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Was the Lokitorrent Suit a Hoax?

kamhp writes "Recently earthreactor.com published an article stating that the whole Loki Torrent suit was a fraud and that it was all staged to collect donations toataling in the tens of thousands then sell the domain. "It seems that the owner of LokiTorrent decided to take the donation money and run, and to cover his tracks, scare the hell out of the entire p2p community. The scare tactic was probably nothing but a decoy to convince intelligent people not to ask the right questions" "

306 of 457 comments (clear)

  1. Class-action lawsuit, anyone? by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If I recall correctly, wasn't there a Paypal donate button? Fairly sure they can find out each and every person that donated to that POS. Glad I didn't give him my $0.02.

    1. Re:Class-action lawsuit, anyone? by One+of+the+abnormals · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you gave $0.02, Paypal would have taken it away in fees anyway ;)

      --

      2b || !2b =?
    2. Re:Class-action lawsuit, anyone? by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh crap, I hope I didn't offend that Macromedia Flash artist I donated to then when I said that was all I could afford..

    3. Re:Class-action lawsuit, anyone? by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter. If the MPAA had a press release, it must be 100% accurate and entirely true!

    4. Re:Class-action lawsuit, anyone? by EkkiEkkiShiwaddle · · Score: 1
      the IP never changed when the 'FILE SHARING IS WRONG' Page hosted by the mpaa came up.

      Why would the IP address have to change?

      If the MPAA had the right to take over the server and get to the log files, why wouldn't they have the right to change the stuff hosted on the server?

      Same server, same IP - different homepage. Or am I missing something here?

    5. Re:Class-action lawsuit, anyone? by Luigi30 · · Score: 1

      Nobody said he didn't give them access to the site's FTP.

      --
      503 Sig Unavailable

      The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
  2. Simple solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shoot him.

    1. Re:Simple solution by ThePDW · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or Lok him and up and throw away the ki! Sorry, I know, that was bad...

    2. Re:Simple solution by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Funny

      Next time don't hit "Submit".

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    3. Re:Simple solution by halivar · · Score: 2, Funny

      >>> Next time don't hit "Submit".

      >> Take your own advice

      > You too.

      You too.

      (I'm sorry! It had to be said!)

    4. Re:Simple solution by UranusReallyHertz · · Score: 1

      Where and with what caliber? THAT is the question! Personally I'd like to see what one of these would do at a close range. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m546.htm

      --
      Smoking is an expensive, slow, and unreliable method of suicide.
  3. example of capitalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've been looking for a good example of pure capitalism to follow. Now I have my new religion :)

    1. Re:example of capitalism by shaitand · · Score: 2, Insightful

      there's a difference?

  4. Does anyone bother checking facts? by nuclear305 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it's such a hoax what exactly do you call this? (Google's HTML Version)

    "The MPAA's efforts to date have resulted in a 40 percent reduction in the number of servers that continue to operate. One such site that will no longer exist is LokiTorrent?one of the largest BitTorrent host servers. The operator of that site, Edward Webber, agreed to not only pay a substantial settlement with even greater financial penalties for any further such actions, but by Court Order must provide the MPAA with access to and copies of all logs and server data related to his illegal BitTorrent activities, which will provide a roadmap to others who have used LokiTorrent to engage in illegal activities."

    The premise of the article is based entirely on the fact that there is no documentation from the MPAA--but indeed there is such documentation. I know we'd all love to believe the MPAA created that release to capitalize on this so-called hoax but no doubt that would be subject to legal action for such blatant lies.

    The article also states "If LokiTorrent.com had been sued in Dallas Federal Courts, then some type of public record would appear. NO ONLINE RECORD APPEARS WHATSOEVER!"

    So...if it's not on the internet, it must not exist right....right!?

    Did anyone bother contacting the MPAA for a comment on the Lokitorrent case rather than providing more fire to the rumor mill?

    1. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Facts? On Slashdot?

    2. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by CanadaDave · · Score: 1

      mod up parent

    3. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Mod down parent! This is Slashdot - this is no place to be posting "facts"!

    4. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by nuclear305 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'd also like to add that I do think something if fishy with the Lokitorrent case--especially the fact that the site is still hosted on the original server rather than actually being taken over by the MPAA.

      I also find it strange that the site up and closed about the same time that donation bar stopped moving.

      In the days leading up to the closure of Lokitorrent, I noticed you had to click through some odd copyright infringement agreement. Not to mention searches for popular movies started resulting in generic messages like "At the request of MAJOR_STUDIO_HERE the search for SEARCH_TERM has been blocked"

      Regardless, rather than spreading rampant rumors people should check their facts and stop relying on anonymous sources and he-said-she-said conjecture.

    5. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Who trusts a site named after the Norse god of TRICKS and MISCHIEF?

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    6. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      mod parent and self down

    7. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by nnnneedles · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Omg slashdot hoax article a hoax! Wait for tomorrows dupe hoax article hoax hoax!!!

      --
      Will code a sig generator for food
    8. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by duffbeer703 · · Score: 1
      "If LokiTorrent.com had been sued in Dallas Federal Courts, then some type of public record would appear. NO ONLINE RECORD APPEARS WHATSOEVER!"


      <p>Cases are routinely recorded in different federal courts to slow down the media's access to them. A case in Dallas could actually be filed in Austin or some other nearby Federal court<p>
      --
      Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
    9. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by SlayerofGods · · Score: 5, Informative

      It does exist on line.
      I'm looking at the docketing sheet right now.
      3:04-cv-02642
      Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc et al v. Edward Webber
      Someone didn't check their facts.
      I would provide linkage but you need an account to view it.
      https://ecf.txnd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl

      --

      Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    10. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Rei · · Score: 1

      Well... it is true that something smells fishy. Here's another article on the subject:

      LokiTorrent Selling to the MPAA

      The basic summary is that LokiTorrent started collecting 30k$ before they were even sued, and then really raised the money after that; yet, these sites make lots of money in advertizing dollars. LokiTorrent claimed 2 million visitors a day; with a 1% clickthrough rate and a payoff of 10 cents per click, that's 2k$/day=$730,480/yr. Even after paying hosting costs, it's quite an impressive sum.

      Sure, it could be legit. Then again, perhaps not. What it comes down to are that the people running these sites are just people, and they seem likely to do what's best for their own interests. And they certainly don't have too many scruples about breaking the law...

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    11. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Otter · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I know we'd all love to believe the MPAA created that release to capitalize on this so-called hoax...

      My first thought was that the MPAA press people may have been working from news reports without bothering to check with their own legal people. (Or that they have multiple legal fronts that aren't fully up on each other's cases.) Wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. The release you mentioned looks pretty informed, though.

      Anyway, if you throw out the hoax conspiracy theory, that still leaves the guy collecting $30K for his defence fund and then folding like a burrito. I'd say that's worth discussing.

      Kudos for your quick fact checking, in any case!

    12. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Sancho · · Score: 1

      I also find it strange that the site up and closed about the same time that donation bar stopped moving.

      That's not so odd, if the purpose of the donation bar was to fund the legal defense. If the bar stops moving, no money is coming in, no funds for legal defense, have to settle. Not too much of a stretch.

    13. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by JudasBlue · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, I think the full quote, is "Facts are meaningless. You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."

      --

      7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

    14. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      And before modding this up, did anyone check this? :)

    15. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by DrJimbo · · Score: 1

      Of course not! We are all training to become corporate media journalists.

      --
      We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
      -- Anais Nin
    16. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I also found this within 10 seconds. Simply go to google and do the following search:
      site:mpaa.org lokitorrent

      It is the first and only article that comes up.

      Considering the amount of comments that people have left without even checking to see if that is really the case or not, this has obviously damaged the reputation of the person in question. The person who wrote the article should be ashamed of themselves, and cmdrtaco should have done the slightest amount of checking before he posted this. This is absolutly absurd, and if the post on the main page is not edited by the time I get home from work, I am going to make a concerted effort to not read slashdot ever again.
      Remember CmdrTaco... In some situations the early bird may in fact get the worm, but in journalism the second mouse always gets the cheese.

    17. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by SlayerofGods · · Score: 3, Interesting

      P.S. I just finished reading the judgement.
      It orders him to pay 1 million dollars in damages and he has to turn over all the logs.
      It also states he isn't allowed to sell the source code for loki torrent.
      Though he wasn't required to turn over the domain name or servers to the MPAA just the logs. So the notice on the website looks to be his own doing?
      If anyone wants me to email a copy to them so they don't have to pay the 64 cents to download and can post it some where let me know.

      --

      Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    18. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by SlayerofGods · · Score: 1

      I can email you a copy of the judgment if you'd like. :P

      --

      Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    19. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by newend · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why don't you just create a torrent of it ;-)

    20. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Check the facts this is Slashdot. We do not need any stinking facts.
      No really journalism is dead. Cable TV and the Internet have killed it. On the plus side the Internet now lets us check our own facts a lot of the time so we no longer have to take the word of a white haired man in New York for the honesty of our news.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    21. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Not to mention that article was written by SharePro. For those of you who don't recall, he was one of the creators of ES5 (Earth Station 5). He promised a p2p app to end all p2p apps, which ended up being released several months later then promised. When we were finally able to use it we realized it was not only a piece of crap but it was also a trojan.

      There was even a slashdot article on it: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/04/18 8219&tid=158&tid=172&tid=185&tid=17

      I would never trust anything SharePro says, he claimed numerous times that his network had millions of users, among other things. All /. did was give his site a spike in hits.

    22. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by nahdude812 · · Score: 1

      My site (lotgd.net) averages about 1.8 million hits a day now. 1% clickthrough would be absolutely positively lovely. Doesn't happen. I make between $5 and $10 per day on advertising, and this is significantly below my cost to run the site. Unless this guy was for some reason getting much better clickthrough rates than I, this probably only served to offset hosting costs.

    23. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by chris_mahan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wonder whether loki was really a giant honeypot...

      Mmm...

      Too sneaky for the MPAA...

      In any case... I think the reverse would be fun. A honey pot for the MPAA. name a bunch of linux files after celebrities names and movie titles. So that they will sue for Independece_Day.exe, Madonna.c, and Eminem.class, bittorented all over the internet.

      Actually, no. I think what needs to happen is that people stop bying movies and music for a month. Pick a month, like July, and advertise the "NO MPAA PURCHASE MONTH", and buy only independents and so on. The press will eat that up as "Public Decries MPAA Tactics, Boycotts DVDs!"

      That, or send letters (on paper) to the President, hum, to your local representative... No, to his political party headquarter, and tell them that the situation is untenable and that you will... Hum, nothing... They don't CARE about you.

      So I guess P2Ping is an Act of Civil Disobedience and thus the Voice of the People calling for Redress from an Oppressive and Corrupt Government!!!

      whew, need to catch my breath...

      Ok, that's better.

      And now, [with my finest british accent:]
      "Gentlemen, synchronize your servers. We attack at oh-six-hundred."

      --

      "Piter, too, is dead."

    24. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Rei · · Score: 1

      Hits or visitors? Looks like your site is an online RPG; I'd imagine that the longer a person spends at a given site, the less likely they'll be to click an ad (even accidentally)

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    25. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 1

      Of course we know this from Stargate. Remember the part, NERDS.

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
      Be yourself no matter what they say
    26. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1
      Hmmmnnnn...

      I'd never even heard that this abortion was commited to film stock.

      Mask of Loki? It looked so Polynesian in the Cary movie - where, I believe, the world was introduced to the 'acting' of Cameron Diaz.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    27. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1
      Oh... I go all the way back to Steve Ditko and Jack Kerby - with Stan "the Man" Lee.

      THOR comics!

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    28. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by SlayerofGods · · Score: 1

      It's a pdf file....

      --

      Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    29. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by brokencomputer · · Score: 1

      Can you email it to netbeans@gmail.com

    30. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by dreamword · · Score: 5, Informative

      I downloaded PDFs of the complaint and the judge's order from PACER. They're definitely real, and they're linked from my blog:

      http://www.joegratz.net/archives/2005/02/24/lokito rrent-lawsuit-no-hoax/

    31. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Satertek · · Score: 1

      If it was not a hoax, he would have returned the money. Simple as that.

      The article also makes the point that the lawsuit was never filed, making whatever documents coming from the MPAA, irrelevant.
      (It would seem that they settled outside of court)

    32. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Fnkmaster · · Score: 5, Informative

      Seeing as I have an account on the PACER system already set up, here's the case summary:

      3:04-cv-02642 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc et al v. Edward Webber
      David C Godbey, presiding
      Date filed: 12/14/2004
      Date terminated: 02/16/2005 Date of last filing: 02/16/2005

      Case Summary
      Office: Dallas Filed: 12/14/2004
      Jury Demand: None Demand:
      Nature of Suit: 820 Cause: 17:501 Copyright Infringement
      Jurisdiction: Federal Question Disposition: Judgment - Judgment on Consent
      County: XX US, Outside State Terminated: 02/16/2005
      Origin: 1 Reopened:
      Lead Case: None
      Related Case: None Other Court Case: None
      Def Custody Status:
      Flags: CLOSED, COPYRIGHT, RAMIREZ

      Plaintiff Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc ...
      (followed by contact info and list of other movie studios, presumably all the MPAA members).

      The last document filed in the case is a "Consent Judgment and Permanent Injunction", signed and dated February 8th 2005. The guy's attorney signed it on his behalf, and apparently Mr. Webber *AGREED* to pay a million dollar judgement to the plaintiff - there was no trial ever held. I have to assume there is some side agreement that waives the financial agreement if he complies with their terms and plays nice or something like that, as I'm presuming this guy doesn't just have a million dollars to throw at the MPAA.

      Oh yeah, and the Consent Judgment states that the defendent waives any and all right to appeal the Judgment, to have it set aside, or to obtain a new trial. So I don't understand how this guy claims he was going to put up a legal fight when it sounds like he rolled over like a fifty cent whore.

    33. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by CrackHappy · · Score: 1

      OMFG!

      I never thought someone would bring that old door back to life!

      I used to run it on my Maximus BBS back in the day... amazing.

      Congratulations on such a successful site, and good luck in the future!

      --
      1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
    34. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by The+Only+Druid · · Score: 1

      When they say 'no online record', they're likely referring to the fact that neither Westlaw nor Lexis - the two companies employed by every legal organization in the country - have any record of such a lawsuit in their files (which are available online to those of us who have accounts).

      --
      "Stumble before you crawl"
    35. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by John+Hurliman · · Score: 1

      I can put it up online, e-mail is jhurliman (at) wsu.edu

    36. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Storlek · · Score: 1

      No need to set up any fake-pirated-movie honeypots; the MPAA is already sending out enough frivolous legal threats to random websites for no apparent reason as it is.

      For example: Scene.org got a copyright infringement notice a while ago claiming that a 62kb file supposedly contained an entire season of a television series. (What's funniest about this is when they sent the notice, the file wasn't even downloadable because it was still in /incoming!)
      Linux Australia was the recipient of a similar notice about a couple of movies that they never had, Grind and Twisted. The files in question were Valgrind and Twisted Matrix.

      --
      Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
    37. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by WoBIX · · Score: 1

      The cool thing is he can pay for his defense with the proceeds from the defamation lawsuit he can launch against the (alleged) moron who wrote the article.

    38. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by mindsuck · · Score: 1

      God no, your site already destroyed my life and now that I have it back you just had to pull me back in?

      Why? Oh! Why?

      *cries and stuff* *sigh* *plays lotgd*

      --
      --- I w00t, therefore I'm l33t.
    39. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by lullabud · · Score: 1

      Is it just me or is every month "NO MPAA PURCHASE MONTH"? You gotta walk the walk, folks. The problem is that not all folks walk the walk, and that ruins the effect.

    40. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      It's Norse! and funny, too!

