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May 25, 2005 3:10 PM PDT
Feds shut down BitTorrent hub
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Homeland security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group's main server. The agency said it was the first criminal enforcement action aimed at copyright infringers who use the now-popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology.
Visitors to the Elite Torrents Wednesday found a bright red screen displaying a message that operators were under investigation for criminal copyright infringement.
"Our goal is to shut down as much of this illegal operation as quickly as possible to stem the serious financial damage to the victims of this high-tech piracy--the people who labor to produce these copyrighted products," Acting Assistant Attorney General John Richter said in a statement. "Today's crackdown sends a clear and unmistakable message to anyone involved in the online theft of copyrighted works that they cannot hide behind new technology."
Federal investigators have been increasingly active during recent months in targeting organized groups of copyright infringers online, a process that has dovetailed with civil litigation launched by Hollywood studios and record labels.
Wednesday's action was part of an operation dubbed "D-elite," which targets administrators and people who provided content that was distributed through the EliteTorrents.org site.
According to the investigators, the "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" movie was made available though the site before being shown in theaters, and was downloaded more than 10,000 times. The site had 133,000 members and distributed more than 17,000 individual movie, software and music titles, investigators said.
"Today's actions are bad news for Internet movie thieves and good news for preserving the magic of the movies," said Motion Picture Association of America Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman in a statement. "Shutting down illegal file swapping networks like Elite Torrents is an essential part of our fight to stop movie thieves from stealing copyrighted materials."
Investigators provided no details on the specific locations of the raids, but said that prosecutions would be coordinated with agencies in Arizona, California, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology allows people to download and upload files from each others' hard drives. But it requires links to be posted on a Web site, and typically utilizes a "tracker" software, located on a central Net-connected hub, that directs traffic between these computers.
It is these central hubs that have been the targets of movie studio lawsuits, as well as of today's federal actions. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security, acted on the search warrants Wednesday.
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It is more, and more, obvious everyday that the "security"-card, is nothing more than a PATHETIC-SHAM. This sort of thing PROVES the real reasons behind the most unprecedented destruction of CIVIL-LIBERTIES, and the most STAGGERING EXPANSION of "law-enforcement" power, in recent American history.
And, it is also pretty obvious, just who, the United States government now, obediently, serves.
And, it sure as hell, is NOT,
...The Citizens
...The Constitution
Or,
...The Nation.
Welcome, to the new United States...
Where the U.S. Constitution has been permanently suspended...
Where you will soon have to carry your national identity-papers at all times...
Where all of your communications are monitored by the government...
And, The government, solely, serves a small group of powerful property-owners.
Give me a break!! All that talk may sound good, but how many people who engage in file swapping are serious high-tech pirates who cause serious financial damage to movie companies?
Better to go after those who are pumping out illegal copies for sale. Those kind of bad guys have been getting their hands on illegal copies of movies long before file swapping or BitTorrent was around.
meanwhile...back at the ranch...can somone explain how this falls under homeland security????
I'll be frank, I don't support unauthorized file sharing of copyrighted materials and I think police work is actually the right way to deal with the problem, not unconstitutional legislation, and certainly not a new GESTAPO (which this action, if true, shows the HSA may very well be). The message I get from this simply confirms what I've thought since the DMCA. That is, the government of the USA has been bought and paid for by multinational corporations and what I call the WIPO Mob. The public interest and the principles upon which the nation was founded have simply been SOLD out.
Maybe if Osama copied a CD our Homeland Security forces could find him?
Frihet
www.litenverden.org
This, right after Star Wars set new box office records. Is this what my tax dollars are going towards?
2. I've seen this copy, the quality is homemade porn at best, the reason for seeing the movie is to appreciate the stunningness of it, so, you're not really losing it there.
3. I would suspect that 70-80% of those who downloaded it, SAW IT IN THEATERS ANYWAY!! You should be happy for the free promotion!!!
MPAA, if you want to beat this game, do what the RIAA has already learned to do. CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL!! If the threat is substantial enough that it can be done via currently free software, the offering that YOU could make in the market should be as good if not better.
I understand, the record industry has no "release cycle" so to speak where it is sent to theater, then to DVD, then to cable, then to broadcast and so on. But, if you look at what they are doing, I would be willing to bet they are seeing a turnaround in their revenues--which, we never seem to hear about, funny, there has to be SOME interest in one of the record companies finances and whether or not this new system is paying off for them). I digress.
You could probably even keep the same model but implemented a different way. Digital distribution to all theaters (encrypted, of course). Then have a model where you sell both DVDs and lower quality MPEG-4 downloads. Both encrypted, and a discounted price for downloads.
You must stop wasting our government resources guarding your industry and start taking responsibility for coming up with a better system yourself.
HOW IN THE WORLD IS THE REAL ID ISSUE ANY DIFFERENT???
Americans with nothing to hide should back this.
Go to Washington? Picket? This matters to me, but I can't leave my job to take up Copyright and Freedom Causes! Guess there is a "threshold of commitment for me." What do YOU do to fight this ridiculous downward spiral of the US of A?
-e.Swede
I'm also willing to concede that the MPAA is not behind this at all. Then so goes your "department of hollywood security" type statements because then the government did it on its own because Congress required it to.
Why would anyone pirate Star Wars II anyway? Could it be that they want inferior movie quality? Or could it be that they would rather sacrifice quality for a more quiet, relaxed movie watching experience? Could it be that they hate all the noise those Darth-Vader-mask-wearing-geeks make? Could it be that they hate when people appalud in the movies whenever something happens? Could be I don't know.
I propose this: release the DVD version at the same time as the theater version. That way, there will be no reason to pirate the movie (except for those hard-ups that don't even want to pay a few dollars for a movie ticket).
defense.
- Somethung very important has been forgotten here.
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by mustangj36
May 29, 2005 2:02 PM PDT
- The copy of Star Wars that was first put out onto the net was very obviously a work print of the film. This could only have come from directly inside George Lucas' company.
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See all 104 Comments >>Lucas has historicly had extremely strong security in his organization so you have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Did someone, somehow in the editing room sneak out the print and put it on the net? Not very likely. As I said, Lucas' security is better than the CIA's. He's better at protecting his wallet than Bill Gates. No. To me, the most likely scenario is that Lucas himself, or someone he ordered to, released the film onto the net. The only question is why? He's not going to lose any profits because SR fans are more fanatical than iPod groupies and will pay to go see the film, probably over and over again, and will still buy it when it comes out on DVD. This is a win win situation for Hollywood. The biggest movie of the year has been pirated and, in their righteous indignation, they have the federal government striking back on their behalf.
This is just the beginning of the MPAA's assault on the people's digital rights. Their ultimate goal? That we don't have any such rights and that they will control how, where and when we get to use the content we pay for.
By the way, how hard do you think they're looking for the person who "stole" that work print?