Christmas Witch Hunt

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:20 am

A series of news on BitTorrent / eDonkey crackdown:

- MPAA targetting BitTorrent servers
We've been emailed a cease & desist letter from them, with a "sample" of infringing links. We are in the process of working this out with them, as per our copyright policy.
- Youceff shutdown (Updated)
Crackdown is really heating up worldwide (their servers were in France)
- ShareConnector shutdown
Along with some other eDonkey verified link sites.
- A list of affected BitTorrent and eDonkey sites
- Adding to the list, Suprnova.org just announced permanent close down along with TorrentBits

This begs the question of why are copyright owners so bent on shutting things down, when resources can be better spent on embracing new technologies instead. The movie studios sued Sony on VCRs once and failed, and home videos are now a big business. With the Grokster / Streamcast case going to the US Supreme Court, one can only hope that history do repeat itself for P2P. If not... what's the point of the internet again?

iTunes has proven that selling digital media over the internet can be a success. Shouldn't the same happen to TV and movies now?

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:58 am

I find it amusing that this is happening now, as earlier this month, the MPAA was forced to drop several cases against 'pirates' because the infomation they'd gotten from ISP's wasn't legally obtained (loophole). This is more of a temper tantrum that a child would throw if things didn't go their way... albeit, a multimillion dollar child with the legal power of 5 major movie studios. I should also point out that they have tried to do something with the internet, and it has been an utter failure. What they attempted was to make a website with DVD quality new releases on it that it's users would pay $20 by credit card to download the software needed to download the files. Alot of people saw this the same way I did, as an attempt to entrap people, and gain personal infomation for prosecutorial use. The website is still up, and I won't be advertising it here, but that may be the source of the 200-300 civil cases mentioned in the first link you gave. If the MPAA was smart enough (and of course they aren't) they might think about using this site as their search engine for finding people to sue, because this site indexes torrents (and dlinks to the actual torrent sites) and IRC (with links to those as well). There's also a loophole in this if you look hard enough.

Lucy Sherrif of theregister.com wrote:

The organisation, which represents Hollywood's biggest studios, says it will also release free software that will identify music, movies and peer-to-peer software on any computer. This is designed for parents who feel the need to check up on their kids' online activities, and other computer owners whose machines might be used by third parties. The software will flag infringing music or movie files, the MPAA said, allowing users to remove them.

This is NOT what they originally had in mind. It's a spyware ridden trojan put together by the MPAA to find files, and delete them from your machine, without your knowledge.

The MPAA (MPA in Canada and Europe) and RIAA fear the internet. They fear change. They fear evolution. Either that, or they don't understand it, so they attack it blindly, not knowing what it is, or how hard it's going to be to kill. Like the internet evolved from BBS, the MPAA and RIAA will have to evolve and basically 'get with the program'. If they want to compalin about the jobs pirates are costing the people that work for the movie studios, they might want to understand that a good deal of the 'pirates' actually WORK for them. Some work for theaters. And in the end, isn't the internet, P2P, and BT (as well as IRC) just an untapped form of free advertising? If someone likes a song or artist, they might buy the album, something I've done repeatedly in the past. If someone downloaded a movie, watched it, and liked it, they might go spend the $10 (plus the price of popcorn and a Coke) to go see it with other like-minded people.

Strange how that 'like-minded people' remark sounds just like the internet.

Thus ends this rant.

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:59 pm

Estranged wrote:

If the MPAA was smart enough (and of course they aren't) they might think about using this site as their search engine for finding people to sue, because this site indexes torrents (and dlinks to the actual torrent sites) and IRC (with links to those as well). There's also a loophole in this if you look hard enough.

Aiya, don't give them new ideas?! Evil or Very Mad

Now, a practical suggestion would be to release TV eps over BitTorrent, WITH ads. Viewing stats can be collected from tracker logs. Combine it with RSS, and it's not much different from traditional TV broadcasts is it?

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:42 am

IH wrote:

Now, a practical suggestion would be to release TV eps over BitTorrent, WITH ads. Viewing stats can be collected from tracker logs. Combine it with RSS, and it's not much different from traditional TV broadcasts is it?

