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MPAA Sets Up Fake Site to Catch Pirates
thefickler writes "Media Defender, a company which does the dirty work for the MPAA, has been caught setting up 'dummy' websites in an attempt to catch those who download copyrighted videos. The site, MiiVi.com, complete with a user registration, forum, and "family filter", offered complete downloads of movies and "fast and easy video downloading all in one great site." But that's not all; MiiVi also offered client software to speed up the downloading process. The only catch is, after it was installed, it searched your computer for other copyrighted files and reported back."
I just told all my friends about that site. Knew it was too good to be true.
\.
Can you say "entrapment" boys and girls? I knew you could.
OTOH, it's not like the people who would have been caught by this were innocents. I dislike pirates only a bit less than I dislike the scumbag tactics the MPAA and RIAA have been using to try to catch them. I'd have liked to see how they were trying to entice people to pirate movies and how their site was set up before I judged how wrong this was on a scale from 1 to 10.
--Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
This almost sounds illegal :-/. But hey the MPAA and RIAA are the most important group of people in the world right?
We came,we saw, we kicked it's ass!
I would think that this process of detection would have to be spelt our pretty clearly in the eula for it to even be feisable for them to try to use this against users.
This is obviously cyberterrorism, especially if any government employees download and install that software.
Doesn't this violate various anti-spyware laws? For example, here's Illinois' law:
Creates the Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act. Sets forth provisions for unauthorized collection or culling of personally identifiable information, unauthorized access to or modifications of computer settings and computer damage, unauthorized interference with installation or disabling computer software, and other prohibited conduct. Provides that certain persons may bring a civil action against a violator of the Act. Exempts willful and wanton misconduct from the limitation on liability.
People should not have to worry about tricks like this. It should be (and probably is) illegal. It should be easily punished.
Unfortunately, I'm so jaded that I truly believe no one will get so much as a slap on the wrist over this.
What?
I believe this qualifies as entrapment.
If they control distribution of the material and they are providing free downloads, weren't the just giving away their own stuff? Not quite the same way as Prince was, but still.
Unless an EULA actually states that their software shares your harddisk's contents with another party this it's utterly illegal. Everybody reads the EULA's don't they?
Stories about MPAA shenanigans could just as easily and correctly be entitled, for example, "Sony Sets Up Fake Site..." (Or Disney, or Universal, or Paramount, or Warner). MPAA is, after all, simply their agent in these matters.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Ok, so the MPAA and Mediasentry are doing this 'devious' thing. But how will this go when the program suddenly causes computers to go haywire, etc? Can they sue mediasentry et al?
Fighting over religion is like seeing whose imaginary friend is best.
it's not like the people who would have been caught by this were innocents.
Really? The MPAA is giving their movies away and you did not take one? Does this cost them their copyright?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
First of all, just because the MPAA owns copyright to a movie doesn't mean I can't have a copy of it on my hard drive (or in my DVD library, for that matter).
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
How did you hear about it? I'd be interested in learning how they advertised their existance. Forum posts? I've never heard about this site, and I often frequent the shady parts of town.
"Perhaps Media Defender won't use its own name on the registrar the next time around, but it just goes to show the lengths at which the MPAA is willing to go, to fight piracy." Illegally install spyware on my fucking machine, search my PRIVATE FILES, oh and then to top it off, with the MPAA the mess that it is in, they'll probably sue you for having a file named "Hostel", you may or may not have stayed in a hostel last year on holiday, but it sure does seem like copyright so we're gunna take your hard disk and have a closer inspection of my PRIVATE FILES!
Without huge data transfers, they can't fully check a file, so the best they can do is spy on your file names, and steal your documents, not any media files though, I hope people get sued for this I really do, so the MPAA gets screwed with the huge countersuit.
So, if they provide free movie downloads, does that mean I can legally keep it?
They knew they were going to eventually get caught. It doesnt take a genius to realize that if "going dark" after 10 hours of the article release that they were anticipating this... And I suspect if the media contacts them, then it will be the classic "the intern did it" type response.... These guys make the russian mafia look good by comparison...
Could this not be entrapment because they're looking for pre-existing material? I don't actually know, and I would love to be proven wrong such that the MPAA is, in fact, performing entrapment.
It seems their philosophy is that it's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. It's like a DoS against the government and the people such that the system can't keep up with the flood of their dubious or illegal actions, and they can otherwise afford to pay fines in exchange for scaring people until there's an injunction against the site. Hell, fines were probably factored into the budget for this fake website.
If MiiVi.com is distributing movies with the MPAA's permission, then downloaders are ok.
If MiiVi.com is distributing movies without the MPAA's permission, then MiiVi is in trouble.
Either way, something is wrong with their tactic.
We should all upload videos that are nothing but hours of static, and use it to waste their bandwidth and money. It is time they get a taste of their own medicine.
TWD - TheWhiteDragon
Visit my weblog
This incident highlights what is, perhaps, the biggest reason why RIAA has already lost their battle against piracy and the imminent danger the MPAA faces. RIAA could have limited their depredations to only those pirates who mass produce bootlegs for profit. Instead, they went after the blood of their own customers and employed methods that make the pirates look like the good guys. Root kits, law suits, entrapment, price fixing, you name it. The icing on the cake was the knowledge that the only people they screwed over more than the customer was the artists!