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    41. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Skepparn · · Score: 1

      actually.. Scandinavian, since loki and the other Asa-gods we're the gods of the vikings, who ruled the entire scandinavia. :)

      --
      ... Disclaimer: I barely know how to Read, please dont expect me to spell right!
    42. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by eratosthene · · Score: 1

      Dude, the whole argument was about the fact that there is no MPAA lawsuit. The suit you're looking at does not, in fact, involve the MPAA in any way. RTFA, man, it talks about the fact that a bunch of individual corporations, like Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., got together and sued him without the MPAA's interference. Therefore, any reference to the MPAA suing LokiTorrent.com is a falsehood, as they were not actually involved in any suit. Or at least that's what the article says, whether or not it's the truth is another matter.

      --
      -- There, everybody likes a gorilla.
    43. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      You kids with your funny keybörds...

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    44. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by tehwebguy · · Score: 1

      this is a pretty big development. it seems that his donations weren't so much a legal defense fund, but a settlement fee fund. a million dollars is nothing to the mpaa. they were only after the logs. the million dollar amount was just to scare the poop out of guys like us who can't afford it. with those logs, given the success of john doe trials, will land any number of downloaders in court!!1 webber sold potentially thousands of downloaders out. gg mr. webber, ggkthxbye

      --
      -- lol pwned
    45. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by xgamer04 · · Score: 1

      The press will eat that up as "Public Decries MPAA Tactics, Boycotts DVDs!"

      There's a problem here. Nearly all media companies in the USA are owned by the MPAA/RIAA member companies.

      --
      When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
    46. Re:Does anyone bother checking facts? by chris_mahan · · Score: 1

      Sarcasm...

      --

      "Piter, too, is dead."

  5. Remember what LokiTorrent was? by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...There's no honor among thieves.

    --
    Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
  6. What did you expect? by October_30th · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Intelligent people"? What else did you expect when you're dealing with people whose stated goal is defending against a blatant case of copyright infringement in court.

    Where can I find these intelligent people? I have a bridge to sell to them...

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
    1. Re:What did you expect? by Reignking · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think that the bridge is in Project Entropia. You can use it to get to the $25000 island.

      --
      One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
    2. Re:What did you expect? by _KiTA_ · · Score: 1

      Lokitorrent's operator did not violate anyone's copyright. He empowered someone else to, which may or may not be illegal. No actual file data, other than a hash, was stored on loki's servers.

      It's like someone shooting someone with a gun. Do you arrest the guy at K-Mart who sold him the gun?

    3. Re:What did you expect? by brouski · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's more like doing a line of coke.

      Do you arrest the guy at the corner who sold him the coke?

      --
      Proud member of the American Non Sequitur Society. We might not make much sense, but boy do we love pizza!
    4. Re:What did you expect? by _KiTA_ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, beacuse in your anaology, the person selling him the coke directly GAVE the guy his illegal material. Lokitorrent did no such thing. A closer anaology is "Would you arrest the guy who told the crackhead where to find the drug dealer?"

      I wouldn't go to jail for telling someone where to buy crack. Legally speaking, just knowing where to get an illegal substance is not in itself illegal.

      Get it right. Lokitorrent has not touched any illegal files. Thus, They have done nothing illegal. Merely data hashes, which are perfectly legal, and a database of IP Addresses, which is also perfectly legal.

      The ??AA is on extremely shakey ground, they know it, and that's why they're bullying people into submission instead of daring to let it actually get to court.

      That's also why they are so desperate to push laws through that would make just owning a copy of Bittorrent illegal. They can't sue every user downloading, they can't sue the trackers (because again, they're legally in the clear), so they're abusing the legal system while they try to make the mere idea of trading files illegal.

      All of them were completely caught with their pants down on digital delivery systems and are trying desperately to put the genie back in the bottle until they can figure out a way to make sure they're the only ones making a profit at it. Well, we all have news for them -- it's far, far too late for that.

    5. Re:What did you expect? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 1
      It's like someone shooting someone with a gun. Do you arrest the guy at K-Mart who sold him the gun?
      Probably nor, nor would I think prosecuting the tool vendors (ie Bittorrent authors) is reasonable in this case.

      However, Lokitorrent is not distanced from the activity as the Kmart guy above is, it is actively involved in the process. To continue you analogy, Lokitorrent is akin to a guy who kept reloading the shooters weapons with more ammo while he was shooting.

      Lokitorrent didn't just "empower" people, it actively assisted them during the actual commission of illegal activity.

      The only defence to that would be that the were unaware of what was happening on their site and that is completely implausible.
      --
      Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  7. the question is by myukew · · Score: 1, Interesting

    why has nobody noticed for such a long time?

  8. OMG! by RaboKrabekian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Purveyors of Bittorrents can be unscrupulous?! WTF!! Where's the honor amongst thie^^^^H content aggregators!?

    --
    "Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
  9. of course he could cover his tracks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    because in teh internet ur anonymus & supr leet.

    1. Re:of course he could cover his tracks by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 1
      The article link redirects to this:
      Your account has been suspended. We have sent you an email explaining why. This email should also contain information on how you can unsuspend your account.

      So I'm guessing you can only stay "5upr l33t" for so long...

      --

      I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

    2. Re:of course he could cover his tracks by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 1

      Or, until you realize that you just posted your comment to someone else's comment for the wrong article. Damn you, Firefox tabs!!

      P.S. Original comment was intended for the "DRM of Silence" article. Now if you'll excuse me, I shall crawl to a corner in shame...

      --

      I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

  10. This is disgusting by Virtual+Karma · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its disgusting as to how some people make money by stealing from the very people who decided to help them out. I'm yet to do my research on the authenticity of this news bit.

    1. Re:This is disgusting by anonicon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Its disgusting as to how some people make money by stealing from the very people who decided to help them out. I'm yet to do my research on the authenticity of this news bit."

      As you and many of your preceding posters are testament to, you will fly half way around the world with a lie or rumor before bothering to check to see if it's actually true.

      It appears this rumor is false, but you /could/ take a moment to actually check it for yourself.

    2. Re:This is disgusting by pclminion · · Score: 1

      Imagine that, the owner of a site with the primary purpose of facilitating massive copyright infringement takes off with people's cash? Shocking!

    3. Re:This is disgusting by Virtual+Karma · · Score: 1

      Well.. what i wrote was my view on such a issue. I also wrote that i'm not sure about the authenticity which means i wanted people to research the topic and not believe it as it is (i guessed that it must be a rumor). And the post that you linked (which proves that it was indeed a rumor) was not yet published when i started writing my post. I'm sorry if I aired the rumor

    4. Re:This is disgusting by bonch · · Score: 1

      You're right. Loki should have just stayed online, letting people not pay for content they would have otherwise have to legally pay for. That would be the moral thing to do.

    5. Re:This is disgusting by Leo+McGarry · · Score: 1

      Ow! My irony gland just exploded.

  11. I wouldn'y be surprised by Ossus_10 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think its smart knowing that the MPAA or RIAA will come after you next and just cut your losses and quit there. I think its really decietful to claim you are being sued to raise money so you can live in the Carribbean. A mixture of knowledge and deciet. He sounds just like a corporation.

    1. Re:I wouldn'y be surprised by rob_squared · · Score: 1

      Evil is getting more efficient. What once required a corporation now only needs an individual.

      --
      I don't get it.
  12. So it was a hoax? by yosemite · · Score: 1

    Just goes to show, you can't cheat an honest man.

  13. Article Text by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    LOKI TORRENT LAWSUIT :: A HOAX
    Written by: SharePro

    At the end of December 2004, the RIAA and MPAA began an international rampage in efforts to close down major bit torrent and ed2k file sharing sites.

    Some sites like Suprnova.org, Youceff.com, ShareTv.com, and others went down without a fight while other sites, including ShareConnector and Releases4U were closed down by authorities.

    The lawsuits set off a wide spread of panic and dismay within the p2p community as many of the veteran ed2k and torrent contributing societys soon found themselves "homeless" and their works "confisquated" by investigative authorities.

    During the turmoil, one such MPAA targeted Bit Torrent site claimed it was willing to stand up against the evil powers of motion picture media thugs by fighting the legal issues in a court of law. LokiTorrent.com began accepting donations from the p2p community to support what they called "necessary legal fee's".

    According to a Slyck.com - January 3, 2005 (Slyck.com promoted people to donate to Loki Torrent), within two weeks (5 days public) of announcing their fund raising campaign, Loki Torrents was only $710.00 dollars away from reaching their initial goal. At the time of writing Slyck.com's initial article, Loki Torrent claimed to have raised an impressive $29,290.00 from the p2p community.

    Today, just weeks after the initial Slyck.com interview with Edward Webber, owner of LokiTorrent.com, the entire p2p file share community is back in turmoil.

    Quote:
    A) Are the logs of Lokitorrent.com in the hands of the MPAA?
    B) Where is the money that was donated to the legal fund?
    C) Can P2P'rs who uploaded / downloaded torrents be tracked down via the logs.

    The above and more were the initial questions most p2pr's had in mind when news broke that the MPAA had gained control of Loki Torrent.

    As the writing of this article began to gain momentum, many inconsistencies began arising that clearly show that Lokitorrent is not in the hands of the MPAA (At least not because of a court order), nor we're the owners fined a million dollars.

    1) LokiTorrent never provided the name or details of any lawyer representing the internet site. No federal judge's name has been listed anywhere throughout the so-called proceedings. Texas courts have no record of any filed judicial proceedings on behalf of the MPAA against Loki Torrent and/or Ed Webber.

    2) During the same period of time that Loki was making tens of thousands of dollars monthly via donations, the owners of Loki Torrent were also actively trying to sell the domain. LokiTorrent.com for Sale :: Sedo.com

    In effort to convince p2p'rs to continue donating and not to believe Loki's intent to sell, this is what the owner published in his defense:

    Loki Torrent's Selling on Sedo.com :: Explanation
    Quote:
    If some guy offers me $75K for the domain name, he's more than welcome to it, and I'll simply move the site to a different domain. Selling the entire site will never happen. I have way too much of myself in this site to sell it for any price (well, 2 million could get me to part with it, lol.. but let's live in reality).

    3) The only reports of this so-called "law suit" are based entirely on the front page of the LokiTorrent.com internet site. The MPAA and Texas Federal Court list no public record of a lawsuit nor is the MPAA or the courts willing to back up Lokitorrent claims of being ordered to hand over webserver ip logs and pay a 1 million dollar penalty. J. Borland of News.com (and other related news resources) apparently based their entire news articles by information received directly from Mr. Ed Webber (the owner of LokiTorrent.com). This information was received by calling Mr. Webber directly at telephone number (207) 752-3481.

    4) Was LokiTorrent ever actually sued by the MPAA? According to the initial reports published via various websites, most people were led to have believed that the

    1. Re:Article Text by Kaorimoch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wonder if the author wrote the original article with his tin foil hat on or without? At least he can't be accused of being a journalist, they actually research their stories before writing them. This one is loaded with potholes.

      The name of the lawyer is Charles S. Baker
      http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pirac y11feb1 1,1,1373904.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

      The post further up detailed where it was mentioned in court.

      If it was a hoax, why is he using his name to register all these domains? Why did he run so many torrents and have so many features on the site? Why would the MPAA, an organisation already denigrated by many net residents, blatantly lie in its press release?

      It was already found within an hour of the site becoming an MPAA ad that everything was still being hosted on lokitorrent servers. Is this evidence of wrong doing, or MPAA cost cutting? Besides, with all the PeerGuardian users around, they would have MPAA IP blocks and would not have seen the ad if it was hosted on MPAA servers.

      Point 6 is pretty dumb. Apparently the site is hoax because they didn't announce the name of the webmaster they were suing....um, duh, isn't Ed Webber the webmaster? And isn't the MPAA going after tracker sites at the moment to shut them down?

      I'd say he was running a website, saw he was going to get into trouble and decided to find ways to profit.

    2. Re:Article Text by Reene · · Score: 1

      The fact that the person who wrote this can't even spell simple words and use proper grammar is enough to motivate me not to take anything they have to say seriously.

      Ridiculousness avails.

      --
      "He does look a bit Oompa like, even if his Loompa is a bit off-kilter."
    3. Re:Article Text by Macadamizer · · Score: 1

      Not only is the spelling waaaay off: "Dallas courts have no presidence..." but the words are wrong as well. Should be "jurisdiction" not "precedence..."

      --

      "That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
    4. Re:Article Text by Reene · · Score: 1

      When they tout themselves as a source of reliable information, yes, I expect them to have a grasp of english better than that of your average middle schooler.

      The foreigners comment is also based on false premises. Many..no, make that all of the foreigners I know speak better english than most of the native speakers I know. I imagine it has something to do with how they're taught the language in the first place.

      And it's pretty easy to spot the difference between someone who's just stupid/lazy and someone who is inept at the language they're speaking. So don't give me that crap.

      --
      "He does look a bit Oompa like, even if his Loompa is a bit off-kilter."
  14. There's no honor among thieves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Bit torrent sites are set up to help people steal other people's property (C'mon, like you go there to get Linux distros or other GPL'd stuff) making this scam kind of funny.

    "Bast*rd took my money!" - Should have used that money to buy the stuff you downloaded to begin with.

    1. Re:There's no honor among thieves by malfunct · · Score: 1

      Actually the only thing I've ever downloaded via bittorrent is linux distros. Thats not to say that I'm the average case though.

      --

      "You can now flame me, I am full of love,"

  15. Here's an idea by Donoho · · Score: 2, Funny

    Find 'em. Beat the living shit out of 'em. Post torrent with play by play pics.

    If done correctly, everyone that donated shoud feel they at least go their money's worth ^_^

  16. Why all this indignation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Why all this indignation?

    Could someone please tell me why are you all acting so shocked every time a torrent gets shut down? Are you saying that music and movies should be traded freely? IF so, can you tell me where's the profit in that? No movies or music (worth of publishing, anyway) would be published if there wasn't any profit in it.

    1. Re:Why all this indignation? by H4d0k3n · · Score: 1

      Volume, that's where the profit is. Volume.

    2. Re:Why all this indignation? by GNUALMAFUERTE · · Score: 2, Interesting

      IMO, Artists should be able to live from their art. That's one thing. IMO, Information, including art, should be Free (as in Free Speech).

      It would be WRONG to not pay artists. It would also be wrong to deny people they legitim right to accesss art.

      So, we need a solution in which the artist gets paid , and the people get the content they diserve.

      For example, people is free to do whatever they want to music. The artist sells disks. Those that want to help the artist, and also receive the disk with a nice poster, lirycs, etc, buys the disk for a reasonable price. The artist also charges for tickets for they concerts, interviews, merchandise, etc.

      And there is no MPAA/RIAA/Sony/Other-Bloodsuckers in this history.

      --
      WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
    3. Re:Why all this indignation? by swab79 · · Score: 1

      I think music and movies born out of passion and love of making beautiful art are much more appealing than those made for profit.

  17. Doesn't make sense! by WizardRahl · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If people have SO much money to donate why didn't they just buy the stuff instead of paying Lokitorrent so they could steal it.

    1. Re:Doesn't make sense! by pavera · · Score: 3, Insightful

      because you can't "buy" all episodes of all tv shows, that is the main thing my wife looks for on torrent sites, you can buy some really popular shows, but most you can't buy.... so how else are you supposed to get the content?

    2. Re:Doesn't make sense! by Reckless+Visionary · · Score: 1

      you're supposed to "watch" the tv show on tv

      --
      I think I'll stop here.
    3. Re:Doesn't make sense! by duffbeer703 · · Score: 2

      VCR, Tivo...

      Nobody said life was convenient. If my car is in the shop and I need to get somewhere, I can call a cab or take a bus. I cannot steal my neighbor's car.

      --
      Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
    4. Re:Doesn't make sense! by obotics · · Score: 1

      Well, what makes you think you have a *right* to that content? If it is not available, then you can't get it. Is that necessarily such a bad thing?

