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MPAA Goes After More Bittorrent Site Operators

Just another Coward writes "DSL Reports grabbed a copy of the lawsuit threat letters sent by the MPAA to the bittorrent website owners. This latest document was sent to a Torrent site called 'demonoid.com', which is now offline."

26 of 698 comments (clear)

  1. Color me surprised... by SoTuA · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...it took this long to start.

    Remember the napster trial? Saying "I just post links" doesn't cut much cheese against deep-pocket *AA's lawyers.

  2. They should at least post funny responses... by djeddiej · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should at least post funny responses, like like pirate Bay

    http://www.piratebay.org/frame.html

    Here was a sample response PirateBay sent to Dreamworks

    As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe. Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here. For your information, no Swedish law is being violated. Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of medium, will result in a) a suit being filed for harassment b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for sending frivolous legal threats. It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are (expletive) morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons.
    lol. oh and first post?
    --
    just a web application developer and instructor in Toronto, ON Canada
    1. Re:They should at least post funny responses... by mjmalone · · Score: 4, Informative

      I am not sure about Swedish law, but in most countries simply _signing_ a treaty does not make the treaty provisions legally binding. In the United States, for example, the Congress must pass legislation that conforms with the treat provisions before any of the provisions are _law_. Further, many treaties (like the bullshit international copyright treaties) have a lot of room for interpretation, so very different laws may be crafted from the same basic framework provided by the treaty. International copyright law is enormously complex, and it's not surprising that it would be difficult for a US company to sue a person residing in another country over a copyright related matter, especially if that 'other country' is a country like Sweden.

  3. 66.250.450.10 - www.demonoid.com by nutznboltz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where can I get an IP address like that? :)

    1. Re:66.250.450.10 - www.demonoid.com by mausmalone · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know,... I'm surely an idiot. When I heard it couldn't exist, I just assumed that that must mean that it's a private address or something. I never actually looked to see what was wrong with it.

      BTW, if this lawyer has figured out a way to encode 450 in 8 bits, please tell me so I can make a fortune with compression software :)

      --
      -=-=-=-=-=
      I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
  4. And? by tomstdenis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Last I checked piracy was still piracy. What gives you the right to faciliate piracy?

    It's wrong to draw from this that "MPAA is making BitTorrent illegal". That's just stupid /. pandering.

    What the MPAA is doing is cracking down on people who pirate and help people pirate movies. Big whoop.

    Though I have my own ideas on how the movie studios could save money. STOP PAYING THEM SO MUCH. I mean how many studios are there? A dozen at most? If they all colluded and salary capped the stars to say 50,000$ per movie [give or take] we wouldn't have "multi-million dollar movies" where most of the money goes to the actors and not the actual crew behind the scenes WHO ACTUALLY MAKE IT HAPPEN.

    You think Keano made the matrix? No it was 100s if not 1000s of "much lower paid" crew that did the CG, the sets, costumes, makeup, lighting, cameras, editing, etc...

    I'll never understand how they can get off and say things like "oh the Olsen twins are worth 20 million dollars"... um to who? They're a pair of uneducated no-talent actors who ride their "being twins and decently good looks". Let's see what they're upto in 20 years shall we?

    Same goes for all the other little "artistes". They poperzize their music, everything is staged, etc, then think they're worth a couple million per performance...

    Well hate to break the news to ya little gal and guys. Most people work their entire lives and don't see a couple million. They "earn" a million dollars for a day long shoot then blow it on a rave and some diamonds... Then they have the audacity to wonder why people [other than brainwashed puppet teenagers] despise them... Hmmm... .../rant

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    1. Re:And? by rxmd · · Score: 5, Funny
      Last I checked piracy was still piracy.
      Damn straight! And last I checked, piracy still required a boat of some sorts, rather than a computer.
      --
      As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
    2. Re:And? by Ann+Elk · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Last I checked piracy was still piracy. What gives you the right to faciliate piracy?

      Yes, and murder is still murder, but AT&T is not responsible when someone uses a telephone to conspire to commit murder. IANAL (nor do I want to be), but I would think the "common carrier" laws that protect the phone companies should also protect these sites. But then again, the MPAA has More Money than I, so they are obviously More Right (in the US, at least).