Here in Canada, we have CRIA, which actually managed to get a tax slapped on all recordable media, mp3 players, etc.. Ostensibly, the money collected form this tax is supposed to go to the artists whose incomes are reduced by the evils of all Canadians. It's anyone's guess what CRIA actually does with the loot. Their books are not public. The last time I checked, they weren't paying out bupkiss to indie artists, but aren't they our victims too? As a Canadian, all I see is my money being taken away because I'm a criminal by default and given to the buisness equivalent of the mafia. Bravo!
I've been boycotting all RIAA/CRIA affiliated labels for years. The way I see it, every penny spent on one of their artist delays the inevitable and gives them another opportunity to do irreparable harm to our laws. However, I still go to the cinema and buy DVD's. Why am I not as concerned about the MPAA? Perhaps it's because they have, to date, not stooped to quite the same levels as RIAA in going after their own customers, even though they're already the scum of the Earth behind the scenes.
Here's a word to the MPAA. Take a look at the mess RIAA has made of its affairs. You don't want to go down that road.
any sense of right and wrong includes punishment. however, the punishment must always be less severe than the crime itself. otherwise, you do not have justice, you have revenge
this observation applies to the mpaa/ riaa versus music pirates
this observation applies to social and religious conservatives and why sharia law is wrong/ why homosexuals should be allowed to marry/ etc.
this observation applies to the wackjob end of the liberal spectrum who believe something like 9/11 or bali bombing or 7/7 in london is appropriate response for western cold war crimes, etc.
there's a whole raft of other ideological failures, that are failures simply because they confuse justice and revenge
whatever you believe, if your belief includes responses to perceived crimes that are harsher than the crimes themselves, then that automatically means whatever you believe is wrong, and will fail. this is a cornerstone concept of the validity of any ideology: revenge is not justice. justice elicts support from other people, and therefore is an ideology which can take hold and spread to other people. rvenge elicits no support. it causes others to turn away
and this is why the riaa/ mpaa will never prevail: what they do gets no sympathy. because what they do is worse than music/ movie piracy. it is cold and cruel and therefore without an ability to garner support from the general populace
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Cause you have to tell me if you are.
How we know is more important than what we know.
"A court would laugh in the face of anyone claiming this to be entrapment."
Which court would that be? The court of public opinion, or the legal one?
If it's the government doing it in a criminal case. For civilians in general or to gather evidence for a civil suit, the rules are different.
Seriously. Offering something to download and install on your computer to increase the speed? That practically screams 'malware'.
Technoli
Who knew that a bad Stallone sci-fi movie could provide appropriate social commentary.
MAFIAA: We will pump spyware onto their computers to catch the pirates!
MAFIAA flunkie: But aren't we breaking the law in the process of catching criminals?
MAFIAA: IAMTHELAW!!!!!
W. Bush: And I'm the Decider! *hunches over* heh-heh
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
This is why you should only use a reliable video piracy site, such as "Pirate Bay", or one of the larger "YouTube" immitations.
Seems like you can't trust anyone these days.
You can't cheat an honest man!
Oooh, that's just nasty. And surely illegal. Any lawyers about?
It seems like this would be a case of a copyright owner (or technically a 3rd party with permission from the copyright owner) putting up their own content for download. There shouldn't be anything illegal about that. If Media Defender did it without permission, technically they're the ones that committed copyright infringement.
I think any lawsuit on that should be dismissed. Unclean hands, unauthorized access of a computer, decpetive trade practices, ... a defense lawyer could have a great time with something like this.
Entrapment issues aside (since mpaa is a private organization and does not have the limits put on the GOVERNMENT by the constitution), each one of these scans (if unauthorized) is a copyright violation if perfomred on a computers that contains any sort of creative work (for example a piece of code that someone is working on for their CS101 class). Perhaps mpaa should be reminded what kind of penalty copyright violations carry with them. Reminded, that is, through a subpoena for every instance of such violation.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
As far as I know, copyright law goes something like this. The rights holder is granted a limited monopoly. This right is as such that it stops entities recreating your property. Later on this incorporated the distribution of copyrighted material - ie: you must have the original covering, you must not resale, or identify as your own. Copyright became a right to distribute only the work as the work, and resell only as an item (ie: you can sell a book to a friend, but not the story or change the form of the story).
Copyright doesn't extend into the home. Private affiars, as long as non commerical, are outside the privee of most laws. And if I remember correctly the supreme court ruled (i've been reading a lot of Lessig's work!) that once the intarweb cable enters the home, it is a private affair - ie: you can connect what ever box to the end you want to receive signals.
Take that a little further. If you are positioned to simply receive copyrighted content, you are doing nothing illegal if you are not trafficking. If you use a website to receive copyrighted content, you are also not doing anything illegal. Watching TV, which comprises of 99.999% copyrighted works, is not, to my knowledge, illegal.
So how is receiving (downloading) a pirate movie illegal if it is not stolen, not a bootleg or modified work, not involved in terrorism???
Matt
Only on Slashdot would someone other than the MPAA/RIAA compare illegally downloading something that would cost twenty dollars to molesting children.
And if they spy on your computer otherwise with software that doesn't clearly indicate this in the license agreement, doesn't The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act come into play? Could MediaSentry go down Big Time over this little misstep?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Too bad they can't catch the terabyte torrent distributors, or hell, even the scence itself, so they try to catch the naïve, computer illiterate and often innocent grandmas and children.