If you wanted to go that far, why not just use clever product placement in movies to help pay for the costs of making the movie (imagine Arnold havin a Coke and a smile...)

I've just read a few other posts on other sites, and the **AA vs. BT, ed2k, DC war is gettin nasty. Right now, it's on an open, but far from level field, and someone else had a serious point.

kittykelly from another board wrote:

I do agree, though, that these lawyers are pretty appalling. I wonder how many of them are closet download addicts........

Interesting thought. And to top all that off... I've just gotten wind of an FTC 2-day workshop about BT that started yesterday (the FTC examines things, and makes recommendations to Congress). As disturbing as all this sounds, BT is far from dead, and with each blow BT is dealt by the **AA bastards, and their sleazy lawyers, BT only gets stronger, and evolves even further. Eventually, BT will evolve beyond anyone's control (if it already hasn't) and the **AA will be strung up by the 'shorthairs' for all this. The whole fear issue is what they deal on, and they intend to scare people. It isn't working (except for one case, the youceff.com admin who plainly stated, he won't put youceff back up as the french police thing left him "a total wreck")

All in all, if the movie companies were intelligent, they'd just get with the program, evolve, and make better movies. If the Wachowski Brothers can make 'the matrix effect', Hollywood can definitely make a better movie, and use the internet as advertising, instead of attacking what it doesn't understand.

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 4:00 pm

The VHS analogy is interesting, there are many parallels that can be drawn between home taping and bittorrent. However, there are many more differences.

Essentially a VCR records video, Bittorrent and bittorrent search engines, hosts etc. Distribute files of any format to any number of people. Bittorrent is clearly far more effective and potentially damaging when it comes to mass-distributing Intellectual Property for free, a feat virtually impossible with a VCR, unless you're using the same tapes over and over, which would impact quality and convenience quite dramatically.

BT allows its hundreds of thousands of users to obtain en-masse perfect or near perfect reproductions of movies for free, delivered to their homes in a matter of hours. A VHS pirate ring - which, incidentally would receive much more MPAA intervention, if not FBI intervention, than a Bittorrent website - could only hope to reach a few thousand customers in a month and would have to charge.

While I completely disagree with the way they go about it, I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to not try and protect the money they earn. It makes little sense to be surprised and outraged when they do. Additionally, I don't think that Universal Pictures putting together a pay-per-view streaming movie service - which, incidentally, already exists to a certain extent in the form of a Tivo and a DirecTV dish - would have any negative effect whatsoever on the number of unauthorised downloads, (note the word illegal is not actually applicable here, you don't break any laws when you download pirated material, you infringe copyright the act of sitting at your PC downloading a movie harms nobody, saying it has an impact on expected profits is pure speculation.) in fact they would probably increase due to moronic users thinking suprnova is actually an official download source.

Such a service might increase profit margins to the movie studios though, as one bittorrent server is a lot cheaper and more effective than a DVD duplicating plant and distribution chain. They will eventually realise this and offer us DVD quality downloads at $4.99 each, but I certainly won't buy any.

Basically the 80% majority of people, "Them" prefer to pay for what they watch, and would rather avoid doing anything presented to them by corporations and government as "wrong". The 20% free thinking portion of society. "Us", every single one of you reading this, prefer only to pay for what they feel *deserves* it. This has been the way and will always be the way.[/i]

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:07 pm

No I don't expect the studios to sit on their rear and do nothing. But as you said, production and distribution over internet costs next to nothing compared to non digital formats. Their own "download services" doesn't work because they want the same price of $20 as actual dvds, when their costs are so much lower.

To compete with *ahhem* free alternatives, they should offer better quality of service, and they can if they aren't so greedy. Downloads over BT for example is still often slow. If they distribute their works with high speed uplinks as seeds over BT, downloads would be much faster. They can make their profit by putting in ads just as normal TV broadcasts, or something like $3 / movie. It has to be cheaper than traditional video rentals.

While the TV ads model is the better choice since you won't have to worry about DRM and get viewers to pay, movies would be more difficult since people don't expect ads in them except the beginning. DRM should be used in this case on the basis of "pay per play" or "pay more and own it". But not too restrictive, because as we all know, no DRM is uncrackable.