    5. Re:Doesn't make sense! by EggyToast · · Score: 2, Interesting
      That's what most people's arguments are for TV shows, and why most TV execs, rather than necessarily sueing everyone, are looking into DVR alternatives, pay-for-content services, and other setups that will give people what they want to see, when they want to see it, and the creators/publishers still get some money out of the deal.

      If you look at the most popular downloaded shows, they nearly always correspond with the most popular sold DVDs. Those two things are directly related -- people want to see the show, and are often more than happy to go out and buy the content when it's available for a decent price

      Of course, that same reason is why unavailable media (stuff you can't buy anyway) or "edited content" are still heavily pirated -- people who own, say, one particular version of Bladerunner are probably quite interested in seeing the alternate version, if only temporarily, so instead of renting (if they're able to find the version at all), they'll head to the internet. I see a similar reaction to most people when they talk about TV shows.

      Similarly, look at the fansub/anime community. "Piracy" is rampant, but the groups will stop distribution of a series when they are released in their respective countries and they will often be purchased by fans. They're a good example of something that's otherwise unavailable being pirated until it becomes available, at which point peopel are happy to pick them up.

      There will always be exceptions, but I personally find the TV people a lot more realistic about piracy, digital media, and access to content compared to the RIAA and MPAA groups. TV shows include like 6 hours of basic content in a release and costs just a little more than a comparable movie, not to mention a bevy of special features including multiple commentary and other crap.

      TV shows are one of the most common pirated media, but TV DVDs are also one of the fastest growing markets. The fact that TV people realize that means good things for consumers. When record and movie people realize that, I think we'll be better off.

      (personally, I'd be very excited for a movie studio to set up a "drm'd torrent" site of their own, that let people download movies and watch them for free, but only keep them on their harddrive for, say, a week, after which point they're deleted automatically or rendered unplayable. And you're unable to download more movies if your share ratio goes below a certain percentage. It would probably curb piracy significantly as well as encourage people to both watch more movies and purchase movies that they like)

    6. Re:Doesn't make sense! by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "because you can't "buy" all episodes of all tv shows, that is the main thing my wife looks for on torrent sites, you can buy some really popular shows, but most you can't buy.... so how else are you supposed to get the content?"

      Wouldn't it be interesting if all this demand had proper supply?

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    7. Re:Doesn't make sense! by FunWithHeadlines · · Score: 1
      "My neighbor makes the best apple pie. Problem is she doesn't sell it and stopped giving it out. So the only way for me to get it is to break into her house and steal it."

      Sorry, that's, uh, apples and oranges. With the pie, you deprive your neighbor of a physical object that can only be in one person's possession. With a torrent of a TV show, you aren't taking anything physical from anyone. It was broadcast over the air for anyone to see freely. Lots of people taped it, and legally shared the tape with their friends. A torrent of the same is no different.

    8. Re:Doesn't make sense! by globalar · · Score: 1

      Obviously, copyright provides no right to purchase.

      Being a regulated monopoly, IP doesn't always play well with market demand. The problem is a monopoly provides some facility to distort the market. Divided among a million independent owners this is largely ignored, but aggregated into a large pool of assets it can be fully manipulative. The sponsors of the RIAA/MPAA manipulate the market and thereby attempt to manipulate you.

    9. Re:Doesn't make sense! by isorox · · Score: 2, Funny

      Imagine what would happen if the copyright holder of Happy Birthday just woke up one day and forbid anyone from singing it again?

      They did I believe, hence the song in futurama is

      #What day is today?#
      #It's nibbler's birthday#
      #what a day for a birth day#
      #lets all have some cake#

    10. Re:Doesn't make sense! by Macadamizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "legally shared the tape with their friends"

      No, they didn't -- there is nothing legal about sharing tapes made of TV shows. It's okay for YOU to tape something, but it is not okay for you to distribute that tape...

      --

      "That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
    11. Re:Doesn't make sense! by FunWithHeadlines · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I disagree. It's illegal to sell the tapes to others, but there is nothing wrong with saying to your friends, "C'mon over, I taped Battlestar Gallactica. We'll watch it and hang out. Oh, you can't make it today? OK, here, take the tape and we'll talk about the show afterward."

      It's a freely available program. It wasn't PPV.

    12. Re:Doesn't make sense! by crabpeople · · Score: 1

      You think VCR's and tivo make you exsist in some little ethical loophole?

      bwahahaha

      tivo is exactly the same as downloading a file. unless of course you dont strip the comercials from shows...

      if torrents of TV shows werent there, i wouldnt watch tv shows. I wouldnt suddenly go out and buy a TV/cable subscription. If I wanted to watch tv i would go to a friends house. Am i stealing from someone because i watch my friends tv?

      --
      I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
    13. Re:Doesn't make sense! by gwoodrow · · Score: 2, Interesting

      so how else are you supposed to get the content?

      Well, if you're not gonna watch it on TV and you can't/won't buy it - then... um... that means you AREN'T supposed to get the content.

      It's not yours, and you have absolutely no reasonable inherent claim to it. You pirates need to come to terms with the fact that the world doesn't revolve around you and you can't always get what you want your way. I learned that when I was 5 years old.

    14. Re:Doesn't make sense! by Eskarel · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Well first of all, not selling something to someone who wants to buy it is just plain moronic.

      Secondly it's debatable as to whether we have an inherent to this content. Copyright law exists(or at least existed) to provide a financial insentive to content creators so that more content would be created to benefit the population as a whole, if you can't get hold of the content then what's the point of subsidizing its creation(which is essentially what copyright does).

      Why bother promoting the creation of content if the creators won't distribute it. There should be a stipulation in copyright law that if I want to buy it you have to sell it to me(preferably at a preset price), because otherwise there isn't any purpose to having copyright law in the first place.

    15. Re:Doesn't make sense! by exegesis+clique · · Score: 1

      No you wouldn't steal your neighbors' car. That would morally wrong. However, if you could make an exact COPY of your neighbors car and drive it to work while your car is in the shop, whats the harm in that? Oh yeah the car manufacturer wouldn't get money from that car. But wait, the car manufacturer would never have gotten that money from you anyway, I mean, why would you buy a car that your only going to use for two days?

    16. Re:Doesn't make sense! by duffbeer703 · · Score: 1

      I can't build a high-quality copy of my neighbor's car, so I'd rather just borrow his. I wouldn't be stealing the neighbor's car, just sharing it.

      What's the big deal or ethical dilemma? I have to go to work and my neighbor's car is just sitting there.

      --
      Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
    17. Re:Doesn't make sense! by gwoodrow · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's moronic that the owners refuse to sell something that people want to buy. Still doesn't give you the right to just take it.

      This statement made me laugh out loud:
      Why bother promoting the creation of content if the creators won't distribute it. There should be a stipulation in copyright law that if I want to buy it you have to sell it to me(preferably at a preset price)

      A demand for a product isn't a good reason for people to be required to sell something. That's just ridiculous. What if I wanted copies of some "personal" pictures/videos you'd made with your wife/girlfriend? If there were such a stipulation in copyright law, then I would have a RIGHT to purchase a copy of your private sexual recordings because they'd be covered under the same umbrella.

      Stop and think about things more thoroughly before you say them. To this day I have still not heard a single good argument for piracy. The majority of the arguments can ultimately be simplified as "I want it entirely on my terms, not on the terms of those that produced the work. But since they won't provide things to me on my terms, I'll just take it because I'm a spoiled brat who has to have everything my way even at the expense of other good hardworking people."

      As I said in my previous posts in this and other threads - it's not yours, and you have NO inherent rights to it. Just because the other party is being stingy or stupid doesn't give you the right to make your own rules.

      Sorry. The world doesn't revolve around you.

    18. Re:Doesn't make sense! by Eskarel · · Score: 1
      I'm not saying piracy is ok, I'm not saying it's not ok either, what I am saying is that the way that copyright law is currently implemented goes very much against the idea of why it was created.

      I will say it again, COPYRIGHT AND PATENTS WERE DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO CREATE THINGS FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD, THEY WERE GRANTED A SHORT TERM EXCLUSIVE MONOPOLY IN EXCHANGE COPYRIGHT WAS NOT DESIGNED TO CONTROL CONTENT IN THE LONG TERM.

      If ideas never make into the public domain(which seems likely) or if the monopoly is used to prevent access to the knowledge then it is providing no value to the public and need not be protected. The whole idea of copyright was to encourage people to create and invent so that it would benefit not only me, but you and everyone else.

  18. 21st century existancialism by Scrameustache · · Score: 5, Funny

    So...if it's not on the internet, it must not exist right....right!?

    I can be googled, therefore I am.

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

    1. Re:21st century existancialism by double-oh+three · · Score: 2, Informative

      You must mean Existentialism

      --
      "For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
    2. Re:21st century existancialism by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      Which does not the reverse prove -- A->B does not necessarily imply B->A.
      Thus "I can be googled, therefore I am" does not imply "I am, therefore I can be googled."

      I know you were merely making a joke, but I was looking for an excuse to post something today.

    3. Re:21st century existancialism by Kaeva · · Score: 5, Funny

      If people like Paris Hilton have taught us anything it's that the original declaration of "I think, therefore I am" also does not work in reverse...

    4. Re:21st century existancialism by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      I can be googled, therefore I am.

      Me Too.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    5. Re:21st century existancialism by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      I can't be googled

      Yes you can.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    6. Re:21st century existancialism by Black+Copter+Control · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can be googled too, but I'm just an AI program attempting to pass the turing test.

      --
      OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
    7. Re:21st century existancialism by phant0m_niX · · Score: 1

      In the words of the great Keanu Reeves "Whoa"

      --
      oh where oh where has my signature gone.. oh where or where can she be?
    8. Re:21st century existancialism by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1, Funny

      Given that your posting was moderated as informative, I guess you passed the turing test :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    9. Re:21st century existancialism by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      Results 1 - 10 of about 28 for existancialism.

      "existancialism" can be googled (barely, but still) therefore it is.

      So there. :)

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
  19. Re:Freeloader's of the World unite, by Virtual+Karma · · Score: 1

    Tough luck friend. You need to hit that submit button faster

  20. Clairify that comment,plz by TiggertheMad · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Are you taking about Lokitorrent or the RIAA?

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:Clairify that comment,plz by Rei · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now that you mention it, both, :)

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    2. Re:Clairify that comment,plz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And you do understand that cliche's are not the same as, for example, laws of physics?

      Most of the people I swap warez with are folks I'd trust my life with.

      If you're gonna pick cliche's, can I suggest 'one bad apple' or 'don't put all your eggs' or 'why buy a cow when the milk is free' or any of a dozen others?

      Anyone that donates to a sob story risks learning it is not exactly the truth. Oh, wait... that's 'dont judge a book'.

      Oh, and $30k for loki, vs. several billion for the usury and evil IP lockup of the entertainment industry. Ignoring the argument that I wouldn't risk my rep for 30k, tell me again who's a thief here? I liked someone's remark elsewhere that maybe we should add a new meme to the game: if we're thieves, they're rapists.

    3. Re:Clairify that comment,plz by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > Most of the people I swap warez with are folks I'd
      > trust my life with.

      Clearly you are not a developer.

      I support open source projects because I want to give the dishonest big guys a kick in the nuts. I have no desire to actually behave in a similar manner.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  21. RTFA's Comments by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a link to the related press release on the MPAA's website.

  22. The MPAA will be interested + 3 steps to profit! by javaxman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone found a business model to get pirates to pay for content!!

    Step 1) set up torrent site
    Step 2) claim MPAA takedown
    Step 3) collect money from torrent downloaders, then run away and PROFIT !!!

    The process probably can't be repeated too many times, though... do you figure they made more money than they would have through advertisements ? I'm guessing they did...

  23. Anyone got a copy? by thebra · · Score: 4, Funny

    The site is blocked for "sexuality" by websense. Thanks

    1. Re:Anyone got a copy? by jdludlow · · Score: 1
    2. Re:Anyone got a copy? by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      The site is blocked for "sexuality" by websense.

      My best guess is it reported the LokiTorrent owners to have fled to Scunthorpe.

      In all seriousness, sites about Scunthorpe *have* been blocked by filters in the past.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    3. Re:Anyone got a copy? by natet · · Score: 1

      No, I think it is due to all the links to pr0n sites on the page.

      --
      IANAL... But I play one on /.
    4. Re:Anyone got a copy? by purple_cobra · · Score: 1

      The Xbox version of Dead or Alive 3 (UK, Classic edition) won't allow particular obscenities in its high-score table, or words containing those obscenities. Curiously, 'shitkicker' is allowed while 'scunthorpe' is not.
      This knowledge was obtained after a long 'celebration' at a local public house. :)

      (Test it out; I've since sold the game so I can't double-check the information. The non-acceptance of 'scunthorpe' is a definite though.)

  24. LokiTorrent users pwned... by Lovepump · · Score: 2, Funny

    OK, so many, many LokiTorrent users coughed up cash to the owner of the site. I've no problem with that, and the owner of the site looks to have come out of it for something like 30K.

    Seems fair enough to me.

  25. slashdoted by remember_to_log-off · · Score: 1

    the sites dead already!

  26. Lokitorrent + PayPal + Illegal Downloads + Hoax by loggia · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can we add a Nigerian email to this story, please?

    1. Re:Lokitorrent + PayPal + Illegal Downloads + Hoax by Phil246 · · Score: 2, Funny

      ok :)
      i would have put it all in caps to increase authenticity but slashdot doesnt seem to like it :/

      hello friend,
      i have recently come into possession of THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, unfortunately due to legal costs from the evil empire of the MPAA i require your help.
      I am willing to pay you 33% of the balance, TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in thanks for letting me tranfer this balance out of texas through your bank account.
      I require your bank details and all the information you can give me about yourself as a reply.
      Many thanks for helping me
      your friendly nigerian email con artist

      hows that? :)

    2. Re:Lokitorrent + PayPal + Illegal Downloads + Hoax by FunWithHeadlines · · Score: 5, Funny
      "Can we add a Nigerian email to this story, please?"

      My most esteemed colleague,

      I find myself so grateful in the knowledge that such persons as yourself exists and are willing to add such value to group conversations. I myself have been such a man, and it warms my hear to deal with a fellow man of honor.

      It grieves me to say that such conversations are threatened by those who would profit from misfortune. I speak specifically of the president of my country who has forbidden the same. It is not easy in these troubling circumstances, but rest assured that I have powerful friends who are in a position to help. They lack on the means to a vast sum that can free up all such conversations. I know a professional man such as yourself will be in a position to help free my country from such dire matters, and reap a huge reward for your troubles.

      I am contacting you because of a business concerning a huge sum of money from a deceased deposit in the Security and Finance company where a colleague of mine works in the Netherlands. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. I actually decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

      I shall be compensating you with 30% of the total money while 10% will be for any expenses incurred the rest will be mine on final conclusion of this project. Please note that your share stays while the rest shall before me for investment purposes.

      If this proposal is acceptable by you, do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you, I await your urgent mail. Please reply to my private and confidential email.

    3. Re:Lokitorrent + PayPal + Illegal Downloads + Hoax by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      Dude, that's so blatantly a rip-off. Where are the gross misspellings? Random capitalizations? Dr. Sven Olafgusten? I call shennanigans!

    4. Re:Lokitorrent + PayPal + Illegal Downloads + Hoax by cowboy76Spain · · Score: 1

      Dear Mr CowboyMcNeal:

      My name is Zambeze Nile. As chief of intelligence of the late and loved president Laurent Kabila, I have come in contact with the current address of the owner of the LokiTorrent site. Having heard of his delictive acts and of the outrage that they have caused to the honest, law-lover members of the Slashdot (/.) community, I would like to help you to bring him to the justice, by sending some of my best men to capture him.
      Unfortunately, due to the precarious state of the country, our department can not afford the cost of the operation. So we ask you to use the paypal button that comes with this e-mail to help to provide us funding for the salaries, travel tickets and legal help (if any) for my men.
      Please distribute this e-mail as widely as possible to make quicker to send that thief to justice.