Surely you jest. They do that in the US Congress as well don't they?
Read More globaltics.net
Arrrr..
To be honest, this spam is getting old. I prefer the "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT HORSECOCK!" spam because at least that made me giggle a little inside when I read it. Even the GNAA posts were better than this stupid globaltics spam.
Does it run on Linux?
IANAL, but at least the levy ought to give you the right to copy stuff.
And just what have you got against revenge? There's a few thousand terrorists around the world that death after torture is still too good for them.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
by Bob Marley. And I reported that I was George W. Bush and that I had all the Marley classics plus Cindi Lauper's "She Bop", "Girls just want to have fun" and other wonderful music including Bill Clinton on jazz saxiphone. Now let's see what happens.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
OMG, this is fucking great, easy to get videos and MPAA can't do shit here, thanks! ;D
Using Linux for everything as I do means I have access to a lot of tools and a lack of such tools to be used against me. I'm not saying that it CAN'T be done because it can, but it's a LOT less likely. For one, I use primarily OSS so there's enough community review that it's not likely that anything like that would pass for long.
I do use some non OSS on Linux though... I have this UT2004 game... $10 from WalMart online! C'mon! Who pirates when the price is so low?! (If the MPAA, RIAA and/or BSA is reading, take note! Lower prices will defeat copyright infringement, so consider lowering the price and save money on lawyers and investigators.) I also have NeroLinux but since the office has a licensed Nero for Windows, I can legally use the key for Linux too... no really, it's in the EULA or whatever. But outside of that and the proprietary video driver software, it's all OSS.
So when I do go to download movies and such, I stick to the stuff that's not hosted in the US (DUH!) and generally flaunts their "rebellion" by printing letters and responses from US copyright holder groups. That doesn't make me invulnerable but add to the mix the use of things like TOR and I'm okay I guess... (But then again, I generally don't waste my time downloading current release movies either... truthfully, I'd rather see it on the big screen if it's good and on DVD if I liked it on the big screen. I usually only download TV shows and foreign movies so I'm not much of a target anyway...not when there are much bigger targets out there a LOT easier to get at... it's kind of like my anti-auto-theft strategy: Always park next to a MUCH nicer and more expensive car.)
>Surely you jest.
No I don't - and I told you, don't call me Shirley.
Because if it ain't... that's trespassing and collecting evidence illegally.
IANAL, but at least the levy ought to give you the right to copy stuff.
It does. Canadians have a right to copy for private use.
true pirate sites DON'T have "family filters", yarrrrr!!! :P
Doesn't this count as them giving them away?
CRIA doesn't get the loot, CPCC does. They report on how it is distributed. About 15 percent of it is distributed to record companies, but most goes to authors and publishers. You can see the mechanics of it here.
it searched your computer for other copyrighted files
Practically 100% of the files on your computer are copyrighted. Even if those files are music or movies, their mere presence doesn't indicate a breach of copyright. And unless they're transmitting a significant portion of those files back when "phoning home" - and thus running afoul of copyright law themselves in the process, to say nothing of computer trespass laws - merely mentioning the title of a work in a filename or in metadata doesn't authenticate that file as containing what the filename or metadata suggests that it does.
Who could argue with Posner? The Kansas case of Klocek held to the contrary.
http://www.baitcar.com/ Police in Vancouver have been using bait cars for years to catch auto theifs. If that is legal, then this would probably be legal.
insight through the mind
First Post! This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original...
What if this was intentional? You know, look like you're a noob so everyone disregards you, then secretly have skills (or in this case, real honeypot-type sites) to catch them. I don't think this is likely, because of the legal problems created by the 'discovery' of this one, but it's a thought.
Well, I don't know about all this philosophical mumbo-jumbo and legal hoo-ha but I can tell you this: their download speeds SUCKED!!
whatever you want to call it. the site is now down.
This bill has been bounced back and forth between the Illinois House and Senate for two years, without any final action being taken. Bill Status of HB0380 Spyware Prevent Initiative Act
Only Arkansas and Virginia have anything on the statute books, and the Virgina law has openings for the rights agencies you could drive a tank through. To begin, you have to prove "malacious intent."
2007 State Legislation Relating to Internet Spyware or Adware, An Act to amend and reenact 18.2-152.4 of the Code of Virginia, relating to computer trespass; spyware; penalty
Entrapment and spyware, those two things are illegal.
All over the internet there are legitimate free music, and free videos. In fact, the internet is filled with free stuff. Google offers free videos, free software, free *everything*.
I think a reasonable person when confronted with a nice web site that has videos to view would conclude that it was somehow, in the spirit of the magic internet, that it was free and legitimately so.
You can't get a lawyer in this goofy place to explain how the nuances of copyright works, and you expect joe-web-surfer?
Stung by criticism that it was utilizing unlicensed private investigators in order to track down alleged online copyright violators, the RIAA has admitted to "improperly obtaining" user data, and in an unusual near-apology, vowed to clean up its act. "It is time to face the music. We must stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives and get on with our national life. Our country has been distracted by this matter for too long, and I take my responsibility for my part in all of this. That is all I can do," said Mitch Bainwol, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA. Bainwole went on to say, "We have important work to do -- real pirated CDs to seize, real problems to solve, real security matters to face. I now ask you to turn away from the spectacle of the past eighteen months, to repair the fabric of our national discourse, and to return our attention to all the challenges and all the promise of upcoming American entertainment that will be brought to you by RIAA members.
