Slashdot Mirror
'I Was a Hacker for the MPAA'
Wired has up an article with a man named Robert Anderson, who was recruited by the MPAA in 2005 to inform on people in the BitTorrent community. In a tell-all interview with the site, Anderson explains how the powerful media organization encouraged him to obtain the information they were looking for: "According to Anderson, the MPAA told him: 'We would need somebody like you. We would give you a nice paying job, a house, a car, anything you needed.... if you save Hollywood for us you can become rich and powerful.' In 2005, the MPAA paid Anderson $15,000 for inside information about TorrentSpy -- information at the heart of a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by the MPAA against TorrentSpy of Los Angeles. The material is also the subject of a wiretapping countersuit against the MPAA brought by TorrentSpy's founder, Justin Bunnell, who alleges the information was obtained illegally."
Mister Anderson...
"...and we will rule the Galaxy together!"
"Noooooooooooo!"
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Wow, they are even cheaper than I thought. $15,000? I know there were other benefits, but I would have laughed in their face.
Tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a 100mbps connection when you are unable to share?
MPAA Lose: Total: (5182 + 7394) * 19.99dlls = $251,394.24dlls/qhote>
Who would have thought dynamic libraries were so popular on p2p networks. I wonder what people do with them.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
You're right, there's no way an MPAA lawyer would say that - It's bound to constitute copyright infringement from some cheesy movie or other.
We would give you a nice paying job, a house, a car, anything you needed.... if you save Hollywood for us you can become rich and powerful.' In 2005, the MPAA paid Anderson $15,000
Where does Anderson live, Lesotho?
"If I can only perl -pi -e 's:torrent:torrentspy4daMPAA:g' torrentSourceCode.c I can become a martyr with my story" said Mr. Anderson as he duped numerous websites into believing his story.
Infiltrated dot Net
They paid him with the profits from Ishtar.
Bark less. Wag more.
It sounds fantastic, but I almost believe this story. Paying someone just $15,000 and thinking it would both make a major dent in their problems and get the kind of service they would need is all of a piece with 'living in a dream world'. The pattern fits - the MPAA has shown in other actions that they would think it's smart to spend lots on politicians, but hire somebody technical with the promise a good job and a pay off in chump change. Look at the small companies they have picked to implement various DRM schemes, and how easily those schemes have failed.
In unrelated news, NASA has hired New Jersey laundrymat owner Marco Delgrepio to create a permanent lunar colony. For now, they're only offering him $15,000, but if he just beats some invading space aliens by uploading a virus from his apple powerbook, he'll get a car. It's a really nice car.
Who is John Cabal?
Wow. But do you use your x-ray vision and power of flight for the good of humanity?
[ think ]
It's pretty clearly obvious that they did not give him $15,000. What they ACTUALLY did was give him a free song download *valued at $15,000*
Jesus, please read the article before writing summaries!
Anderson: Okay, here's the plan. We get the data and then hold the RIAA ransom for... 15 HUNDRED dollars!
Number Two: [clears throat] Sir, strictly speaking, fifteen hundred dollars will not go very far these days. My butler alone makes over fifteen hundred dollars a week.
Anderson: Really? Okay then... we hold the RIAA ransom for 15... THOUSAND dollars!
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Ho boy, he's not going to have a good time when he makes it to the big house. If there's one thing hardened cons can't stand, it's a snitch. And if there's a subset of snitches they really can't stand, it's people who mess up file sharing for everyone else. This one guy had posted a bunch of torrents that were supposed to be really good movies but were instead just mislabeled copies of Britney Spear's Crossroads... that poor bastard got shivved in the shower.
Wait, what's that? He's not going to jail? *throws down hat, stomps on it* What the hell is this country coming to?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I think you guys are on to something. They offer him riches and power and 15k is what he settles for.
Selling your soul is one thing, but selling it cheap is unconscionable.
Remember, though, when it comes to the buying and selling of souls: You get what you pay for.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I read that as they promised him anything.
He probably asked for $10 million and they probably agreed. After deduxcting various ancilliary expenses, office rental, studio time, roadies, electrical power factor multiplier, candy bars, in office Jolt delivery, the deposit on his office key, and various other miscellaneous Usual & Customary Fees, and taxes, his check was about $15k.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
They sat him in front of a notebook where he got a blowjob while someone put a gun against his head and John Travolta counted down from sixty until he caved in to the pressure and used ls /usr/bin to crack the 128-bit encryption securing TorrentSpy's login form.
Hollywood uses that method a lot.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
If they would give him anything, and he only got 15K?????? What an idiot.
Maybe he signed the same contract most as most RIAA artists (there doesn't seem to be much between RIAA and MPAA).
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
If this person had hacked Microsoft and posted the Windows source code online you would all be heralding him as a true freedom fighter. However because he hacked someone you like you say what he did was wrong.
Not really. There is nothing valuable in the Windows Source Code./P>
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
In Germany we have a word for that: "Catch the thief, he has my knife in his back!"
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694
.... and then, like a total fuckwit, I went ahead and read the article, just to make sure I wasn't being a total ass and might have to retract the parent post. Really, it's just good news all around:
(1) No, I don't have to retract the parent post;
(2) I have a quick-heat soldering iron with which to stab out my eyes.
Later!
So the MPAA thinks being rich and powerful is worth $15k? I don't blame the guy for sour grapes -- he needs to write a book, and maybe they can make his story into a movie so he can really cash in -- of course, he probably won't make a dime because the movie will be pirates! But the article is really funny because it shows just who the MPAA really are. They promised everything and delivered nothing!
Typical MPAA/Riaa deal making.
I'm sure his $15million check was cut due to various fees. His final cut was $15,000.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Hmmm... collecting private information to identify people without their knoweldge. I do believe MPAA would be breaking the law here in Canada. Let me talk to my security dude - I'm wondering if I could get the entire MPAA board executive but on Canada's TERRORIST watch list? Seeing how they're spying on Canadians violating privacy laws for 'yet-undetermined activities' - wouldn't that be funny...?
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
If you can't express a thought as a single german word without violating any grammar rules, you're just not trying . . . :)
hawk
Wow! German must be an amazing language if that can be translated into a single word!!
German: proudly turning sentences into words and words into sentences.