      Yours sincerely, Mr. Zambeze Nile.

      Let me state that the more generous you are, the quicker you will get to recover the floating TWENTY MILLIONS DOLLARS ($20.000.000) that exists in every Nigerian bank.

      --
      Why can't /. have a rich-text editor? Editing your own HTML is so XXth century.
    5. Re:Lokitorrent + PayPal + Illegal Downloads + Hoax by lilmouse · · Score: 1

      No, no, no:

      My most esteemed colleague, ...

      I am contacting you because of a business matter concerning my late father. He ran a hoax lawsuit to gather monies from Lokitorrent, but then passed away due to unfortunate circumstances involving MPIAA thugs and illegal downloads. He put his money into a paypal account...

      How's that?

      --LWM

  27. slashdot gets pwned again... by bani · · Score: 5, Informative

    quoting from this mpaa press release:

    "The MPAA's efforts to date have resulted in a 40 percent reduction in the number of servers that continue to operate. One such site that will no longer exist is LokiTorrent -- one of the largest BitTorrent host servers. The operator of that site, Edward Webber, agreed to not only pay a substantial settlement with even greater financial penalties for any further such actions, but by Court Order must provide the MPAA with access to and copies of all logs and server data related to his illegal BitTorrent activities, which will provide a roadmap to others who have used LokiTorrent to engage in illegal activities."

    took all of like 3 seconds to find this.

    in keeping with the usual /. tradition of journalistic excellence, we'll probably see this same "story" reposted several times in the next few days.

    1. Re:slashdot gets pwned again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      According to that statement, Webber still owns the website but has given MPAA (by court order) permission to view its logs. Its most likely that the MPAA is currently combing through the site checking logs, and so it is temporarily closed.

      If so, this whole earthreactor story is misleading...

  28. So does this mean our user data is safe by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

    I have on often used lokitorrent in the past to get some TV shows that i enjoy(I'm living in Germany )
    and are not available or are dubs only on German TV ,So this doesn't really effect me.
    however i have spoken to many users who were far more worried about the fact that they could be taken to court soon.
    If this was all a hoax then i know a lot of people who will be in equal measures overjoyed and enraged

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  29. Slashdot hasn't the time to rationalize! by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 1

    We must shoot first and ask questions later!

  30. Loki was a front for the MPAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    I heard the loki torrent site was a front for the MPAA to defraud piraters out of money by convincing them to donate.

    As the saying goes, I sleep with gay guys but the jokes on them because i'm not gay!

    1. Re:Loki was a front for the MPAA by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 2, Funny
      All that would do is prove that customers are, in fact, willing to pay for the 'right' to download movies and the MPAA is willfully refusing to respond to that market (and related revenue source).

      On the other hand, if the site were put together by (or with the blessing of) the MPAA then anybody downloading movies via it would have been legal.
      Bwahahahahahahahah!

      --
      Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
  31. I hear that. by gandell · · Score: 4, Funny

    I mean, if I were paying a thief, I'd expect him to be honest with me.

    --
    Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
    1. Re:I hear that. by pilgrim23 · · Score: 1

      "To the Egress" -P.T. Barnum

      --
      - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  32. Re:Wow by ArmchairGenius · · Score: 1

    Yes it is fraud - wire and mail fraud. There would also be potential RICO exposure too.
    And perhaps there are other claims to be made too.

  33. Re:I wouldnT* be surprised by dauthur · · Score: 1

    What's the real "scare" here though? It's just a drop in the bucket for Torrent sites, and the only way they could turn themselves from a drop in the bucket to a nuclear blast was to make everyone believe that their world was going to end. I almost donated the last $5 I have in my PayPal, but I realized that the MPAA probably wouldn't really sue them. Call it intuition, but something told me that the MPAA wouldn't take action, seeing as how the MPAA can't catch absolutely everyone, namely a bunch of anonymous people running a Torrent site.

  34. I have a hard time trusting people by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 1

    That go around sticking "You can click but you can't hide" images on sites. I know that's authentic, but there's a chance the MPAA most likely feels it can post false articles as well. It's all about scare tactics for them. They should figure, "Why not?"

    1. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by xiando · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is a great illustration of how the MPAA fail to acknowledge reality. BitTorrent and other protocols who allow evil corporations like MPAA to find your identity are already drawing their last breaths, these are on the way out. They are currently being replaced by I2P, Freenet and other systems who allow users to anonymously share what ever they want. By attacking their customers instead of providing real alternatives (I have yet to find a site where I can legally download movies and view them on my Linux-based entertainment system) they simply encourage peer to peer systems who allow users to participate free from prosecution threats.

      MPAA, you are wrong. It is possible to hide. And your idiotic attacks on the general public will only make the systems where this is possible more popular. I have said this numerous times, users want to use simple peer to peer system to acquire movies. This is because divx is the preferred format, p2p is the preferred way of delivery. If there was a way to just enter the movie title of any movie and pay $5 or something for the right to do so, then most p2p users would pay that sum. Allow free distribution, allow fair use, and most importantly: Provide ways of paying for your products...

    2. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by jericho4.0 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You and the poster above seem to have missed the point of the article. The "You can click but you can't hide" page was posted by the owner of likitorrent, who was not sued, and did not 'settle'.

      --
      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
    3. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by shaitand · · Score: 2, Informative

      Divx sucks, nobody has used that crap in a long time. If you use compressed content then xvid is current. Since DVD burners have gone sub $100 and 3mbit connections are common, actual dvd-r images are becoming vogue. You are a couple steps out of date. ;)

    4. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by Celestial+Avenger · · Score: 1

      What? Christ man, who am I supposed to believe? It's like there's a large case against both sides on this. Which side is lying MORE, however?

    5. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1
      actual dvd-r images are becoming vogue

      Yeah, when that becomes common,watch out MPAA. Even I might be tempted to download a few movies that way.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    6. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by dougmc · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Divx sucks, nobody has used that crap in a long time. If you use compressed content then xvid is current
      Divx 4+ and Xvid are basically the same thing, both implementations of the ISO MPEG-4 standard (note that there are many other coding formats that use this same standard.) Differences between the two are very small.

      If you use compressed content then xvid is current. Since DVD burners have gone sub $100 and 3mbit connections are common, actual dvd-r images are becoming vogue.
      Hopefully you already realize this, but DVD (even the ones you buy at the store with movies on them) are compressed too. Quite heavily, in fact -- at 30 fps, 720x480, 24 bits/pixel, a 2 hour movie works out to 209 GB of data, and that doesn't even count any audio tracks. This huge amount of data is compressed down to fit on a 9 GB DVD.

      Fortunately, the algorithms used are good enough that it's not usually noticable. (Note that I said `not usually' -- there are certainly cases where you can notice the compression artifacts.)

      If you want video that's not compressed, get a Video Disc player. They're analog, though some do have a CD quality digital soundtrack. Or a VHS tape deck.

    7. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by TCM · · Score: 1

      at 30 fps, 720x480, 24 bits/pixel, a 2 hour movie works out to 209 GB of data

      Raw DVD data is 12 bits per pixel.

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
    8. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by CryoPenguin · · Score: 1

      Raw DVD data is 12 bits per pixel.

      Only after they throw away the other 12 bits, which is just another step in the compression process.

    9. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Outside the studios our masters ARE dvd's, since this IS our original when someone in file trading refers to a compressed movie it means further compressed from dvd.

      If you want to get really anal then any conversion from analog to digital is lossy compression. Divx 4 and Xvid implement the same standard but they are drastically different implementations. The biggest difference between them is the level of control you have access to in the encoder.

    10. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by larytet · · Score: 1
      BitTorrent and other protocols who allow evil corporations like MPAA to find your identity are already drawing their last breaths, these are on the way out
      Project i develop tends to answer the problem and recently i released first beta version

      From http://larytet.sourceforge.net/rodiAnonymity.shtml :
      Rodi uses UDP packets for both data and control messages; such as search. It can be argued that the source IP of any packet can be faked and the traffic log can not be regarded as proof that a specific host sent the packet. Let's say that adversary sends a data request to specific IP address and receives a reply - a packet containing some other IP source and the data. The Publisher of the data can argue that the data request was handled by some other node. In the real network we can bounce data requests but data transfers can still be P2P. This is very Important! We use conectionless protocol like IP. In case of IP it's enough to specify correct destination IP for data delivery. All retransmission requests are routed through the network.

      Bouncers. Let's call the publisher server P, downloader D and some other peer B (bouncer). Let's assume also that the protocol is IP based. P never accepts data/look requests directly from D. D sends the packet to B with it's (D's) source IP in the IP header and in the "get data" request. B forwards the packet to P with B's IP address in the IP header. P receives the packet and conditionally checks that the IP source in the header is (or is not) the same as in the request and then may check that the source IP (IP of B) belongs to friendly host (group security server, for example). P sends data directly to D.

    11. Re:I have a hard time trusting people by larytet · · Score: 1
      ...more from the same web site http://larytet.sourceforge.net/userManual.shtml#Le sson%2010.0

      Imagine that you knock a door and from window of house across the street you get a glass of milk. You never know who stands behind the door and you never know how many phone calls are made to serve you the milk. This is more or less how Rodi network operates. You send IP packet to the range of IP addresses (you knock many doors on the street using correct knock pattern - Rodi protocol) until you find out the IP destination (the right door).

      You send IP packet like GET DATA request to this IP address and you recieve IP packet containing requested data from some other IP. you do not need to know what IP address the data arrives from (and it's useless actually) as far as it contains request ID you initially sent (right knocking pattern), authentication of the publisher (see Post IP page) and data with correct MD5.

  35. Hmmmm... Loki..... by PHAEDRU5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Norse god of, among other things, practical jokes.

    Hmmmmmm....

    --
    668: Neighbour of the Beast
  36. phishing for Geeks... by werelord · · Score: 1

    How to phish geeks:

    1) become an illegal distributer of content
    2) get sued by the industry that the target(s) hate (or at least despise)
    3) Collect donations for your legal defense
    4) run like hell..

    In a way, it does kinda seem like a prince of (insert third-world country) trying to smuggle cash thru your bank account etc etc...

    1. Re:phishing for Geeks... by whitis · · Score: 1


      Another possibility

      1. Become illegal distributor of content (whether it really should have been illegal and wether the operator of the central site should have been held responsible may be open to debate)
      2. Receive a credible threat to sue from MPAA
        (other posts substantiate that this must have occurred)
      3. Raise money for "legal defense"
      4. Settle out of court for an amount you can't possibly pay to avoid being actually hauled into court
      5. Take he money raised to cover the cost of exercising the cut and run "legal defense" - relocate to another country where you won't have to pay the damages you agreed to pay



      Some of the contributors may have been willing to donate money for a cut and run but if he had honestly explained what the money was for he would have been prevented for doing so.



      Another variation on this doesn't involve a cut and run. Perhaps $30,000 was the settlement amount. In this case, his "legal expense" was the cost of settling which was almost certainly less than the cost of paying lawyers (not even counting the cost of paying damages after losing the case).
      It is also quite possible that he intended to fight in court but later realized that he did not have the resources to do so.



      Now what is likely to upset donors is that they thought they were donating not merely to get the site operator out of hot water but to actually fight the industry in court. Fighting in court has the possibility of setting precedent against the industry if you win thereby benifiting the community or at least, if you lose, making it more trouble for the industry to pursue their agenda than if you just bend over.


  37. Claims against what exactly? by lxt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like so many here, IANAL - but how exactly would you mount such a case?

    "Your Honour, I used this website to knowingly violate copyright law, and then gave the owner of said site some money in the belief it was in order to defend a case against him, and therefore keep the site up. I want my money back, because no such case existed".

    Response:
    "So, you gave money in exchange for the possibility of continued use of an illegal service"

    It would be very, very hard to argue that you gave money without previously using the site to download illegal material, or that when you parted with your money you had no hope at all it would result in the continued usage of the illegal service LokiTorrent provided.

    1. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Reignking · · Score: 1

      It would be very, very hard to argue that you gave money without previously using the site to download illegal material

      What does that have to do with fraud?

      --
      One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
    2. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Jhon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since the donations were requested to help fight a legal battle on the grounds that the **PA were misusing copyright law, or the law itself was flawed, I think the argument would be different than you lampoon.

      Many people believe that the law is wrong, or poorly written or poorly executed -- and noone has followed a legal battle from beginning to end -- except maybe napster. Even they settled in the end, no? They didn't go 'all they way'.

      I believe copyrights are being abused -- by those downloading copyrighted materials, but also the copyright holders, too. There is NO logical reason why Mickey Mouse isn't in the public domain now. The 'bittorrents' and p2p in general are just a symptom of a much larger problem...

    3. Re:Claims against what exactly? by nocomment · · Score: 2, Funny

      Reminds me of that episode of Cops where the guy flagged down the cop car to tell him that they had just been stiffed buying crack. It was fake crackand the guy wanted the cops to go get his money back. He even gave the cops his fake crack.

      I just laughed and laughed. I couldn't believe it.

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
    4. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 5, Funny
      but how exactly would you mount such a case?

      man mount will tell all

    5. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I've always tried to avoid man mounting. Especially when it involves hard drives.

    6. Re:Claims against what exactly? by pudge · · Score: 1

      As other posters noted, sorry, this is simply not relevant, unless you are to contend that the proposed case or contributions to it were themselves illegal. The viability of the proposed court action is an entirely separate issue. It is not against the law to try to go to court, even if the law is against you, nor to contribute to funds to someone trying to do so. If the story is true, it's fraud, and the people perpetrating it are liable for damages and penalties.

    7. Re:Claims against what exactly? by dzym · · Score: 1
      Yeah, right.

      In reality, the percentages of people downloading any Mickey Mouse is infinitesimal compared to the number of people downloading rips of the latest releases in CDs and movies.

    8. Re:Claims against what exactly? by shark72 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "There is NO logical reason why Mickey Mouse isn't in the public domain now."

      Sure there is -- Disney, like just about every other person or company on the planet, wants money. The difference is that when Disney wants money, they're greedy, but when you want money, you're not.

      I don't lose sleep over Mickey Mouse being copyrighted. If Mickey went into the public domain, the primary effect would be that the price of items with Mickey's face on it would go down, since you'd have the option of buying from some Far East importer rather than through Disney. It would not be some grand and glorious new age of copyright enlightenment; just more money for the country that can produce items the cheapest. The free market economy would still be in play.

      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
    9. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It would be very, very hard to argue that you gave money without previously using the site to download illegal material, or that when you parted with your money you had no hope at all it would result in the continued usage of the illegal service LokiTorrent provided.

      Not if you're known for taking principled stands. If you've given money to the EFF and can prove it, you can frame it differently.

      "Your honor, I did not use the web site in question to violate copyright laws. I have ethical objections when anyone uses shady legal means to silence free speech. I have given money to other groups who fight such legal abuses. Look, I have bank statements to show how I've donated money to the EFF too."

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    10. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Undefined+Parameter · · Score: 1

      Funny, that's what she said....

      ~UP

      --
      Eat the Path.
    11. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Kaosaur · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, if he didn't really buy crack...did he commit a crime? It's not a crime to be a crackhead...Just to possess crack.

    12. Re:Claims against what exactly? by mollymoo · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The free market economy would still be in play.

      No, the free market would be in play at all. The monopolies provided by patents and copyrights are the antithesis of a free market, which is why they must be time-limited.

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
    13. Re:Claims against what exactly? by shark72 · · Score: 1

      "No, the free market would be in play at all. The monopolies provided by patents and copyrights are the antithesis of a free market, which is why they must be time-limited."

      I should have been more clear. Right now, the character of Mickey Mouse has value on the free market vs. other cartoon characters and cultural icons. Disney's ability to make money off of that Mickey Mouse apparel item depends on their ability to make people love Mickey Mouse more than, say, Pockemon.