On the same day, the RIAA also announced new software it would make available as a free download called riaaBuddy.
riaaBuddy is an on-screen "intelligent software agent" created by the RIAA, and based upon Microsoft Agent technology. The goal of the program is to help users enrich their online musical experience as they discover digital music together with the included "riaaBuddy," which is an animated, purple Sheryl Crow. Users can interact with Sheryl by asking her questions, get recommendations on new music released by RIAA artist, as well as be politely informed when unapproved websites are loaded.
Other features include, an integrated download tracker, music-related themes, desktops, screen savers, and cute, animated emoticons, bearing a resemblance to top-selling RIAA artists. Also included is a desktop search utility that indexes a hard drive's contents in order to allow the user to easily perform searches.
While initial response to the program has been positive, a few early users complain that the program is buggy. The purple Sheryl Crow is said to only be able to sing the song Daisy Bell. "The program keeps changing my home page to a crappy RIAA home page," said one teenager who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of a RIAA-sponsored lawsuit. There have also been complaints of an increase in pop-up advertising.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
I didn't see anyplace where the mechanism for comparing files was mentioned, and I am neither into IT nor law, but if it just performs md5sums on every 700MB file it can find, would this not consume sufficient resources to qualify as a DoS attack?
The really funny thing is, that was supposed to have been a joke, but being so freaking close to what the MPAA is doing, it really isn't funny anymore.
Transporter_ii
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
That is why they need the scanner program that checks if you have OTHER copyrighted material on your machine that you have downloaded illegally, and this is something they might bust you for.
A problem with this though is that they don't know if you don't have the right to any file a scan finds. If they charge someone who does have a legal right to what's on thier computer it leaves them open to a lawsuit, or a counter lawsuit.
FalconShould there be a Law?
And just what have you got against revenge?
Heh. As cliche as it might be.. an "eye for an eye" leaves the world blind...
Its the people that are posting the movies that are the problem.. If they get rid of them then there is no pirated movies for people to download.. Its kinda like the cops selling pot to kids, and then arresting them for buying pot..
Felony indictment now.
http://outcampaign.org/
So, how does this differ from my setting up a table full of DVDs at the flea market with a sign reading "Free DVDs -- Take One," then asking the cops to bust you when you take one? The "honeypot" analogy just doesn't fly -- while just because an unlocked car with keys in the ignition doesn't give you the right to take it, it would be another thing entirely if the owner put a "Free Car" sign on it.
It's sad, too, because the only people who will get harrassed over this are probably not very net-savvy folks. Who would trust a website blatantly offering free movies? Most who engage in file sharing to any great degree would probably smell a trap right from the start.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
Can it be fooled into sending terabytes of reports of my noninfringing homemade porn (featuring just me) back to them?
To me this sounds like Blockbuster giving away free DVD's, then tell you afterwards you're a thief for taking them.
Here's a word to the MPAA. Take a look at the mess RIAA has made of its affairs.
l abels
You're just justifying your desire to watch your DVDs and go to the movies.
The RIAA and MPAA are just associations. Ever looked at the member organizations?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RIAA_member_
Big four: EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPAA
Big six: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (The Walt Disney Company), Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures (Viacom -- which bought DreamWorks in February 2006), 20th Century Fox (News Corporation), Universal Studios (NBC Universal), and Warner Bros. (Time Warner)
Sony, Warner Brothers, and Universal are common to the list. Many are the same damned companies being represented. You really think your argument holds any moral weight???
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Not that the site really even needs to exist for the news coverage of the story to have its intended effect, or that it would even be possible for the twelve remaining people (myself included) that haven't moved on from Slashdot to Digg could actually put a dent in the site's bandwidth.
Personally though I'm not willing to risk getting my computer subpoenaed by the MPAA, even though I've never downloaded music or movies on any computer. Why? Because I don't want to lose access to my computer while they figure that out.
death and torture is less cruel than what they plan to do
in which case, death and torture is justice, as it is less harsh than their crimes, such as bombing civilians
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Is it just me, or was that a pretty obvious fake? For one, there's no way I'd download any special download software that's only used on one site, ever. That just screams "spyware" to me, no matter how you look at it. In this case, it happened to spy for the MPAA, but I wouldn't put it past some shady download site to do the same and I wouldn't touch software like that with a 10 foot pole.
As for whether or not it's entrapment, I don't see many lawyers here. At best, I suspect it might run afoul of various anti-spyware laws, assuming any of them have teeth. Of course, not unlike the scammers who use similar tricks to get you to do something illegal (making you an accomplice, and thus someone unwilling to turn them in) they've gotten you to infringe upon someone's copyrights making it unlikely that anyone will want to come forward. But still, I wonder, would anyone sued as a result of these investigations be able to claim that the copies they downloaded were authorized by the copyright holder because of the way they put them out there? You'd think they'd be holding the weaker hand with that claim, but I wonder... they do have the money for expensive lawyers, after all.
can you say illagle of course they whont get in any truble the case will go away and the juge will have a new farrie. money makes laws and well they have money. and the mpaa is a even bigger beast them the riaa. people can stop buying music cds couse they suck anyways but not buying some huge hit movie is alot harder yes they relese alot of crap to but they do still come out with some relly good ones. but if they sink as low as the riaa who knoes. i relly dont think they relise they encurage priecy by fighting it and such blanent sites only inform un-savy users that hey they can get the stuff for free then start searching other sources for it.
