hide, I would not mind using that program. Rest assured I would do my best to make sure information isn't being sent somewhere (custom host file? firewall? who knows).
So, my guess is I am the anomaly and would actually not mind downloading that software and trying it out.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Parents!
There have already been well publicised cases of families having to settle with the RIAA because of a child's filesharing activities.
I expect this will be promoted by the MPAA as a way for parents to ensure that their children don't get the family in trouble.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I'm rather interested to see about this. I only use BitTorrent right now; are they tracking bittorrent users as well?
I wouldn't be surprised if they were (BitTorrent is inherently public after all), but I'm wondering what they will do about Japanese anime type of stuff (Since that's the only thing I download these days).
Wake me when they add WinNY to the list. Mind, without user names or IP addresses, and heavy encryption on content, that'll be a bit hard for them.
--- Bwah?
Nope, they have more money and lawyers, so they'll win every court case. That's one of the reasons that these tactics can't work in Canada or other places with a loser-pay system.
If they sued me, I'd find ten lawyers who'd work for the "we'll get paid after the case" idea. Then the CPCC (our equivalent) would have to pay my lawyers.
It doesn't really matter. We pay a fee on all blank media, and in exchange, we can freely download music, software, and movies - legally.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Great. So now this'll just further fuel the movement of the extremely large file-sharers to move to those P2P networks that are completely anonymous, like GNUNet or Freenet.
Couldn't an enterprising individual just "back into" those reference names and rename his files to something that then won't trigger a flag?
No. Renaming probably doesn't help. This software almost certainly searched for files by hash. In fact, some file trading services such as e-donkey actually search for the files by Hash. You can find the Hash from FINDHASH.ORG making it easier to find the movies you want. Not only does this allow you to find the same file which has been renamed several times over by other users, but it also allows you to be sure that the file you are downloading is in fact the file it claims to be.
All the while, sites like FindHash.Org are perfectly legal as they do not contain the files in question, but rather only hashes by which they can be identified.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
How expensive are movies and recorded music? I'm not talking about $8 movie tickets or $20 CDs, I'm talking about Total Cost of Ownership. Suppose some random person had to die every time a new movie was made, or every time a CD was released. Would we value our entertainment enough to tolerate that? What if the RIAA and/or MPAA had to electronically approve every file you saved on your hard drive, and could scan anybody's files at any time?
Helping movie studios and record companies continue to exist in spite of technology that makes it trivial to violate their copyrights does not come free. At some point the cost of these forms of entertainment is too much. How many FBI agents will we need to enforce the technology restrictions the entertainment industry wants to impose? How many more lawyers will we have to support? How much personal freedom will we give up so Hollywood can exist?
At some point you have to cut your losses. I wouldn't go to movies or buy CDs if they were $50 a pop, and I would personally rather live without them entirely than give the people who run studios and record companies all the powers they want, or pay the monetary cost of keeping the system going.
Did anybody else notice this from the bottom of the article?
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
And just below that:
PRINT THIS ARTICLE -- EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
I mean, stupid unenforceable copyright notices are one thing (especially when it relates to an article that is about illegal distribution of copyrighted material) but then they actually include a link to email it on, encouraging people to break their own rules?
What the hell was going through the minds of the designers of msnbc's website they built that sort of functionality?
If the pattern goes 9am, 10am, 11am, why isn't noon 12am?
so how long before ISPs are going to be required to have these programs scan packets going across there networks?
In which case I will encrypt all of my data to a proxy server off shore. That way there's no way in hell my ISP will be able to look at what I am doing, and any file sharing program I use will show me downloading form outside the US.
I really don't see this effecting me, because I can get around it, long enough for the public to wake up, and realize they are getting raped in the ass by big brother and it's buddy, Corporations.
Here's an example. Imagine if Sony put out a CD you wanted and sold it to WalMart for $10. Then WalMart would price it at $12 for the consumer. If you were going to buy the CD but instead pirated it, then there is a loss. Sony loses a theoretical $10 and WalMart loses a theoretical $2.
Now consider if you steal it instead of download it. Now, WalMart has lost an item they paid for. They have a theoretical loss of $2 plus an actual loss of $10. Needing to buy more, they purchase another copy from Sony. Now, it's just like Sony made a sale. Sony loses nothing from this.
It's actually better for the RIAA if you go to a store and steal a CD.
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.