      If Mickey were to be in the public domain, the competition would not be (say) "Mickey vs. Pockemon," but "Disney-produced Mickey t-shirt vs. Mickey t-shirts produced by a squillion other vendors" in addition to the existing competition between Mickey and Pockemon.

      As you can tell, I see Mickey as ultimately just another cartoon character. He's not air or water or food or anything that we need or which is a God-given right. Mickey already has plenty of competition. Putting him into the public domain would change the players a bit, but it would not usher in a glorious age of IP enlightenment.

      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
    14. Re:Claims against what exactly? by zcat_NZ · · Score: 1

      The image of Mickey Mouse is a TRADEMARK. If Steamboat Willie fell out of copyright it would mean you can freely make verbatim copies of Steamboat Willie. I think you could even use clips from it in other works (a music video, perhaps) but not much more.

      It would not mean you're free to use the Mickey Mouse image. That image is a trademark, and will remain a trademark of Disney for as long as they continue to actively defend it.

      --
      455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
    15. Re:Claims against what exactly? by nocomment · · Score: 1

      no he didn't really, and the cops didn't arrest him. But they also can't get his money back because someone sold him bad crack. The cops were just stunned. They had never seen anything like this guy before, and they see a lot.

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
    16. Re:Claims against what exactly? by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      There is NO logical reason why Mickey Mouse isn't in the public domain now

      FYI, it is in Australia and New Zealand. Now I have to ask, what does this mean? I can create cartoons with Mickey Mouse without giving Disney anything? What about actual cartoons? Can I trade them on p2p with other Australians? Or is just the character itself in the public domain?

    17. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Zorilla · · Score: 1

      Mount the woman, not the man (unless that's you're kind of thing).

      --

      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
    18. Re:Claims against what exactly? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Sure there is -- Disney, like just about every other person or company on the planet, wants money. The difference is that when Disney wants money, they're greedy, but when you want money, you're not.

      I don't think this is a logical reason. Or at least a fully thought out reason. The thing is, shorter copyright would give Disney the rights to a lot more public domain stuff. For free! They're not making a lot of money from early Mickey Mouse. They are making a lot of money from adaptations of classic stories.

      Is it possible that nobody at Disney has actually run the numbers and they're basing their position on an verestimate of the value of their property?

    19. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Stone+Pony · · Score: 2, Informative
      Conspiracy to commit a crime is a crime of and in itself, even if the conspired-over crime doesn't actually occur. The judgement in United States v. Bayer, 331 U.S. 532 (1947) states that:
      "But here we think the District Court correctly ruled that the two charges did not accuse of identical offenses. The indictment is for conspiring and we have but recently reviewed the nature of that offense. Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640 . Its essence is in the agreement or confederation to commit a crime, and that is what is punishable as a conspiracy, if any overt act is taken in pursuit of it. The agreement is punishable whether or not the contemplated crime is consummated. But the same overt acts charged in a conspiracy count may also be charged and proved as substantive offenses, for the agreement to do the act is distinct from the act itself. " (Section 4)
      This case was still being cited as precedent in cases within the last couple of years, so I guess it's still current.

      IANAL - and even if I was, I wouldn't be a lawyer in the USA. Just thought I'd better mention that.

    20. Re:Claims against what exactly? by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      "The difference is that when Disney wants money, they're greedy, but when you want money, you're not."
      No, the difference is that Disney has loads of money, and they can spend some of that money, in cooperation with other major corporations, to lobby for laws that remove our rights, and make them more money at the same time.

      The difference is that Disney can afford to buy laws. He can't.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    21. Re:Claims against what exactly? by Lord+Flipper · · Score: 1
      "Your Honour, I used this website to knowingly violate copyright law, and then gave the owner of said site some money in the belief it was in order to defend a case against him, and therefore keep the site up. I want my money back, because no such case existed". Response: "So, you gave money in exchange for the possibility of continued use of an illegal service" It would be very, very hard to argue that you gave money without previously using the site to download illegal material, or that when you parted with your money you had no hope at all it would result in the continued usage of the illegal service LokiTorrent provided.

      And guess what? The wire fraud and RICO are both Federal raps, and committing fraud in the course of an illegal transaction buffers nobody from the Law, pal, not in America. And no judge would toss speculation (on the Court's behalf) into the fray. There is nothing illegal about contributing to someone's legal defense. The presumption of innocence, and the commonly-held belief that big companies can 'outlast' anyone 'small' in a protracted Civil suit, would leave the 'witness' or plaintiff in the free and clear.

      IANAL, either, but I can read well enough, and I've read plenty of stories of guys burning fed undercovers with procaine, mannita (and a little 'faked' hydrolization, heheh), and ending up doing 2-6 in Leavenworth. har, har.

      So, I joe brainless d-loader, rat homeboy for the fake 'appeal'...who takes the bigger 'fall'? Me? Getting a nasty little note from an ISP (maybe, not even likely) and havin' to promise not to do it again? Or homeboy on his way to being some lifer's girlfriend?

      As the other genius quoted, "There's no honor amongst thieves." And, that's not debatable in terms of the likelihood of it all, but it is indicative of someone who just never ran into the 'right' thief.

      I also heard that to live outside the law you must be honest....Not law-abiding per se, but honest. There's still plenty of room for good old-fashioned fraud, i.e., the 'con', wherein you cannot cheat an honest man. Why? Because for the 'con' to work, there must be larceny in the heart of the so-called 'victim'.

      If the guy behind Loki got help with designing any part of the scam..it's conspiracy to commit. If his server was offshore, he's looking at another echelon of interstate wire fraud. He ran the appeal for at least a month or two, no? Then RICO (which rarely gets applied to the guys it was enacted for, originally, could come into play. Convicted on all those counts, ...maybe....5-6 in Leavenworth.

      It's a ridiculous situation to contemplate, no doubt about it. Do I see the absurdity of downloaders getting a guy 'bagged' on some 'born again' sense of principles? Hell yes. But that's what happens when a society cranks out laws, that are selectively enforced, and that try to legislate morality, etc...It gets crazy. Here's another quote for ya:

      The more laws and order are made prominent, The more thieves and robbers there will be. -- Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC)
    22. Re:Claims against what exactly? by packeteer · · Score: 1

      Just becuase someone is doing something illegal doesn't mean they dont have certain protections still. If someone is robbing a store and your walking down the sidewalk, see the robber, and shoot him unthreatened, your still in trouble. In the state of Kansas and maybe other states you still have to pay taxes on selling illegal drugs. Becuase the lokitorrent site could argueably be used legally OR you could have donated without even using the lokitorrent site to download anything at all you could argue in court you did nothing wrong and were the victim of a racketeering scam.

      --
      unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
  38. On Lokitorrent's side they did have other revenue by infonography · · Score: 4, Interesting
    One thing they did was to tie in prizes to donations.

    Donate X amount or more and win some prize. It was innovative and I may use it in the future myself. As to the hoax? I got nothing.

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  39. Re:Freeloader's of the World unite, by chachob · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but $10 says he'll get modded to at least +4

  40. simple idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why don't people who start these sites in the first place register them as a corporation. That way when the RIAA et al. come knocking on your door you can just let the company take the fall.

    Limited liability people.

    1. Re:simple idea by bradediger · · Score: 1

      Because the corporate veil does not shield you from negligent or malicious acts on the part of the owners. A court would not take kindly to you setting up a corporation solely to do something illegal and "shield" yourself from the consequences (why we don't have Mafia, Inc.).

  41. Re:Link categorized as 'naughty' by borawjm · · Score: 2, Informative
  42. REMEMBER FOLKS! It's not slander if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...it's in the form of a question.

    What a crock of shit. To think /. editors would be complicit in the execution of a Fox News tactic.

    You can say anything you want without fear of reprisal as long as it's in the form of a question. You people don't fact check a goddamn thing, and just publish away. Never mind that the author of the original "article" is in bed with the MPAA.

  43. The countersuit was a hoax, but... by Stop+Or+I'll+Noop · · Score: 4, Informative
    The article makes numerous references to the MPAA never even bothering Loki or mentioning Loki in their press releases. Well, what does this press release say? http://www.mpaa.org/CurrentReleases/2005_02_10_Bit TorrentLokitorrent.doc
    The MPAA's efforts to date have resulted in a 40 percent reduction in the number of servers that continue to operate. One such site that will no longer exist is LokiTorrent--one of the largest BitTorrent host servers. The operator of that site, Edward Webber, agreed to not only pay a substantial settlement with even greater financial penalties for any further such actions, but by Court Order must provide the MPAA with access to and copies of all logs and server data related to his illegal BitTorrent activities, which will provide a roadmap to others who have used LokiTorrent to engage in illegal activities.
    So unless the MPAA is also in on this hoax (which wouldn't really surprise me), there are some issues with this story.
    1. Re:The countersuit was a hoax, but... by OpenSourceRulez · · Score: 1

      Not to say that the MPAA is in on the hoax, who is to say that they are actually telling the truth. Maybe the fact that LokiTorrent now has that MPAA banner on it, the MPAA decided to concoct a story about LokiTorrent to scare people. If you look how the MPAA worded their release, they do not say that LokiTorrent was taken down b/c of a lawsuit. They just say it "will no longer exist". They just imply that they are the reason it shut down.

      The big thing I wonder is why LokiTorrent is hosted on the same box as MuffTorrent.com. MuffTorrent is now shut down, but the page is still up, no MPAA shame on you page. If the MPAA took it over, don't you think they would host it, and take the domain away from Webber.

      Now, I am not saying that the shut down wasnot b/c of the MPAA, but you have to look at all the facts before coming to a conclusion. The fact that nobody can seem to find an actual court filing in this case is a big reason to think that the article may be true.

      Who knows what truly happened? Only Mr. Webber.

      --
      "Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire." -- Fred Shero
  44. hmm by cangeceiro · · Score: 1

    ya know i thought something seemed wierd when this first happened. cause none of the other torrent sites where over ran with mpaa/riaa propaganda after they closed down

  45. Nothing new here. See ShareReactor by Uzito · · Score: 1

    As I remember, the same thing was pulled by ShareReactor owner. The guy asked for donations for a new server equipment, received thousands in donations, then announced being arrested, etc...

    1. Re:Nothing new here. See ShareReactor by LuSiDe · · Score: 1

      Seems he really was arrested according to that article (in German). There was even a Swiss or German newspaper mentioning that as well, but i don't have the link handy.

      What you remember is a conspiracy theory which may or may not be true. Here's it. Judge for yourself. Me, i think its fairly easy as *AA (or local variant) to get such 'rumors' started, which may or may not be partly true, and which may or may not be part of a deal. But who am i, and how can i proof...

      --
      WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
  46. Slashdot sued for fraud and slander by cyberlotnet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.mpaa.org/CurrentReleases/2005_02_10_Bit TorrentLokitorrent.doc

    To link to a article about someones opinion is one thing but to support and spread lies and slander is just plain wrong

    1. Re:Slashdot sued for fraud and slander by BitwiseX · · Score: 1

      Why would Slashdot be sued for simply providing a link to a slanderous article? hmm... maybe I should ask the *AA that question actually. They seem to be good at making links to Illegal files illegal as well ;)

  47. Jocasta Nu said it best by Augusto · · Score: 1

    > So...if it's not on the internet, it must not exist right....right!?

    "If an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist." - Jocasta Nu, Attack of the Clones.

    --

    - sigs are for wimps.
    1. Re:Jocasta Nu said it best by MoriaOrc · · Score: 1

      A quote from 1984 would probably be more appropriate, but I'm to lazy to go find one :P

      It's not that I don't think highly of Attack of the clones or anything it's just that ... well ... ok, that's exactly what it is.

  48. Well actually it's just plain stupid by argoff · · Score: 1

    How many people out there break their neck trying to get a site that is popular for people to use. This guy probably could have made a hella of a lot more than he just stole. In fact it amazes me how someone could just piss away such a good opportunity for a bad one. The only explanation I can think of is that he is some kind of self choosing looser, or maybe like one of those people who win the lottery and then blow it all and commit suicide. Fear of success? Major personal problems? Couldn't handle the responsibility? I don't know, I won't feel sorry for him though when his future opportunities dry up. There are plenty of struggeling people in the world who will gladly take his place. I'm sure whatever he gained is only temporary, he clearly cant think thru the consequences of his choices and will probably blow anything he took on useless short term persuits.

  49. Re:Thanks /. by halivar · · Score: 1

    It's quite amazing that you were ever able to read /. at all.

  50. What do I call that? by max+born · · Score: 1

    I call it a news story in a Word document. I'd rather see a copy of the court order.

  51. Trusting the source? by PktLoss · · Score: 3, Informative

    Isn't Earth Reactor an Earth Station 5 satelite site? With all the unsubstantiated anonimity claims (amid clients with remote file deletion exploits), and a long history of mud slinging. Why are they a credible news source?

  52. Loki....hmm something comes to mind. by madsatod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Remember Loki, the norse trickster god and a master of deception.
    Not saying anything about the truth of these accusations, but maybe this guy's choice of domain name could (ironically enough) turn out to be fitting...

    1. Re:Loki....hmm something comes to mind. by LuSiDe · · Score: 1

      Heh, i remember the corporation which ported games to Linux/x86: Loki - The Games That Linux People Play. Or was it Pay? Cause they're gone too, unfortunately. Due to deception? I don't see why.

      --
      WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
  53. Link back by thebra · · Score: 1

    I would think that if the **AA really put up the website on lokitorrent they would have a link back to theirs or there would be other sites p0wn3d by the **AA I'm on drugs what do I know!

  54. In short... by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1

    yes.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  55. The lawsuit is not a hoax... by halivar · · Score: 2, Funny

    But the money was still collected under false pretenses. He asked for a legal fund, and instead used the money to fund his settlement.

    I say hang him.

    1. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's the problem with centralized distribution methods :P Torrents are a great design... but they're only part of what you need. You also need an effective torrent distribution method which guarantees anonymity. It's not impossible.

      I'm working on a library called Uso designed to send encrypted data from fake source IPs/ports to fake dest IPs/ports (faking as much as physically possible while still allowing the information to make it; it does various network probes to determine what it can and cannot do). You use libnet to write raw packets to the network and use pcap to sniff them back off; clients don't recognize each other by the source and destination IPs, but by codes contained in the UDP headers. The codes are unique per client, but not across the system, making recognizing the packets to firewall them quite a challenge (easily recognizable content is inside the encrypted section). I'm about half-done (I've got my encryption classes (Blowfish and RSA - both wrappers around openssl) done and tested, and have sent basic packets back and forth with part of the probing done; I need to do remote probing and implement the full protocol spec - plus some arp flooding and cache poisoning would be nice options). It should be able to tunnel through most NAT setups, although I won't know for sure until I get the full protocol spec implemented.

      Another option is limited proxying. If you proxy a small but significant percentage of your traffic, you can't tell who was requesting the content and who was just being an unwitting proxy. It makes mass lawsuits unfeasable. Plus, proxying can confer some advantages on its own, especially if you use a "smart" target selection method.

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    2. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by Rei · · Score: 1

      Blah, I should have proofread. That's "codes contained in the UDP packets", not "codes contained in the UDP headers". The UDP header looks pretty standard - it has to, if it is to be discrete. In fact, the codes don't have to be in a particular location; it heuristically determines possible locations where they can be, so you can piggyback the packet on any variety of other UDP packets.

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    3. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by halivar · · Score: 4, Informative

      You clearly did not RTFA. The lawsuit was a hoax, start to finish.

      You clearly did not read the relevant documents the article's author didn't bother to look for.

      Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

    4. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by Malek+the+Damned · · Score: 1

      That is one of the best idea's I've heard in a long time... wouldn't it induce a considerable overhead to scan all those packet headers and then process the decryption on the content though?