Here's how you can play their game against them.
Buy a cheap used laptop with a working wifi. Don't ever use it on your networks. Install a clean install of Windows on the system; Windows that you bought with cash from Best Buy or Circuit City; not with a credit card. Don't let Windows try to register through your own network.
Using a public access Wifi AP, download a bunch of movies onto the system. Fill'er up with stuff.
Create / Install a remote console on the system.
Fine a MPAA exec with less-then-steller children. Find out where they go to school.
Sneak into that school and place the laptop in a place where it can be easily stolen. Hope that the MPAA's exec's child steals the computer.
When the computer goes on line, use the remote console to have the computer go to the entrapment site. Do the whole bit of downloading and allowing their spyware find all the other stuff on the system.
Profit!
Seriously, this looks like a job for VMWare! Fight honeypots with honeypots!
Make a virtual machine completely empty other than a copy of Windows. Download their software onto it, and download the movies. The software has nothing to report back.
Get the movies you want, then zap the VM.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
how does doing something less cruel than what our enemies planned to do to us make us like them?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Man goes to site to download. All of a sudden police bust into his room. Dialogue ensues..
Man: What the??
Police: Hands behind your back. Down on the ground now!
Man: I was just..
Police: Bangbros episode 23. Who's your daddy and Playboy Calendar 2005? Geez. This guys a sick horsecock.
Man: It was ju..ju..ju...just a joke. I wasn't REALLY going to watch them.
Police: Take him to the station. This man digusts me.
I'm fairly certain the software download was probably for Windows only.
Meh.
How did the website get the content to distribute?
It downloaded it from the MPAA
So, it willfully committed the very same crime it is now attempting to entrap others into committing?
Easiest case to beat yet if you ask me
ps. Counter-suits make this kind idiocy stop.
Any discussion about US copyright must start with the fact that these folks have paid lawmakers to subvert copyright to make it effectively infinite: 70years + life of the author, or 95/120 years depending on circumstances. These terms are completely absurd and they change the reasons for ALL the behavior in the marketplace of copyright-protected IP.
There is no rational discussion that can occur about "fair", "legal", "right or wrong", until this time scale for copyright is corrected. It is my opinion that the term should be about 20 years max regardless of circumstances.
Crikey, with criminals who have brains THAT rotted by junk, you would think it would be easier to lock them all up. "Whoa man, I just had this trip and got a real good idea to get one over on Johnny Law. Here it goes: Ask him, man, are you a cop? And he'll say yeah. And then I'll say 'Well then I will not sell you this here kilogram of weed, because that would be, like, illegal.'"
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Could someone who has a legal background comment on whether this is entrapment or not?
If you say "Yeah, please, root my box so that I can get free movies.", then it is NO LONGER UNAUTHORIZED.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Sounds like what Sony did. They should be sued for this kind of activity. It's strange there is no Goggle cache or a copy of the site on the WayBackMachine.
We all feel left out; We run linux!
wait for it.....
here it comes....
"But... Does it run linux?"
I don't want a pickle; I just want a Motor-Cycle! A four foot cop arrived with a five foot gun!
Here is an idea that may be worth a business model for a new and improved MPAA response to digital distribution.
Since copying is illegal but public libraries are fair use, what if it were guaranteed that the file were erased from the originating computer after the transfer was completed? For example a library of some number of movies (multiple copies of each movie) could be purchased and distributed among some number of users. The software to distribute the movies could be based on BitTorrent but after I download a copy of Movie A it is removed from at least one of the other users. Movies that have been stored on or downloaded onto my machine that I want to watch would be queued on my machine for a period of one week. The movie would rejoin the delete queue after one week or if I marked it as ready for delete.
the number of movies on a user's Watch queue could be limited if need be. The total number of users can grow by growing the library: each new user must pay a one time fee equal to a new movie. the original library would have to be seeded with donations but if a DVD ripping format and encoding were agreed upon we could all donate our personal dvd collections. the more we donate the more we are allowed to have on our watch queues. download speed and priority could be controlled based on hdd space provided for shares not on watch queues and available up load speeds of different users.
Thank you, MPAA, for weeding the general public of the lower 5%. May I suggest you shoot them first, and then yourself? You'd do us all a great favor.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Does this run on Linux?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I'd rate you up if I had any mod points
A community-oriented lyrics site
If they offer files for download, and you download them, then there is an absolute defence, that you had permission. If you upload files without the copyright holder's permission, then there is no defence. You were deliberately infiringing copyright.
they don't give you permission to copy.
They did.
Does anyone have a list of files that they putatively shared so that I know to pass this list on to the courts and ask for a declarative judgement stating these files are free to share.
I suspect that this can be rescinded if the copyright owners state publicly that this site was their agent and is no longer and now withdraw the offer of free copies.
"Legalize It" is by Peter Tosh. You fail it...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
And is it less cruel to target millitary buildings or warn ahead of time? Is torture worse than that? If so, what are they are now ALLOWED to bomb such "valid" targets and you no longer are allowed to torture them.
