MediaDefender's Parent Company Joins P2P Market

An anonymous reader writes with news that ArtistDirect, the company who acquired MediaDefender, has launched another company called PiCast for the purpose of P2P video distribution. The reader says: "This is a strange twist for a company which last year set up a video-sharing site called Miivi in an attempt to entrap users uploading copyrighted content, and was caught launching a DoS attack against Revision3, which we discussed earlier this year."

Comments

Re:Not quite

[thetoadwarrior]

The blogosphere does not exist so people should quit using such a lame word.

Re:Not quite

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh... BULLSHIT.

I don't know what set of emails you read. But the ones i read sure paint these people as complete scumbags looking to entrap users by any means.

While laughing about screwing people over for what they were doing themselves.

Strange twist?

[mwvdlee]

"This is a strange twist for a company which last year set up a video-sharing site called Miivi in an attempt to entrap users uploading copyrighted content, and was caught launching a DoS attack against Revision3, which we discussed earlier this year."

How is setting up another scam service considered a "strange twist"?

Re:Strange twist?

[sleeponthemic]

"This is a strange twist for a company which last year set up a video-sharing site called Miivi in an attempt to entrap users uploading copyrighted content, and was caught launching a DoS attack against Revision3, which we discussed earlier this year."

How is setting up another scam service considered a "strange twist"?

It isn't a strange twist for them to be setting up a legit company for legit paid-for content either.

Infact, the only "strange twist" that could occur is if they went against their primary motive of chasing cash from their activities in p2p - and suddenly decided to support piracy in earnest.

Re:Strange twist?

[zappepcs]

It's only strange because the editors did not give this story an 'isatrap' tag. MediaDefender and more specifically it's board spent too much time watching 'It takes a theif' and snorting coke when they should have been paying attention in law school.

Oh where Oh where is Judge Roy Bean when you need him. He'd bring Chuck Norris in as the bailiff, and ninjas as the jury, then ask the entire prosecuting attorneys team questions from an LSAT study book before each day of court to ensure they actually sent lawyers. I want to see Chuck escort one or two of them out of the courtroom for being fakes.

Re:Strange twist?

[SanityInAnarchy]

It isn't a strange twist for them to be setting up a legit company for legit paid-for content either.

Given what they did to Revision3, which was a legit company distributing legit, free content, it seems like very much a strange twist.

Of course, if I get slightly more cynical, of course it makes sense -- good PR about them doing legit P2P, to counter bad PR about them attacking legit P2P. In fact, in light of this, the attack on Revision3 makes sense -- it would be an attack against a competitor.

Re:Strange twist?

[zappepcs]

Obviously you do not know the legend of Judge Roy Bean. Ninjas are invisible, right? That's what the jury box would look like... empty.

Re:Not quite

[hairyfeet]

TFA also forgot that MD also dabbled in the porn business for awhile. As for why this is news,I want to know any business that MediaDefender is in so I can avoid it like the clap!!! Let me put it this way: With all the low down,dirty,underhanded,sneaky bullsh*t that they have pulled over the years would YOU want their software to have access to your machine? Would YOU trust them with your CC? I'm guessing that is a big no. These guys aren't any more trustworthy than the ones writing viruses. And why hasn't someone busted their @ss for the DDoS BS? I thought that was illegal?

Re:Not quite

[phoomp]

Because it's quite obvious that the big content owners have significant influence over our legal systems.

Re:Not quite

[Nullav]

Really? Then what's that big yellow thing I keep seeing past the clouds?

Re:Not quite

[Goaway]

All right, so dig out one of those supposedly incriminating mails and show us!

Of course...

[bhunachchicken]

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em...

Re:Of course...

[Ron_Fitzgerald]

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em...

I am more inclined to believe that it is a simple business rule to go where the money is. Soon they will have run their current well dry and need a new money maker to move on to. But I didn't bother to RTFA.

Re:Not quite

[elrous0]

That's just Steve Jobs' ego.

It's a trap.

[Sir_Lewk]

If ever there was an article deserving of the "itsatrap" tag...

Re:Not quite

[Kneo24]

Yes, sincere so that they could flood the "market" with fake files, among other things. Nothing in the e-mails made it seem sincere about what they had in mind (nor un-sincere). All they wanted to do was distance the names from each other.

I can see why they wanted to distance the names from each other, but they could have spun it in a positive fashion if they wanted to.

In any case, would you trust any sort of service coming from these jackals?

Re:Not quite

[BronsCon]

Because it's quite obvious that the big content owners have significant influence over our legal systems.

Yet they still have no control over our illegal systems; thus why such systems exist.

If I pay for it, it's my system, I want to control it. If you want it to be your system so you can control it, don't take my money and hand it over to me.

(I know, you meant legal system, but your ironic typo left set quite a nice stage for me to make my point.)

Re:Not quite

[Goaway]

Yes, sincere so that they could flood the "market" with fake files, among other things.

I got the impression they'd be selling it as a more controlled form of P2P, that would have copyright filters and such in place to prevent the need for those kind of tactics. Whether they could actually provide that is another question entirely, of course.

In any case, would you trust any sort of service coming from these jackals?

Probably not. But it wouldn't be because of those mails. The mails made it seem a lot less malicious than what my first impression of it was.

Not entirely accurate

[easyTree]

"There's nothing more difficult than trying to intercept a 3-gigabit file of a new movie release," says PiCast vice president of business development Jonathan Lee.

*cough* Other than somehow making your group of companies appear less-than-evil. Good luck with that btw, :D

Re:Not quite

[Sj0]

You shouldn't be attacking his incorrect use of a plural! Just because you're on the Internets doesn't mean you can clogg up the series of tubes(not to be confused with a big truck) with your hatred. The Google will cache those pages!

Re:Not quite

[BronsCon]

Lulz.

True or not, I don't trust them...

[Xenographic]

Well, the nice thing is that even if they're sincere, they'll still be hacking & DoSing their competitors.

Oh, and I read those emails too, but I didn't see much about MiiVi at all, except when they were talking about the bestiality and child porn filters (apparently they have samples of that stuff!?!).

Unfortunately, MediaDefender-Defenders.com seems to have vanished a while back (it forwards to TPB instead of having browsable emails), so I can't really check any more. Yeah, there are torrents that are still around, but they don't seem well-seeded any more.

Ironic

[Greyor]

Doesn't this seem like a huge conflict of interests to anyone?

"Defending" media (ha ha); now they're making their job easier... entrapment perhaps?

Re:Not quite

[BronsCon]

But only one over which they demonstrate any control. I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.

Re:Not quite

[ion.simon.c]

This is slashdot. You can say 'ass' here.
TBH, I don't think that we've ever received an official visit from the FCC.

Re:Not quite

[adona1]

Cory Doctorow's balloon?

Re:planet/population defenders join creators

[easyTree]

+1 switched-on cookie
+1 underrated.