Stop treating people like criminals, and people will buy your stuff.

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:30 pm

the bottom line is this: the mp** (or whomever) could embrace new technologies instead of blindly swatting at it like a child at a piÃ±ata; however in order to do so would cost money. they want to make money, not spend it.

surely, if done properly, they could turn a pretty profit from it eventually; however, in order to do something properly, it costs even *more* money.

there's an old psychology theory i remember. the setting: a kindergarten class. the teacher must go out of the room for a moment, so she offers the children a choice -- you can have one candy now, or two if you wait until I return. usually, half the class wants instant gratification, and the other half will wait for the better prize. which side of the fence do we think these industry big whigs are on?

most of them are so old , they wouldn't even get to see the benefit of the YEARS of study and implementation that would be prerequisite to an actual profit being turned from a legitimate online-based market.
Wink

the way i see it, there's too many loopholes. if i watch a television show, i'm allowed to record it for my own private use. now, with tivo, and with bittorrent, i don't even have to watch the show... but i can say i did. of course, that applies to tv shows, not to music or first-run movies, which (face it) is the majority of bittorrent traffic, i think.

these industry people should just be happy they got the business they had, and they've got the money they've got. as the market changes, so must business. not to mention, no matter how big bittorrent ever gets, there will still be those people who will actually buy things at the store -- people like warranties, and instruction manuals, and actually holding things in their hands. likewise, there will always be those people who weren't going to buy it anyway (like me!), so the companies aren't losing money on that end either.

so long as class exists, so will class warfare. if you are rich, then there are thieves. face it, deal with it, get over yourself and move on. Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:37 pm

Like I said, "Get with the program". Laughing

Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:27 pm

ill never buy a cd,dvd,game again! iv got 100s of cd,dvd,games that iv paid 4 with cash.

now they are stoping p2p im going to get rid of my broadband. the isp is going to be Â£30 a month down as well.

why cant they live with the fact that they will lose some money and not be so f---in tight fisted.

every 1 dont buyany more cd,dvd,games again, then at the end of the year when they look at how much they make and they see a drop in theyer proffits.
then they might not be so hard on p2p

let them f--- it up them self. i aint spendin any more on theyer products!f--k um

Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 4:26 pm

yeah but then watch... we wont buy anything they'll then try and say "" oh this is due to the increased amount of people downloading blah wing blah wing and abit more wing"

i think its about time they wake up and seee that they wont stop p2p. they wont stop bt and they wont stop anything that comes out in the future.

so like everyone says " get with the program" & stop moaning

Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:28 pm

whoa didn't know that many ppl actually read teh "news" section Smile

-gkhan

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:56 pm

oh dear i have just recordered on my dvd recorder christmas carole so i can watch it tomoz does this meen i will get locked up now for piracy. but if i forgot to set the timer and then found it on suprnova is that piracy.

well someone best tell the public what they can record on their recorders because its a right load of bu#####t in it

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 6:50 pm

Another stunning blow has been dealt to BT by the MPAA, and this may signify a knockout punch.

Suprnova.org wrote:

As you have probably noticed, we have often had downtimes. This was because it was so hard to keep this site up!
But now we are sorry to inform you all, that SuprNova is closing down for good in the way that we all know it.
We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links.
We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything.

Along with this 'deathstrike to BT' torrentbits.org has also folded. Seems to me that they are targeting indexing sites.

Comments are, as always, welcome.

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 7:44 pm

yup i had a power-user status at torrentbits....... and NOW ITS GONE Sad

and suprnova is shut down, along with a few other torrents. looks like its a bad week for torrents, wahts next

-gkhan

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 8:09 pm

What's next you ask? I don't think you wanna know. Laughing

Anyway, first, the big ones fall, suprnova, torrentbits, youceff, and so on. Then they go after the smaller ones, filelist, elitetorrent, etc. This is when technology evolves. Although, I'm not the one to do the evolution. Ya know who I really feel bad for? All the new people that just started using torrents like a couple days ago. This is what they get to start with, and it only gets worse from here.