What if someone not involved thinks that the death of 30,000 civillians is so bad that the torture and beheading of a complicit american (and since GWB is the man in charge and the US voted him in *agan*, that would be ALL americans) is acceptable on this scale.
Do you go "ah well, we deserved it"?
THAT is why using the tools of the enemy is a bad idea. We then make justification for them to continue: they just weight the things going on differently.
This sounds like a Trojan horse to me. That would make the felony level illegal... Like the Sony root kit.
An engineer who ran for Congress. http://herbrobinson.us
The dutch law is very clear about this. Under dutch law it's completely legal to download stuff from the internet. This is mostly due to the fact people will download anyway. They put a special tax on empty cd's and dvd's to compensate the loss of income. (and yes, the compact cassette had a same tax)
;) )
Also, under the same dutch law, it's illegal to offer copyrighted materials for download...
I for one would be very interested to see what the judges think of this kind of setup. Would it stand up in dutch court or would the US law be enforced. (Ah well, as long as the US think they can evade international laws... who cares about the US laws.
... Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
Why should we buy from criminals like the MPAA? IT makes no sense to fund this sort of thing
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
In the UK i think this would fall under the false advertising laws. The fact that they advertise you can get it for free means its perfectly fine for you todo this. They are in fact breaking the law if they says its for free and its not.
As noted above: Unclean Hands.
Bet Nintendo will be absolutely thrilled over the fun this is going to cause them. This almost sounds like the kind of site where you'd go to watch videos encoded specifically for the Wii.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Does anyone know: has the RIAA pulled this kind of a stunt as well - set up some kind of torrent site, or music sharing site, or similar? It would probably be good to make this kind of thing as public as possible.
Cuban Music MP3's - cuband.com
I'm sorry - if you actually INSTALL an application that supplies you with illegal material (I mean an app like this, rather than something like BitTorrent which is just aids the transport), you deserve to be caught.
You have all these sites that say "Sign up now - give us your personal details, etc.". Who the hell actually signs up to these? You're physically saying "This is who I am - I am now goinging to perform an illegal action".
It's like criminals breaking into a house and leaving contact details behind, with a signed confession!!
If you're going to do something illegal, at least have the sense to do it anonymously!!
So it's time to dig out that old PC from the attic that you don't use any more, wipe it clean, install an old copy of Win98 or something (I assume the spyware/ dl-client is Windows-only) and start downloading! I don't mind it scanning my computer if that computer is one without any other content at all...
I get tired of listening to the EULA agreement argument, Either point me in the direction of the Program/Cache of the website or please quote the EULA to somewhere so that it can be viewed and reviewed. Curses being at work or I would have done this when I first saw it and it was still up. Looking forward to information.
MiiVi, as in "Milli Vanilli"?
Did I read that right?
If that's the inference, then I have to give the RIAA +1 for being cute and tongue-in-cheek.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
If they say "BrtneySpears_Hit_Me_Baby_One_More_Time.mp3" on the file name but it contains garbage, there's no expressive content and it isn't copyrighted, so no fraud committed by the act. If it is copyrighted by the server owner (directly or as an agent) then by saying "please download this file" they have given the right to copy the file so no fraud committed by this act. If the file does not contain the putative content (thereby not giving consent to the song it says it is but isn't) then you have either:
1) the putative song wasn't downloaded so no fraud
2) the downloader *thought* you gave permission to copy the putative song so whether it is or is not, there's no fraud committed when they attempt a download
So it really can't help, can it.
you danced around it with a bunch of hypotheticals
fact is, if someone plans on the mass murder of civilians on purpose, by surprise, there is little that you can do to them that is worse than what they have already planned
you have a nice way of framing those who commit horrendous crimes as somehow understandable or explainable. they aren't. if the usa disappeared into a giant lake tomorrow, the guys we are talking about wouldn't celebrate and turn into pastoral sheep farmers. they would go right on with their murderous agenda. because what they do has to do with an agenda all of their own making, not as some reflection of anything the usa ever did. of course, they use what the usa did as an excuse, but they'd have any excuse handy, no matter how much the usa changed its behavior, because their behavior is all about their own agenda, not anything the usa ever did
a lot of people like you don't seem to understand that simple truth. you understand what these guys do as a reflection of something the usa did. nope. wrong. what did the balinese do to deserve to be bombed? oh yeah, those horrid imperialist balinese. how about the spanish tourists who were just car bombed in yemen last week? hey, after the madrid subway bombings, they got rid of the government complicit with the usa. by your reasoning, that makes the spanish free of attack
or just maybe you don't really understand how these guys think. at all
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
doesn't work in text :-p
:n
That's nasty .
1. Have friend hire some models and take pictures of them nekked.
2. Put said pictures on MY site.
3. Have friend sue anyone who enters my site, but "neglect" to sue me for putting them up.
4. Profit!!!
Badgers, we don't need no stinking badgers! - UHF
yup, their mafia like behavior is so bad i can't really justify paying for music anymore. i only rent movies, i'd rather not give them anymore money than i can help.
its a sad position to be in..when you've made your customer feel dirty handing you money.
Your answer is that it doesn't matter, they'll come after you anyway.
Are you innocent? They don't care. It's completely irrelevant, because you'll be given a choice: Pay us a couple of thousand dollars and this will be over with, or go hire a lawyer that is much more expensive and defend yourself. Pay attention the the news here, and read up on their tactics. The RIAA/MPAA has a history of going after people that it knows are innocent.