    5. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by Rei · · Score: 1

      It'll be far more CPU intensive than, say, TCP. It also loses around 20 bytes per packet compared to TCP (it would be worse, but I don't use some of the bloat found in TCP and use variable-sized regions in parts of the header - i.e., small transfers only use 6 bits for the sequence #, larger transfers use 14, even larger use 22, and the largest use 30; the leading 2 bits indicate what size transfer we're dealing with)

      However, it doesn't have to try and decrypt every packet it sees; it just has to do a cursory examination to see if it has the right code. It should be no more CPU intensive than, say, tcpdump, to tell what all of the packets are. I haven't done any precise measurements so far with its current status (it doesn't yet allow connection-based communication anyways... that'll probably be implemented within a week. Right now it's just datagrams)

      Most of the work will be in encryption/decryption; however, I doubt encryption/decryption will be a limiting factor in transfer speed except on slow machines with incredibly fast net connections ;)

      The UnencryptedPacket class (instead of storing data in structs, it uses serializable objects; the UnencryptedPacket is the layer directly past UDP) consists of three fields: 8 bytes for the source code, 8 bytes for the destination code, and 1 byte for the encryption "flag".

      The client scans for your code as the dest code. It then checks to see if it knows the source code (depending on the network that uses Uso, it may or may not do an initial unencrypted conversation with the sender at this point to exchange UsoAddresses if it doesn't know who the sender is; in general, you want all UsoAddresses (An object that has all of the connection information) to be spread on the network via uninterested parties instead of via direct client-to-client communication). A Blowfish session key, if not already present and valid, is established and exchanged via the two clients' RSA keys (part of the UsoAddress). The session key is then used for all other encryption.

      The encryption flag is actually not an on-off bit. To keep things byte-aligned and expandable in functionality, a whole byte is used (even versioning information isn't listed until inside the EncryptedPacket ;) ). However, since this would possibly be a recognizable part of the packet to a firewall (or at least a clue), the encryption flag is lightly hashed based on the source code and faked source IP of the packet, both of which are available to the recipient. It has three states: None, RSA, and Blowfish.

      The UnencryptedPacket need not start immediately in the UDP packet's payload; it can start at any point in the packet for which the sum of the packet's contents up to that point equals zero (using a u_int8_t). This allows it to ride on top of almost any UDP protocol without giving any special clues to a potential firewall.

      Uso connections are two-way and multisession, with a slightly compressed ack section that can ack any for any of the sessions. They're also internally throttlable and, at connection time, can involve a packet exchange ratio which must be agreed upon by both sides (i.e., a "fair trade" ratio would be 1:1; a "sending you something" ratio would be 1:0; etc). It doesn't attempt to determine what would be fair; that's left up to whatever utilizes the library.

      I would like to make it be able to handle TCP as well to ride on top of the ever-so-common TCP protocols, but I don't think it's worth it. TCP can get a bit nasty when you deal with things like NAT, and all of the session management stuff would just be wasted space anyways. So, for now, the plans are just for UDP.

      I imagine my biggest challenges will probably be in trying to stop DOS attacks against clients. I'm going to make sure that at no point are significant computational resources expended by the recipient as a result of minimal resources from the sender. But for now, my goal is just to get the rest of the basic protocol implemented :)

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    6. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by halivar · · Score: 1

      RTFA before you point fingers at other people saying they didn't RTFA, you twit.

      I never said he didn't read the article. Read more carefully before you cast the word "twit" at somebody. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to fifth-graders in a playground around here.

    7. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by Rei · · Score: 1

      You sound like you're referring to proxying - am I correct?

      I'm not currently working on a proxying system; I just mentioned that it's a possibility. Yeah, the biggest drawback to proxying systems is that they have serious speed limitations. The upside is that you don't need to proxy all traffic - just a "relevant percentage" so as to make mass lawsuits sweep up a relevant number of innocent people, and thus make them infeasable.

      The system I'm working with has no serious drawbacks that I can think of, except for that people behind NAT and some very restrictive and well patched routing setups won't gain much from it and that, like all encrypted traffic, it'll eat up significant CPU when you're downloading. But, so long as there's no way to know who's telling the truth and who is fibbing their arse off, mass lawsuits are unrealistic.

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    8. Re:The lawsuit is not a hoax... by leuk_he · · Score: 1

      Another option is limited proxying. If you proxy a small but significant percentage of your traffic, you can't tell who was requesting the content and who was just being an unwitting proxy. It makes mass lawsuits unfeasable.

      There are 2 weaknesses in this reasoning.
      1. A organisation with lot's of cash can always sue. Winning is another part(proving you didi wrong), but lot's of cases are settled just because defending is to costly and suerly not fun.
      2. You can still loose. Proxying can make you an accomplice. Even worse it can make you an accomplice to even worse things you might not like at all (terrorist/child porn/extremist idea's).

      This shows why file sharing should not be too illegal since this will push the file sharing underground.

  56. how much money tho by MasterOfUniverse · · Score: 1

    does any one know or have a guesstimate on how much money we are talking about here?

    --
    "There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn
  57. Story is a troll by the_rev_matt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Remind me again why we can't mod down stories? The submitter is an idiot for believing what an uninformed 12 year old wrote on some random site. The editor is an idiot for approving such a bullshit "story". We're all idiots for bothering to read past the first post linking to the MPAA press release.

    --
    this is getting old and so are you

    blog

    1. Re:Story is a troll by LuSiDe · · Score: 1
      Remind me again why we can't mod down stories?
      Slasdot Is Not Kuro5hin
      --
      WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
    2. Re:Story is a troll by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      It's easy to understand why we can't mod down stories. Here's an example:

      Look in any slashdot thread for one of the
      Step 1: Old Koreans
      Step 2: Soviet Russia
      Step 3: ???
      Step 4: Profit

      And check out the scores. They're almost all positive. That means that Slashdot would end up with nothing but stories like TEH AKBAR IS TEH TRAP MORANS!

      Besides, one of the greatest powers of Slashdot (and Fark) is to have the people in the community find out the truth, post it, and fuck over the guys involved. We've ruined lives. We've forced people to move. I'm sure there are deaths involved. Imagine that - someone might be dead because Slashdot found out the whole truth.

      If we moderate stories, then anything with enough unpopularity (like praise for MS or pro-Bush/Kerry/Nerfherder) will get modded into oblivion before we, the freeloading masses, get to read and discuss the issue. There will be enough boneheads that vote for every cliche to make any system completely and totally useless.

      You can just ignore stories that you don't like.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
  58. I dont think you have to worry about Edward by inteller · · Score: 2, Funny

    He is in a dumpster somewhere in a dark alley with a gunshot wound up the ass. It was buckwheats for him.

  59. Hold on for a second... by Nicholas+Evans · · Score: 5, Informative

    This article is written by SharePro of ES5 -- the same fellow who was threatening to post pictures and personal information about the bloke who found the 'remote file deletion' utility in the ES5 p2p program awhile back.

    Take whatever this man says with a grain of salt and call me in the morning...

    1. Re:Hold on for a second... by OverlordQ · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is they got a "DONATE MONEY ASAP" button on their site as well.

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    2. Re:Hold on for a second... by miner60 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes SharePro is not to be trusted. That mp3 search engine on earthreactor.com's first page was written completely by my friend and myself. We were having financial problems and posted the fact on our website, which is when SharePro offered to help out. We were happy to have a new host at no cost and we hadn't heard anything of SharePro at that point. After a while we raised enough money to move onto our own server again, but when we did that, SharePro decided to keep the search engine online and then decided to change the graphics to his own. You will however notice that his mp3 database is quite out of date due to the fact that he did not get a copy of our spider. The second I saw that SharePro had anything to do with this, I figured it was a big lie.

  60. Re:On Lokitorrent's side they did have other reven by PCM2 · · Score: 1
    One thing they did was to tie in prizes to donations. Donate X amount or more and win some prize. It was innovative and I may use it in the future myself.
    Not sure what you mean by "prizes" here. Was it innovative? I doubt it. Was it illegal? There's a good chance.

    When you say "prizes," do you mean that everybody who donated a certain amount got the same gift, while supplies lasted? Or do you mean that everybody who donated a certain amount had a chance of winning something?

    If the latter, then it constitutes an illegal lottery. It incorporates all three elements: Prize, Chance, and Consideration (money paid to enter).

    Remember kids, "no purchase necessary" -- not because we're generous, but because it's the law! (In the U.S. at least.)

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  61. Meta-hoax by serutan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The new generation of hoaxes that label real events as hoaxes and hoaxes as real. Perhaps the above post is a hoax too?

    Side note from the MPAA's war-cry page: "By deeply cutting into revenues, movie piracy limits the choices for consumers at the box office. Sixty percent of all movies never recoup their production and marketing costs which average well over $100 million."

    Sigh. The fact that most movies didn't recoup production costs in the decades before p2p, the Web or VCRs ever existed seems to have slipped under the radar.

    1. Re:Meta-hoax by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

      not to mention that even though it may have cost an average of 100mill, it's still total crap most of the time. That is one point where I can't help but agree with the MPAA, we should stop downloading movies, it's a bloody waste of bandwidth anywayz...

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    2. Re:Meta-hoax by Nurgled · · Score: 1

      Maybe they should concentrate less on the expensive whizz-bang special effects and the overpaid superstars and just make a good story with some good actors. I'd watch 'em, just as I watched all of the old TV shows with the cheap hacks to create a nifty effect, and the unknown actors just playing a normal part rather than reprising their own type-cast character.

      Today's movies cost far too much to make. You'd think that in the amount of time people have been making movies they'd have found a way to reduce costs like almost every other industry.

    3. Re:Meta-hoax by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. It's more likely that the author was painfully misinformed.

    4. Re:Meta-hoax by NotPeteMcCabe · · Score: 1
      The vast majority of movies recoup their production costs and then some. This has been true for years. Industry-standard accounting bullshit hides the profits so profit participants get screwed.

      The biggest factor that (virtually) guarantees the success of most films is, ironically, the VCR (and more recently, DVD). Even unsuccessful movies make money hand over fist in VHS/DVD release.

    5. Re:Meta-hoax by labratuk · · Score: 2, Informative

      The reason 60% of movies conveniently never make a profit is so that they don't have to pay the relevant taxes.

      The movie industry are the kings of fiddling the books.

      --
      Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
    6. Re:Meta-hoax by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So, almost two-thirds of Hollywood's output loses money. Bah. In the age of video distribution I sincerely doubt that. But, okay ... taking them at their word, if I were the CEO of a company that had a track record that poor I'd expect to be relieved of my duties, and have the straps cut on my golden parachute just before being pushed out of my top floor office window. By crying poor they're trying to make their customers accept responsibility for whatever is really wrong with the industry, as well as justify continued high prices and lawsuits. However, what that comment really tells us is that the studios have fundamentally incompetent management. They've been intoxicated by their monopoly high for so long that they are terrified of having to come down, get efficient, and actually compete. Oh sure, they can come up with all the justifications in the world as to why the business is run the way it is. But if that sixty percent figure is anywhere near accurate then the studios' stockholders should simply vote these people out since they're obviously doing a poor job. And if they are lying (that would be a huge surprise) and they are more profitable than they are claiming, then they have even less rationale for this "war on piracy."

      What this really comes down to is "We don't have the control we're accustomed to, we're not making as much money as we feel entitled to, and we don't care who we hurt as long as we get what we want." You'd get a similar line of reasoning from your average Mafioso, I'm sure.

      The movie studios will get little sympathy from me, and anyone that bothers to understand the damage that has already been done at the hands of the motion picture industry would be hard-pressed to defend it.

      What continually amazes me is the degree of arrogance these people exhibit, the remarkably high regard in which they hold themselves and their products. Jack Valenti exemplified this sort of "we are an international treasure that must be preserved at all costs" attitude that belies the fact that what they are selling are "luxuries" that all of us could easily do without. Regardless, if by some miracle the MPAA and all of its' member organizations disappeared overnight, it really wouldn't take long for a new business model to take over and the flow of movies to continue.

      The idea that a good movie has to cost a hundred million dollars is a bit extreme anyway. Take the TV series' Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The production team for those shows produces cinematic-quality special effects week after week on a fraction of the budget of a typical third-rate movie. Sure, the actors don't command the same prices that the big boys do, but so what ... good movies were made before actors started getting multimillion-dollar paychecks and they'll still be making good movies after that particular bubble bursts. Most businesses, when faced with an economic downturn, have to tighten their belts, economize. Hollywood seems to have the idea that they can avoid having to do that if they can just squeeze us hard enough.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    7. Re:Meta-hoax by serutan · · Score: 1

      I agree, but whether the losses are real or not, the point is that movie companies were claiming these same losses long before any of this modern "piracy" technology existed. The MPAA wants a mandatory remote-controlled mute button installed on everybody's home media equipment, so they can make money from consumer activities that the courts have repeatedly said are free.

    8. Re:Meta-hoax by enigmatichmachine · · Score: 1

      The real reason they lose money on 60% of movies is not that they don't want to pay taxes, it is that they don't want to pay ROYALTIES. the goal is to make it look on paper as if they haven't made any money, so that the writers, etc. don't get any money out of the deal where they have negotiated a percentage of the profit. if the studios can show on paper that they didn't make any money for the studio they can pay the guys who created the work little or no money. in that vein infrastructure sorts of things, like building a new studio, or escorting an executive to a party in a limo full of Laker girls gets billed to one particular movie, so that movie doesn't seem to have made profit.

      --
      -and occasionaly a giant moose.
    9. Re:Meta-hoax by bi_boy · · Score: 1

      Word. Up.

      And yeah, Napoleon Dynamite if anything shows up that a movie can be made for a shoestring and buttons and still be excellent.

      --
      Chicken fried butter sticks? Do ... do you use a fork? - Black Mage, 8-Bit Theater
    10. Re:Meta-hoax by I.+M.+Bur · · Score: 1

      Regardless, if by some miracle the MPAA and all of its' member organizations disappeared overnight, it really wouldn't take long for a new business model to take over and the flow of movies to continue.



      No, actually what would happen is that even faster, another organization would appear and preserve the current bussiness model. Sad, but true.

    11. Re:Meta-hoax by Stone+Pony · · Score: 1
      This was the basis of the lawsuit brought by Winston Groom, the author of the original book, against the makers of Forrest Gump, IIRC.

      I can't find a detailed account of the case online, but the essence of it was that Groom had a deal with Paramount for a percentage of the gross profits of the movie, only to be told that the film didn't make a profit and that he was therefore entitled to nothing. When he went to court to contest the claim that one of the most successful movies of all time hadn't made a profit, the studio argued that they had had to pay out millions of dollars for marketing - to (something like) Paramount Marketing Inc.; millions more for contract services - to (something like) - Paramount Contract Services Inc.; millions more for etc. etc.; and all of it to companies which were themselves owned by Paramount. These costs were so huge that the movie did not, technically, make a profit.

      There's an interesting article about the practice of "Martian Accounting" here.

    12. Re:Meta-hoax by TractorBarry · · Score: 1

      The saddest thing here is that programs like Dr. Who were made for comparative peanuts (using cardboard cut outs and household implements for effects etc.) and yet they STILL beat the pants off 99% of Hollywoods output.

      Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the plots are slightly intelligent and don't follow the same tired old forumula drposs churned out by corporate America.

      Hoolywood.. Bleargh.. Complete garbage for idiots.

      --
      Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
    13. Re:Meta-hoax by TommyAquinas · · Score: 1

      Better than 4/5ths of venture capital funded projects don't make any money, but the 1/5th that do make enough money to pay for the 80% that lost everything and return a substantial profit to the VC fund and it's investors.

      Movies are the same way. For every 2 'Catwoman' s that crap out at the box office, there is a 'Spiderman 2' that earns back the money and pays for the Litterbox. It's their business model - it's as stupid as a VC claiming they need protection because 80% of their investments lose money!