    3. Re:And? by Tom · · Score: 4, Informative

      First off, piracy is still stealing.

      No, it is not and never has been(*).

      Theft, according to the criminal code in my country is defined as:
      "The taking away of a moveable thing owned by someone else."

      Note: "taking away"

      Unauthorized copying is not stealing. It is illegal, but it is not theft.

      If you have any education in logic - and as a geek I simply assume you do - then you know that if your assumption is false, your entire train of argument derails, since it is impossible to get a correct result from a false assumption.

      (*) actually, unless you talk about actual piracy, that thing with the boats and the parrots on the captain's shoulder. That, of course, is stealing.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    4. Re:And? by Long-EZ · · Score: 4, Insightful
      First off, piracy is still stealing.

      No. The truth is, in this context, "piracy" is an emotionally charged word used to make copyright infringement sound a lot worse than it is.

      Piracy involves stealing, raping and murdering innocent people when caught in remote locations where society can offer no protection. Copyright infringement is illegal, and should be punished appropriately. But calling it piracy is ridiculous. So are the ridiculous "you're punishing the gaffers and set builders" propaganda commercials.

      At the heart of this is money, like everything else. this is about the MPAA and RIAA executives making a LOT of money for making the stupid executive decicisions that Michael Eisner apparently makes every day.

      When something is stolen, something is missing. When a copyright is enfringed, the original work remains. Does that help clarify the difference?

      If you call it piracy and stealing, you are a tool of the MPAA and RIAA viral marketing campaign.

      We should all insist on the correct term "copyright enfringement" as society deals with these intellectual property issues. The illegal behavior is being made a lot worse by the RIAA and MPAA who cling to outdated distribution methods to try to maintain a profit margin that is normally only seen in organized crime and illegal narcotics. There are laws against what the RIAA does, and the major companies in the recording industry have all been found guilty of collusion and price fixing. The settlement? After consumers fill out forms and other high-hassle jumping through hoops, they get a discount on their next CD purchase. So, who are the REAL criminals here?

      There is plenty of behavior among RIAA executives and those enfringing copyrights that is both illegal and immoral. I say we start calling the record company executives "rapists".

      --
      >> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.
  5. RE: I'm just waiting for someone to find a way.... by fshalor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    to use google to search for torrents directly.

    --
    -=fshalor ::this post not spellchecked. move along::
  6. This is what happens when... by CodeWanker · · Score: 5, Funny

    people mistake "free exchange of ideas" and "I don't have to pay for it."

    --


    "Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
  7. Somewhat Misleading Title by TrollBridge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It should read something like "Bittorent Site Operators Invite Lawsuits". Seriously, who could have predicted that posting so many links to copyrighted works would draw the ire of the MPAA?

    --
    There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
  8. Filesharing to Fair Use? by saterdaies · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think it's a bit of a pitty because BitTorrent has/had such potential to revolutionize how the internet worked, but in the end it just became a place for illegal file sharing. Everyone talks about filesharing and the terrible things that the RIAA and MPAA want to do to stop it, but they act like illegal filesharing is a good thing - like it is a pious act. The EFF has kept defending it as if they have a righteous cause. Filesharing technologies do have legitimate uses. At the beginning, the EFF was telling the RIAA/etc. to go after indivivuals who were using it for illegal purposes. Now, the EFF has decided that those illegal actions need to be defended too. I think that someone needs to create a movement around real fair use. Nothing more, nothing less. Not stealing and not totalitarian MPAA/RIAA crap. Something that would allow me to use my music in the ways that I should be able to and for a fair price without resorting to stealing. Something that the majority of people in America (and the world) could agree with.

  9. Re: I'm just waiting for someone to find a way.... by wpmegee · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just use filetype:torrent. Not pretty, but it works...

  10. This really Ircs me by F7F7NoYes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, when mp3's became hip, I downloaded them off sources on IRC. Then napster came out and every moron with an aol account was downloading mp3's. Then napster was shut down. Then connection speeds improved and I started downloading movies and apps from IRC. Then Kazaa/Fastrack came out. Then every moron with an aol accound was on Kazaa. Then they started suing said morons that put their email address in. THEN I started using bittorrent to download Linux ISO's, the pirating started with Bittorrent, and before I knew it, more morons with aol accounts were talking about suprnova. Then it died. Meanwhile I'm still on IRC and still no problems.