If you choose option #2, you'll waste all kinds of time and money, possibly even face financial ruin as a result of paying dozens of thousands of dollars. In the end, after the RIAA/MPAA's lawyers have extracted as much money from you as they can, the RIAA/MPAA will drop their case. It will all just silently go away, except for the bills from the lawyers.
You've mistakenly assumed that it's all about your guilt or innocence as an individual person. The real point is to keep up appearances for their extortion ring to continue to be effective. The real point is to scare the shit out of people so badly that whether you're innocent or guilty, you'll still pay up.
Let's not fool ourselves, this is organized crime, plain and simple, except that for now, it's still legal. (Organized "Legal," I guess you'd call it.) What can you do about it? Well, if the thought of paying a lawyer to defend you and, if you actually want damages from the RIAA/MPAA for screwing around with you, paying $114,000 to a lawyer (the amount that is at stake in the most famous to date case of Capitol v. Foster), then you need to support organizations dedicated to changing the laws to make this type of extortion illegal. I would suggest the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who has a pretty good record of success, but at the very least, you need to write to your Congresscritters and let them know that the current situation is unacceptable.
Isn't this the legal equivalent of speed traps and illegal entrapment? Everyone who used the site should call the cops on the MPAA and Media Defender.
Entrapment is obviously okay when involving crime involving the internet! You don't think so? Why are you defending those child molesters, then?
(I have never seen To Catch A Predator, but I am a bit confused about exactly what crime was committed if there are no children involved.)
like in california. something about misrepresenting what the software actually does AND using it for surveillance. Am I wrong?
I'd be curious to see if there are tags built into the files from this site.
Again, I'd like to say... If you downloaded anything from this site, delete the files immediately. They could be tainted beyond help.
Please, wont someone think of the pirates?
Arrrr matey.
Internet: Serious Business
It's good to see them do a 180 on this issue.
Does anyone have a definitive answer as to if these were actually movies or just dummy files?
I think it's clear that people should be allowed to rip their own music, even the RIAA has mentioned that it doesn't want to start suing people who do this (that's too much bad publicity even for them). Certainly iTunes allows you to rip music and movies and put them on your iPod, and you don't see the RIAA suing Apple now, do you? Admittedly, Copyright law doesn't specifically spell that out as fair use yet, but if that ever got tested in court most of us are confident that ripping your own CDs for your mp3 player would be considered fair use, just like the copy of this post your computer makes when viewing Slashdot is considered fair use and not copyright infringement.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
What is so stupid about this sleezy tactic is that there is no guarantee that any videos on a person's hard drive is illegal.
1. The Movie COULD BE converted using commercial off the self software. Divx Pro can do it along with many others. Just walk into your nearest computer store.
2. TV Episodes can be recorded via any TV tuner card. Such as WinTV cards.
The presence of movies and tv episodes on the hard drive doesn't make it illegal.
\
Epic troll. I tip my hat to you, sir.
+5, Truth
Isn't that entrapment? Beyond that, isn't providing pirated material illegal as well? Seems like the idea isn't well thought out and probably wouldn't hold water in any suit over piracy.
crap.
So what you guys are saying is that the MPAA holds copyrights on child porn, and they set up this site to catch them pirating it?
Unless you are currently torturing to death people...
Why do you think the 11/9 incident happened: people on Saudi Arabia and nearby countries didn't want the US in the ME. The US kills many civilians and, from their POV keeps arming Isralis who kill more arabs. So therefore, killing americans by any means possible for a small, under-provisioned and loosley knit collection is acceptable. Because, to these people "the US deserve it: killing 1000 americans is less bad than killing 10,000 arabs".
Whether 9,000 of those arabs were committing acts of violence against others isn't what they see as relevant. Just as you don't see thier complaints against the US as relevant.
So they are as justified in their acts as you believe you are in yours. You will torture them, they will torture you.
I fail to see where the difference between you two is. Who's the good guy?
I have never seen To Catch A Predator, but I am a bit confused about exactly what crime was committed if there are no children involved.
Questions like that only embolden the enemy.
Isn't this entrapment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment)? Maybe it isn't since the police are not involved. Also, it seems the real issue is what the trojan horse finds by scanning the HDD rather than downloading the content, but that seems like fraud. What's in the EULA?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
So if it is legal for them to lure you in to sue you, is the opposite true?
Can I set up a ton of fake copywrited files on an otherwise clean machine with filenames like "Brittney Speres - Crapsong.mp3" and "American Midol - Season 3.mpeg" but have the content really be non copywrited material like say family videos and folk songs, and then install their software, get sued by them, and then counter sue?
just a thought..
Easily the most insightful thing said on /. in a long, long time. Honest.
MPAA and RIAA have both gone on record stating basically that downloading copyrighted work is more costly than other crimes, which of course includes molestation. And of course, cost is all that matters - not shattering lives like RIAA has so many times before.
Its not always a bad thing to help, but check your local laws first (remember, ignorance of the law is not a defense).
Ummm, ignorance of the law is a great defense. When you establish accountability the first things taken into account are intent, knowledge, wrecklessness, and negligence.
see wiki for more details. According to wiki in Australia these are simply called fault elements.