      --
      Technology Marketing is what happens when people turn their hard work over to people paid to manipulate others.
    14. Re:Meta-hoax by identity0 · · Score: 1

      The new generation of hoaxes that label real events as hoaxes and hoaxes as real. Perhaps the above post is a hoax too?

      LIES! It's on the internet, it must be true!

      It made it past Slashdot's meticulous editorial fact-checking, even! But wait, if the lie about a lie is a lie, does that mean the lie is true?

      Ohhhhh, my head hurts...

  62. No, it wasn't. by SmokeHalo · · Score: 5, Informative
    This story from cnet mentions the results of the lawsuit:
    Earlier this month, the studio trade association announced that file-swapping site LokiTorrent, one of the hubs supporting BitTorrent technology, had agreed to pay a $1 million settlement and give its server logs to the MPAA.
    --
    I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
  63. and the moral of the story is by WormholeFiend · · Score: 1

    Never donate, never tip, never regret.

    1. Re:and the moral of the story is by Gogela · · Score: 1

      Never tip?! What kind of classless wank would say such a thing? Frank Sinatra said: "If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat out." Service is not free. Good service should be worth a little extra. Clearly, you work for AOL tech support.

      --
      A hungry man will tell you anything if you give him a cookie.
    2. Re:and the moral of the story is by WormholeFiend · · Score: 1

      Well I always try to be on-topic...

      Why should I give money to software/music/movie pirates? If I like someone's product after I downloaded it, I buy it to reward good work.

      AFAIAC, pirates can cry me a river over their bandwidth cost, and I laugh in their face. Especially those torrent pirates that threaten to cut you off if you don't keep a good ratio. Right. Like they're the only possible source of download.

  64. Broadcast flag by tepples · · Score: 1

    VCR, Tivo...

    ...Broadcast flag. A court of appeals has found that the FCC lacked the power to enact 47 CFR 73.9002(b), which requires makers of ATSC receivers to make their devices respect the broadcast flag. However, analysts predict that should this decision stand, Congress will expressly give the FCC that power.

  65. Slashdot getting more mainstream than CBS.... by droopycom · · Score: 1

    ... getting pwned is part of it.

  66. Yes, I'm grousing about a rejected story! by dspisak · · Score: 1

    Here are your recent submissions to Slashdot, and their status within the system:

    * 2005-02-24 11:37:48 LokiTorrent MPAA Lawsuit a Scam? (Index,The Almighty Buck) (rejected)

    Anyways, I find the scam/hoax to be interesting. However why did it take this long for people to catch on to the possiblity?

  67. Court documents by Guanix · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's perfectly real. I downloaded the court documents from Pacer (the online docket system of the US Courts) and put on my website. It includes the permanent injunction signed by the judge that closed the case.

    1. Re:Court documents by Stalyn · · Score: 1

      Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc represented by
      Charles L Babcock
      Jackson Walker
      NationsBank Plaza
      901 Main St
      Suite 6000
      Dallas, TX 75202-3797
      214/953-6000
      Fax: 214/953-5822 FAX
      LEAD ATTORNEY


      Someone just got signed up for 12 free issues of Anal Sex Monthly.

      --
      The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
    2. Re:Court documents by jesseraf · · Score: 1

      Thanks for posting the documents.

      IANAL, but you'd figure for the donations he collected, he could have got a lawyer to file at least one motion in his defense. As far as I can tell, there wasn't a single motion filed by the defendant.

    3. Re:Court documents by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1

      Yes, I just did the same (downloaded the documents from my PACER account). The strange part is, as best I can tell, the amended complaint was filed on February 8th, and the consent judgment agreement was signed by Mr. Webber's lawyer the same day. Something odd about that. And why was this guy raising money for a legal defense fund, then he rolled over and signed an outrageous agreement _AGREEING_ to pay a million dollars??? Would anybody in their right mind do that?

      There must be some side deal going on here of some sort. I presume they aren't going to try to collect a million dollars from this guy, because I'm assuming he doesn't have a million dollars to spare. And why would he sign an agreement forcing himself into bankruptcy for the rest of his life?

    4. Re:Court documents by Guanix · · Score: 1

      This is, of course, under the assumption that the court documents on the unicast.org page linked to above are real. I don't intend to accuse its poster of lying, but there are many possible hidden motives and too many questions unanswered for my liking.

      Skepticism is good. But in this case you can go to Pacer and download the documents yourself from the original source -- the total cost is around $10.

  68. Re:Hmmmm... Loki..... by einhverfr · · Score: 1

    Sif called. She wants her hair back.

    If you don't have it you can give her hair made of gold instead.

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
  69. I'm not surprised by Bohemoth2 · · Score: 1

    what kind of spinless jackass would let his enemy update his webpage to scare innocent users of his site anyway. I didnt donate and i never will because torrent files are not copywrighted material period!

    I smelled a rat and i was right. fuck him and supranova.

  70. hmmm by rikkards · · Score: 1

    So it is true that there is no honour among thieves.
    The idea of standing up to the man against something you believe in is admirable but in this case stupid.
    However if the people who did donate stole more in software than they donated then they are still ahead. I mean 1 copy of Windows 2003 with 5 Cals which is the minimum I could find goes for $1000 CDN

  71. Copying is not stealing by argoff · · Score: 1

    Bit torrent sites are set up to help people steal other people's property (C'mon, like you go there to get Linux distros or other GPL'd stuff) making this scam kind of funny.

    ... and copyrights are not "property" in any true sense of the word. It is amazing how many people still dont get that.

    When a situation gets strange, like this one, it's usually some type of setup.

    1. Re:Copying is not stealing by mollymoo · · Score: 1
      A copyright is owned and is therefore property.

      In a sense.

      Copying illicitly is theft of intellectual property.

      No, you're wrong. You aren't stealing their intellectual property. You are not taking control of the copyright of Mickey Mouse if you download a copy of Steamboat Willie, you are not taking control of those rights (the property you allude to) you are violating those rights. You are misapropriating a copy of a work.

      There are significant differences between property and copyrights/patents. They are not the same.

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
  72. Slashdot is out of hand by CyBlue · · Score: 1

    I'm getting really tired of sensationalist articles that are all FUD. Someone needs to research this stuff at least a *little* or at the minimum read the article and make sure the summary is accurate before posting it. PLEASE!!

    1. Re:Slashdot is out of hand by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

      But... But... Slashdot is JOURNALISM! We can't have them running around and checking their facts all the time. After all, slashdot could be the New York Times some day!

  73. Clarification by infonography · · Score: 1
    They had a paypal donate button, and contributers would be selected at random over the course of a week or two and one lucky person would win something. I had seen 128MB Vid cards and stuff. Nothing shockingly expensive. Looked like a bunch of promo stuff from their advertizers. the Waybackmachine has little on it but it met your test. As to US law, well the site was (see above link) hosted in Oslo. The registry is out of NE. The DNS is now hosted in NYC not Olso, so who can say. But the page a pretty light affair.

    Thanks for the link about lotteries. Has I understood what they were doing it would fit the " If it is a sweepstakes, winners are selected in a random drawing from all eligible entries received." Exact details are now unavailable.

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  74. The lawsuit existed by tjvm · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is the first I've heard of this story, and I don't know what went on. However, I checked the Northern District of Texas's online docket system (PACER), and the lawsuit was filed, and was terminated with an agreed judgment. I have pdf copies of the amended complaint and the judgment. If someone has a place to host them e-mail me (tvanmeir //at\\ gmail //dot\\ com) and I'll send you a copy.

  75. Re:Hmmmm... Loki..... by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

    Ya know, I've heard time and again that Loki was a trikster God. But wasn't he more about trechery really? Turning sides and stuff? I mean, he's not the comic relief that Native American trickster gods were. Or is there something in the lesser or greater eddas that contradicts this? I don't claim to be an expert on Norse mythology.

    --

    ___
    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  76. Re:On Lokitorrent's side they did have other reven by Jameth · · Score: 1

    "Donate X amount or more and win some prize. It was innovative and I may use it in the future myself."

    Innovative? That's ancient and over-done, not innovative. But, maybe you can see how the patent examiners miss so much, when you think that is innovative.

  77. "anyone bother contacting the MPAA" by da5idnetlimit.com · · Score: 1

    Are you trying to slashdot their phone lines too ?

    Alas, calling there
    "
    Main Office Address:

    Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
    Motion Picture Association (MPA)

    15503 Ventura Blvd.
    Encino, California 91436
    (818) 995-6600
    "
    or trying to find the number yourself (at the bottom) to see a slashdot effect vs mpaa would be, in my opinion, futile and somewhat childish.

    Then again, this is slashdot...

    We can hope 8p

    --
    It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
  78. Solution to Anti-Piracy Logs by Gamefreak99 · · Score: 1

    Run a server from international waters! Watch out for pirates though!

  79. Earthstation 5 revisted by microbrewer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Eathreactor is Run by Sharepro the same sharepro who Ran the dubious Earthstation 5 forums so no news here if you go look at Slyck you will threads about this got closed of flamed out of existence.

    Loki has a out of court settlement that was notarised by the federal court judge .The Million dollar settlement was potetial losses the record caompanies claim he wasnt fined 1 millon . /. is getting bad if they post this crap

  80. Re:The MPAA will be interested + 3 steps to profit by angedinoir · · Score: 1

    Or maybe they had the intentions of fighting it and went, "Hmm, holy ekki lokiman, we've got like 10g $_$ on our hands. Do we fight for some piracy ring, lose all of our money and go to prison, or do we bail with the money."

    I think it's a no brainer.

  81. Questionable motives by Movint · · Score: 2, Informative

    I agree, the author of the article bears some scrutiny. SharePro doesn't exactly enjoy a high standing with many memebers of the filesharing community. It's interesting that Slyck.com is mentioned in this article. A critical commentary on the demise of Earth Station V (SharePro is the forum admin for ES5) was recently posted on that site. SharePro states that: "Slyck.com promoted people to donate to Loki Torrent". In the context of the recent article, it could be construed also as an attempt to tar Slyck by association.

  82. Re:The MPAA will be interested + 3 steps to profit by javaxman · · Score: 1
    maybe they had the intentions of fighting it and went, "Hmm, holy ekki lokiman, we've got like 10g $_$ on our hands. Do we fight for some piracy ring, lose all of our money and go to prison, or do we bail with the money."

    Well, since it turns out there really was MPAA action, it's maybe more like "maybe we make a deal with the MPAA and bail"... in which case, it looks like the MPAA, through sheer dumb luck and legal muscle, managed to make some money off of p2p. Or, at least their lawyers did.

  83. Not surprised ... by Augusto · · Score: 1

    ... coming from somebody called "MoriaOrc".

    It was just a quote, relax.

    --

    - sigs are for wimps.
  84. Both the story and Lokitorrent are hoaxes by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That is the only logical conclusion I can come up with.

    First Lokitorrent is created to host links to BitTorrents and not the files themselves. While sharing the files may be a crime, one has to reason is sharing the BitTorrent files that link/track to files on someone else's hard drive (Not on LokiTorrent) does not fall under piracy directly. Lokitorrent is technically not sharing files, or even having them stored on their server, they are simply providing links to other people's hard drives. Sort of like having a list of links to Movie or Music downloads on your web site, but not really having the files on your web site.

    Now then we have the MPAA contacting (not suing, issuing a warning letter from lawyers) telling Lokitorrent to cease and disist from hosting Bit Torrents, and threatening a lawsuit.

    So Lokitorrent asks for more donations to fight off a lawsuit that has not yet happened, and they don't know how much it will cost to defend, but they have a ballpark figure.

    Lokitorrent panics, offers the domain for sale. Makes up a story as to why it is for sale.

    A judge hears the case, decides if there is any merit to it. Preliminary hearing or whatever. Not the trial itself, Lokitorrent panics and then settles out of court.

    As agreed, the Lokitorrent site is taken down and replaced with a warning by the MPAA. An undisclosed sum of the donations made to Lokitorrent get paid to the MPAA for damages. The web site does not change hands yet, but the BitTorrent tracker and BT web portal are now offline.

    Some angry fan of BitTorrent, gets upset that LokiTorrent got so much money in donations and still "Sold out" to the MPAA, that they make a hoax story.

    While not exactly giving the MPAA the Lokitorrent web site, maybe the IP logs, the domain name, and hosting is still owned by LokiTorrent, but the hoax is we are to believe that the MPAA owns the site and is tracking all visitors to it.

    Meanwhile millions of BitTorrent users are freaking out that the MPAA might actually have their IP addresses and downloading habits and filing a suit against them right now.

    Yet another story is posted to Slashdot without the facts being checked first.

    --
    Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
  85. How do you know that? by greenrd · · Score: 1
    Do you have a cite for that?

  86. What I really enjoyed... by sparkz · · Score: 1
    was the terrible spelling of the "legal expert":
    "Dallas courts have no presidence in this case because Lokitorrent.com was never hosted on Texas ISP servers. The owner of Lokitorrent is not a resident of Texas, and the MPAA's main offices are not in Texas. The MPAA has no reason in the world to sue in Dallas, but even if they did have presidence and sued in Dallas, you can be sure that the due dilligence on a case like this would take years. No way in the world could the MPAA have won a court case of this magnitude in just one month"

    What kind of lawyer uses spelling like "presidence" and "dilligence"?!

    --
    Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
  87. Does everyone BELIEVE press releases? by glassesmonkey · · Score: 1

    Ok, WOW, MPAA put out a press release! It must be TRUE!

    We know for a fact the MPAA doesn't have any laywers. None of whom would be able to make the statement sound all menacing and convincing.

    What we know for a fact is lokitorrent douche struck a deal with MPAA. We also know he collected money. We also know MPAA would probably have shut him down eventually.

    The issue here is:
    - all the collect money!
    - did he have a deal with MPAA all along?
    - how much money did he pocket?

  88. No shit? Fuck man. by Stupid+White+Man · · Score: 1

    I Emailed that guy a few weeks ago, and he responded about the lokitorrent thing. I received a letter from my cable company after downloading half a movie from bittorrent. (never actually completed, but that's a whole other story). Anyway, I just checked my email to see what the headers were from his email. There you go. Anyone who was burned? here's his host name, and IP address. Go bananas. cpe-204-210-72-122.maine.res.rr.com [204.210.72.122]

  89. There was a court order by spiffturk · · Score: 2, Informative

    See this site. -- Will

  90. Wasn't Loki hosted in some high-tax-rate country? by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 1
    Even if they didn't "break any laws" by playing this "big joke" on donators, isn't that "income"... if "they" didn't break any laws yet, they will if they don't declare it.

    Becoming a tax-evader is usually the ultimate sin, no matter how liberal your government.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  91. political sneakyness 101 at Harvard by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    "By deeply cutting into revenues, movie piracy limits the choices for consumers at the box office. Sixty percent of all movies never recoup their production and marketing costs which average well over $100 million."

    Yeah what a scam, placing two true facts together in such a light that it appears one is the cause of the other when its NOT. Talk about rich uni snobs 'tricking' the masses which they think are dumb-asses.

    Funny how lawyers/politicos use those tactics outside of court, but never can inside court.

    Shame on you, get a real job where you CREATE something.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  92. Well, that's all pretty obvious... by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    Okay, I think I have it figured out here.

    Ed Webber got nabbed by the MPAA. He got fined for hella cash. So he put up a beg-page on his site. But he couldn't say "I've gotten a huge judgment against me, please help me pay it off"; nobody would help him out. So instead, he said "I need legal-fee money to keep LokiTorrent up", which got him the money to pay off the recording industry.

    Diabolical! Sound plausible to anyone else?

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  93. Re:Kill them all by Famanoran · · Score: 1

    What about the AAA? Or even in AA?

  94. Why music/movie boycotts don't work.. by Chordonblue · · Score: 1

    The truth of the matter is, you could stop buying CD's today - EVERYONE - and it wouldn't matter. The licensing alone on music is what really funds the industry.