  11. Re: I'm just waiting for someone to find a way.... by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Informative

    What, like this? You just type "filetype:torrent moviename" into the seach box. Of course, this means that Google will be in violation of the INDUCE act should it ever get passed...

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  12. Re:p2p torrent by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Peerguardian is a joke. When it comes time to sue you, the MPAA or their BayTSP minions will simply use a consumer broadband account to gather the evidence. Duh.

    If we knew every single employee of both companies, adn we have our spies working at all major ISPs on the lookout for those names (and assuming they don't use other names), we *might* be able to have some level of protection. Maybe. That's assuming that "our guy" isn't out sick the say they sign up, or the day that their cable modem gets a new DHCP lease.

    P2p still sits on the internet, and for that reason, it's no safer than anything else. You have to build your own network, and it has to have moderately strong anonymity. Nothing else will work.

  13. The List by theraccoon · · Score: 5, Funny
    Did you happen to see the list of movies they're accused of pirating? Dodgeball, 50 First Dates, and Catwoman, to name a few. How sad.

    I'd hate to be his mom. "You went to jail for WHAT?? Couldn't you have been doing something I wouldn't be embarrassed to tell my book club about, like drugs or attempted murder!?"

  14. Re:frist post by jafomatic · · Score: 4, Informative
    First replier to your post explained the solution, but not so much why. Your bandwidth looks much like mine (Verizon DSL) and it is because of the "a" in aDSL that we would suffer that horrific downstream problem when uploading and downloading at the same time.

    In short, the downstream and upstream share a buffer; if the buffer becomes full (i.e. maxxed out your upload capacity) then both streams will suffer. As the guy pointed out, Azureus (and other clients) will allow you to throttle your upstream.

    In addition to this, you should also throttle your downstream just a bit (in case you are able to max it out, I believe the same problem could arise). I had mine throttled around 90% of each maximum (so about 175KB/12KB) and it worked like a charm.

    As to the memory requirements, you might want to look into how often the client commits its memory cache to disk in order to alleviate this.

    --
    ::jafomatic
  15. Re:Where does it end? by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They're trying for a decapitation attack. It's not going to work long term (any more than shutting Napster down did), but I can see how they'd feel they had to do something.

    Of course, the problem with doing this is a lot like the problem with antibiotics. If you use them too much, the target adapts.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  16. First they came for... by akepa · · Score: 5, Funny

    First they came for Napster
    and I did not speak out
    because I switched to Kazaa.
    Then they came for Kazaa
    and I did not speak out
    because I switched to bit torrents.
    Then they came for bit torrents
    and I did not speak out
    because I switched to ED2K.
    Then they came for ED2K
    and there was no one left
    for the entertainment industry
    to blame for their troubles.
    So they went out of business,
    and now there is only me.

  17. Re:DMCA IS GAY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't use the word, "gay" to mean bad. That's so retarded.

  18. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  19. Raising the bar... by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They're trying for a decapitation attack

    ...not really. They're trying to remove the single-most userfriendly and simply way to get pirated content. They have no illusions that this will stop most filesharing. Remember, that to a common user, it went like this.

    1. Install BitTorrent
    2. Click on link

    They don't really care how it works. There's no ratios, no shares, no slots, no configuration, nothing. And it was fast, at least with popular content (which is, by definiton, what the common user wants). Many of these will find other P2P apps too complex.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  20. Re:Can any swedish lawyers comment? by Lachek · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Pirate Bay is run in parallel with Piratbyran ("the Pirate Company") which is a Swedish organization created to encourage new approaches to IP laws and media culture. They are probably Sweden's foremost champion of P2P file sharing, having participated in numerous national radio and TV interviews and debates, and organizing and sponsoring events related to P2P file sharing and internet media culture.

    If you know Swedish, their site provides you among other things with P2P and IP related news, tutorials on ripping, compressing and distributing media on various P2P networks, papers on how various P2P protocols work, links to articles and research papers on P2P, internet media and Open Source, as well as an entire section on legal matters regarding P2P in Sweden and abroad.

    This is not what I would consider typical "geek fare", although I must say that I would generally lend more credence to a well-informed geek's knowledge of IP law than, say, whatever FUD the **AA happens to be spouting on a particular day.