In living in Victoria myself, and have in fact taken a "found wallet" to the police before with no id in it, they gave me a call a few months later(well, a friend who works there did at least) to advise me that since it hadn't been claimed I could submit a request for claiming the funds.
If you found a wallet, you should try to find the owner. The law might require you to go to the police, but if your intent was to find the owner, and were ignorant of the letter of the law, this would make a GREAT defense.
While most places there is the rule "ignorance is no defense", in practice it's the best one available. In reality, being stupid is not a crime, neither is having a faulty memory. Even in places that have strict liability in place, even then in practice ignorance is a great defense. Traffic violations are a good example of this, where you can almost always tell it to the judge and at the very least talk your way down in terms of fine. For example, I ran a red light at an intersection marked no right on red. I told the judge "I didn't see the sign, went back and there is a sign, just never noticed it". I was still accountable, but failure to yield and a fine of $20.00.
But in a civil matter, the rules are more vague than criminal.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
just cheapened every +5 funny mod I've ever got....thanks ;)
A goal is a dream with a deadline
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/ne
so you keep blaming the west for what terrorist assholes do. you earn my contempt, the derision of the terrorist assholes, and a complete blind ignorance of the truth of what is going on in your world. congratulations, you're a sheltered propagandized western sheep: "terrorist assholes bomb the west: it's the west's fault, baaaaaah"
this is your problem: you think what these assholes do has absolutely anything to do with what the usa did. if the usa didn't ever do any of it's cold war crimes or if the usa acceded to every agenda item of the jihadists, what would happen?
what would happen is that the jihadists would keep right on attacking the west. because what they do IS NOT A REFLECTION OF THE WEST. jihadist asshoels do not attack the west because the cia killed che guevara, or because of nike sweat shops in indonesia, or because the usa didn't sign the kyoto protocol, or because of walmart, or any of your retarded fringe concerns. jihadists bomb the west BECAUSE OF THEIR OWN ORIGINAL RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY
wake up, sheltered propagandized western retard, your blind ignorance is showing
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If you are thinking about molesting children then it is the same as molesting children, DUH.. eventually you would find a child and molest him/her, better to stop you now before a child is hurt.
This is great proactive behavior on the behalf of our government but i think we can do better, statistically speaking there is a percentage of people who will go to jail, the percentage is higher in some cities than others.. we could pro actively round up that number of people each year and put them in prison and save tons of police manhours.
OR even better put everyone in jail from age 8 on, and then the ones who exhibit good behavior can be released after 10 years or so (when they can become productive members of society, re:consumers/wage earners). Problem solved.
i try to understand how people like you think, and it just utterly escapes me. the best i can get at is that you suffer from a subtle form of racism. basically, you see westerners as responsible people, and you see middle easterners as irresponsible. you hold westerners responsible for what middle easterners do. no matter what. EVEN when a nonwesterner attacks the west, EVEN when they do it in the name of a stilted interpretation of their own religion. it's fucking incredible! it's racism, condescension, patronization
let's put it this way you blind propagandized low iq sheep: in a world where only westerners can be held accountable for anything in this world (your way of thinking of the world, not mine), then, by logical inference, westerners will be in the middle east forever. after all, they are the only ones you hold accountable for anything, right? therefore, they are the only ones, IN YOUR MIND, who can fix anything in the middle east. it's an extension of your retarded logic: westerner's 100% accountable and responsible, for everything. fucking insane
meanwhile, in a world where you can hold middle easterners responsible for what middle easterners do (what a radical concept! i know! i'm WAY out there!) then you can begin to see the west leave the middle east
people like you just blow my mind. it's mystifying, your blindness, your subtle racism
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... of the MPAA See my small cartoon: http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2007/07 /did-you-know-th.html
Bye,
Oliver
The site's not only down, the domain has been parked. Not necessarily as a result of being slashdotted. The torrent blogs are all over this. If they come back up there will no doubt be a surge of uploaded "videos" that will annoy the cr@p out of their monitors. This kind of thing rapidly becomes a no win situation as soon as folks find out about it. You'd think they'd save their money.
You forgot option #3. Kill them and bury the bodies in a shallow grave behind the shed.
But if you do, please shoot a video and post a torrent. That would be entertaining.
They got caught running a site; the purpose of which was the implied download of movies.
They suggested the installation of client software to facilitate the download of movies, this software
scanned the host installed for illicit files and phoned home.
Once caught they removed all evidence of it's existence.
One could presume that they're actions would suggest knowledge of wrong doing.
A search for google cache for this site reveals nothing, but the site has been up and registers since after the 7th of February.
Anyone have web-cache of this site? Anyone have the client installed? If you do you might have cause for a legal complaint
and a subpoena to seize their machines, one that is accelerated in nature as they are attempting to cover their tracks.
IANAL but this seems like a good way to get a foot in the door of their perfectly 'legal' operation.
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
No, it is not reporting home. It is making a list that the USER AUTHORIZED to make.
Now, if this list is sent to MPAA central now that is not an authorized action.
I would contend if the action is not authorized, then it would be a violation of California Penal Code 502.
Fight Spammers!
It will be really hard to implement this in a user friendly way
Well, AppArmor (available for Linux) has fairly straightforward configuration files for major apps. So it can, for example, ensure that your Firefox can only read/write your download directory and the system directories it needs to.
"personal accountability"
let's see if you can use it in your ideology someday
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it