    Besides, people aren't going to buy from indies when all the teenie-boppers know is what plays on MTV. Appealing to 13 year old Amber/Ashley/Amanda probably won't stop her from listening to Ashley Simpson (although something should).

    "Leik, OMG! I just want 2 listen 2 music, k?"

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
    1. Re:Why music/movie boycotts don't work.. by meadowsp · · Score: 1

      Why should something stop her from listening to that? Who made you controller of what people should be listening to?

    2. Re:Why music/movie boycotts don't work.. by Chordonblue · · Score: 1

      Did you miss the point of my message?

      I was saying that this is one of many reasons why music boycotts don't work - regardless of taste.

      --
      "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  95. Re:The MPAA will be interested + 3 steps to profit by Skrybe · · Score: 1

    The silly thing is the MPAA should look at this and realise that people are willing to pay. What they don't like is paying someone/something that they perceive as evil. If the MPAA played nicely they'd actually have lots of P2P people paying for the content they've been downloading.

    As an experiment they (the MPAA) should set up an honour system with a couple test movies. Make the movies available, DRM and threat of prosecution free on major p2p networks. They could encode the movie with a short ad at the start saying something like "If you enjoy this movie please show your support by contributing. If this method proves successful we may continue releasing movies this way. You can pay whatever you feel appropriate using ..." And detail how you could pay (eg: a paypal account or something).

    Then they could see just how many people actually do pay and just how much people are willing to pay. If it actually made a decent amount of sales then they could scrap worries about DRM and whatnot (napster) and just upload their own movies and wait for profits. And people would still go to the cinemas or buy DVDs because they give a different experience to a downloaded MPG/AVI.

  96. irc? by nihaopaul · · Score: 1
    i havnt checked yet as i dont have irc access from this computer but does this have any reason the domain is still in his name and probably bittorrent trading going on?
    Rules for the Mufftorrent.com IRC-chat. You must have java installed to chat here, click here to install it. This chat is also available via IRC at irc://irc.lokitorrent.com:6667/ The channel is: #mufftorrent * If you want to request a torrent or have a request for the site, check our forums first * Do not PM operators uninvited, we only help in main chat * The Ops in the chat may not be mods on the main site, but they still have our ear * Please don't advertise (IRC servers/channels, websites not relating to torrents) * Do not flood the chat (A lot of lines in a row). * Bots (IRC robots) are always run by an operator * Violating these rules may result in a ban in the chat and can also lead to a ban on MuffTorrent.com * Above all, be friendly! We're all here because we want to be, none of us get paid to run this site * You may find other chat channels referring to MuffTorrent.com, but be aware that #MuffTorrent @ irc.lokitorrent.com is the only official one.
    taken from mufftorrent.com

    but as others have suggested a perfect business model: donate to the site and have your information removed from our logs. $10 usd a month or $100 for a year. donate now! the mpaa and riaa will never catch you!
  97. Said in the voice of Nelson by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1
    HAR HAR!

    Really, if you donated money to a site dedicated to IP theft then you got what you deserved. There's a line between harmless and reasonable sharing of files and that of IP crime, and the line is money - don't cross it. Share with your mates, but don't donate to obviously unscrupulous people.

    --
    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
  98. Maybe come crack would be of comfort by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

    Don't get into that RPG stuff, it's dangerously addictive. I have a little crack I'm not smoking now I'm playing WoW, maybe I could mail it to you ;->

    --
    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
  99. What the hell? by Anti_Climax · · Score: 1

    What ever happened to honor among theives?

    Har Har

    --
    Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
  100. Two words: Highest bidder. by Kjella · · Score: 1

    Or in this case, lowest loss. If he's following the money, then he's following the money. You'd better make sure he doesn't get a better offer...

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  101. Encrypted Spoofed UDP......way to go... by green_marker · · Score: 1

    So how the hell does this work... Lemme see.

    Computer A sends spoofed UDP packet containing encrypted" data. Packet goes over network. Computer B sniffs network data to find unknown packet that its not expecting and doesnt know the ip address of. Computer B finds packet by sniffing, and looks at unique codes, in the packets.

    So, given the information that is here, there is in no doubt in my mind works PERFECTLY across a local area network, granted

    A) network is hubbed
    B) MAC broadcasting is used (switched network)
    C) every client arp poisons (switched network)(kills legitimate traffic)
    or
    D) you use the specific clients MAC address (switched network)(which is no longer anonymous)

    Now, every situation here works, but its done like a complete jackass.
    You obviously brought this up because you believe this could somehow be used to create a "secure" torrent distrobution network.. I am sorry to inform you that it wont work, at all, period, using this method.

    Are the routers outside of your home network supposed to magically recognize these "codes" and then route to the secret computer that these codes refer to? Or how about when the smart ISPs who drop packets with IP adresses that dont belong anywhere near them? Shit out of luck I guess.

    And this is all assuming this is the protocol alone.

    Now, if its inside an SSL tunnel? Why the fuck not just use an SSL tunnel? Its encrypted, so people (or "the man") cant see what youre sending. So congradulations, youre hiding your super anonymous data.

    This type of tactic will just encourage more rediculous law suits that have no reason to be filed. They will just say "Hello web site that gives out links to torrents. You let people connect to your server with a fancy tunnel that allows them to send super secret forged UDP packets containing data that might somehow be ours, no? How about we sue you so you give us your SSL tunnel logs, and well track those IP addresses and sue them for possibly downloading material that is copyrighted, even though we can't directly prove it." Thanks for destroying the judicial system.

    Not to mention how fucking SLOW this would be if actually implemented. Best case scenario, you get to anonymously share your porn at LAN parties. Don't want anyone knowing that YOU like that kinky shit. Sorry if I crushed your dreams...

    1. Re:Encrypted Spoofed UDP......way to go... by Rei · · Score: 1

      For sending from a remote network and still having anonymity, the options are: Network is hubbed, is arp floodable, is arp poisonable, or weak to remote broadcast (in the latter case, most modern networks are fixed to prevent smurf attacks, but I've ran into some that still aren't). And no, arp poisoning doesn't necessarily kill legitimate traffic; you can always forward it to the proper recipient. Even if your network prevents you from being completely anonymous, there's no way to tell that your packets are truthful compared to another person whose packets are complete lies (hence the name of the program).

      (snipped insult)
      Are the routers outside of your home network supposed to magically recognize these "codes" and then route to the secret computer that these codes refer to?


      No. If you actually wanted to know, you could have asked. There are two primary configuration steps: local autoconfiguration, and remote postconfiguration. Local autoconfiguration is done by sending out packets with low TTL values to probe how much data it can make and still have a packet *leave the network and still be returned*. Remote postconfiguration is done with the first remote client that it talks to; after exchanging UsoAddresses, it initiates a postconfiguration session, and then sends pings from different packet configurations, finding the most that it can get away with whose packets will get to their destination *but not necessarily make it back via the same IP and port*. The actual IP and port to send to are the ones determined in the local autoconfiguration and included in the UsoAddress.

      Or how about when the smart ISPs who drop packets with IP adresses that

      If your IP drops it, the postconfiguration will fail with that IP, and that IP won't be used. As mentioned in the original post, it *probes* to see what it can get away with. Postconfiguration sends a wave of "pings" with IPs having varying degrees of truthfulness to see what it can get away with. The recipient then sends back a single ack listing the IDs of all of the "pings" that it received. Local postconfiguration is already implemented and successful; I'll be implementing remote postconfiguration tonight (it'll probably take a couple days to finish; I took care of session establishment last night, and address exchange the night before).

      Now, if its inside an SSL tunnel? Why the fuck not just use an SSL tunnel?

      "Why the fuck" curse while asking questions instead of just being polite about it?

      If you use an SSL tunnel, you're not anonymous, plain and simple. It's a real source IP and port to a real dest IP and port. However, the handshake in Uso is pretty similar to that used for SSL: both sides have public key encryption pairs, and use those to establish a session key, and then encrypt all further data via the session key.

      Once again, I use OpenSSL, *not* an SSL tunnel. I implement something *similar* to SSL on top of faked packets using the library OpenSSL. OpenSSL is a library that contains, among many other things, various encryption functions. Do you understand?

      Its encrypted, so people (or "the man") cant see what youre sending. So congradulations, youre hiding your super anonymous data.

      The encryption accomplishes two purposes: It prevents the data being transfered from being viewed in transit (as an extra precaution; the extra data may, for example, contain identifying information), and also helps make the packets harder to firewall. If you don't think these things are important, that's your call; I personally find them to be important, and it's not like most computers can't handle the encryption cost.

      They will just say "Hello web site that gives out links to torrents.

      Web site? Who's talking about a web site here?

      You let people connect to your server with a fancy tunnel that allows them to send super secret forged UDP packets containing data that might somehow be ours, no?

      And who

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
    2. Re:Encrypted Spoofed UDP......way to go... by Rei · · Score: 1

      well, people need to find out how to connect to said secret network

      Getting a client and a friend who is on it is nothing. The problem with, say, Gnutella wasn't that people couldn't get the client or find a starting node, you know ;)

      it sure as hell is when youre on a cable modem and arp poison so you can see all the traffic because your packets arnt actually addressed to you. ever done this during peak hours? you cant get all the traffic, so you end up getting 1/8 of the actual data, and seeing as this is UDP, you wont actually transmit any useful data.

      TCPdump "dropped by kernel" messages are a bit misleading. They're not actually dropped by the kernel itself, persay, but by pcap. They can be dropped either due to a filter mechanism (including implicit ones) or due to a shortage of pcap buffer space. Depending on the version of pcap, there can be a flaw concerning the buffer design; there are patched variants available for people who have problems that make use of large ring memory structures. There is nothing fundamentally slow or lossy about packet sniffing on modern machines. Plus, my protocol does multiple attempts at transmission, just like TCP, if there is packet loss.

      Lastly, TCPdump has to do far more work per packet than my software. In testing thusfar, I have not gotten a single dropped packet, although testing is still in a relatively early phase. The difference is easy to picture: Write a C program that has a for-loop that does something to a given variable, and the same for loop that additionally formats and prints out the variable at each stage of the loop. The loop that has to handle printing will run a hundred times slower. I only have to do a relevant amount of processing on "proper" packets, and then the processing work is typical ssl work with a typical SSL workload.

      well, for two random computers across the world to negotiate fake addresses, it HAS to at SOME point use a legitimate ip address, which can be logged and can be tracked.

      No, it doesn't. Let me go over this again, in even more detail.

      1) You start up your client for the first time, with a friend as your entry point.

      2) First, your client does autoconfiguration. It sends low-ttl packets with different source configurations and sees what comes back. It gains a degree of anonymity through this (its "maximal return packet anonymity"), but not maximal anonymity for sending packets.

      3) Its first connection is to its friend, which introduces it to the "network" (I'm not dealing with the network itself, just the underlying protocol). The first client it talks to (i.e., the friend), it will do postconfiguration (something I was coding right now until I took a break to write this post, in fact ;) ). Note that even the friend - the first client ever talked to - is getting fake information; just not as faked as it could be (the conversations with it are at the level determined during the local autoconfiguration).

      Do I need to continue on into postconfiguration, or is that enough for you? I'm not sure why you feel that a real IP address has to be used at some point; IP spoofing and packet sniffing suffice just fine. Even the simpler predecessor that I did before dealt just fine with fake addresses.

      > and you still havnt explained how a computer in the US, can talk to a computer
      > in say Japan, over a handful of routers.

      Lets discuss it in more detail.

      An UsoAddress has, among other things, an IP and port (both likely faked). When a client fills out its UsoAddress, it puts in as fake of an IP, port, etc as it can get away with while still being able to intercept the packets going to that destination. This is determined in local autoconfiguration.

      Consider the following situation. Our computer in the US is at 12.34.56.78, and our computer in Japan is at 98.76.54.32. Lets just say, for a very simple case, that both are on a LAN with netmask 25

      --
      Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
  102. questions by leuk_he · · Score: 1

    This still does not answer any of the 3 questions in the article.


    A) Are the logs of Lokitorrent.com in the hands of the MPAA?
    B) Where is the money that was donated to the legal fund?
    C) Can P2P'rs who uploaded / downloaded torrents be tracked down via the logs.


    So there is still a next chapter. Specially the B question is interresting since it was al going so quickly.

  103. Seems real to me by PhreakinPenguin · · Score: 1

    Not sure why everyone is having an issue with believing Loki wasn't really sued and forced to give up the domain. Here's the release from the MPAA: http://mpaa.org/CurrentReleases/2005_02_10_BitTorr entLokitorrent.doc Seems like it's more real than anyone wants to believe.

    --


    My sig of choice is Marlboro
  104. Ask the right questions? by halleluja · · Score: 1

    Man. I only read the +5 funny moderated replies and skim the article to try and understand the jokes.

  105. MuffTorrent Apology by blacklily8 · · Score: 1
    MuffTorrent is the adult version of LokiTorrent and is "part of the Lokitorrent family." This message was posted there:
    MuffTorrent is now closed due to legal issues. We'll miss this and our other sites as much as you will. Check back often as we will announce all of our newly created sites here. We will not be making any new torrent (or p2p) sites, but we will be making fun and useful sites that make the web what it is, an entertaining and educational escape. Thanks go out to everyone who have donated their time and money to make these sites what they were for the past year and helped to create a community out of an otherwise anonymous internet. Good luck to everyone in their future endeavors, The Muff Torrent staff
    I wonder if the problem is really all the ads and money that these sites generate. I don't know much about the other bit torrent sites, but it seems that all the ads and such really do make it hard to defend a site from attack--after all, not only are you allegedly "infringing on copyrights," but quite visibly profiting by doing so.
  106. Story +5, Funny by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

    This has got to be the funniest thing I've read all year. Thank you, Lokitorrent guy, if this is true, because it's made my day.

  107. YES! by exegesis+clique · · Score: 1

    I have the right to that content because I have been endowed by my creator to view that content. The drafters of the constitution would have a fit if they could see the state of the union. Benjamin: Yo! Tommy! Take a look at this shit. Americans piss their rights away cauze a corporations tells them to! Thomas: Well why the fuck did we even bother! Benjamin: Hell I don't know. Thomas: Lemme see that Musket Benji, I'm gonna replace my brain with lead. Fucktard.

  108. Re:About that USO library by Rei · · Score: 1

    It's GPLed. I'll send you a copy in one to two weeks once the full protocol spec (apart from arp flooding and poisoning, and some on-the-same-network additional anonymity measures) is implemented - the more varied networks it gets tried on, the better. :)

    Right now, it's undergoing a transition from a simple messenger in which I had to specify most of the parameters by hand on both ends to a more general client that does its own negotiation, session management, etc. I finished the address exchange code two nights ago, and the the session establishment code last night; I should have the remote postconfiguration code done either tonight or tomorrow night (local autoconfiguration is already done), and the data transfer code done either sunday or early next week; then I'll need a week or so to make sure I get all of the bugs hammered out of it.

    Also, once I get it working on Linux (it's current testbed), I'm going to need to know someone with a copy of Windows that has a compiler on it (I've been designing it with the notion of keeping it cross-platform in mind). They'd need to set up a build process and possibly help me iron out any platform-dependant issues. If you can think of anyone that might be a help, let me know.

    --
    Don't take a knife to a gunfight, or even a knife to a knife fight. Take a gun to a knife fight.
  109. I think RIAA would chalk anything up by tod_miller · · Score: 1

    I am making a new tin foil hat, this is a great little consiracy, starring P2P, nasty corps, gullible donators, and a rambuncious kid getting rich!

    RIAA haven't got a clue who they sued, for all they know they might have sued him, but don't know.

    Or they thought, heck, we know we aren't suing him, let him do this, and it'll save us the legal costs! Heck we can tell our tax man we *did* sue him, and then maybe another one of our films can scrape by into the black?

    Notice your quote doesn't say they actually sued.

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com