February 23, 2006 5:17 PM PST
MPAA sues newsgroup, P2P search sites
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The lawsuits mark an expansion of the copyright holders' legal strategy in the file-swapping world, targeting sites that help make downloading easier, but aren't actually delivering the files or the swapping technology themselves.
It's also the first time the group has sued organizations that direct their members to the Usenet newsgroup system, an MPAA spokeswoman said. The movie group makes little distinction between a peer-to-peer network and the search engines that point to pirated works, saying that all facilitate the distribution of copyright works.
"Disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution is a significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet," John Malcom, MPAA director of Worldwide Antipiracy operations, said in a statement.
The issue of targeting search engines rather than actual file-swapping networks themselves has been a touchy one in Silicon Valley, because ordinary search engines such as Google and Yahoo also can be used to find pirated works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects search engines from liability for linking to pirated works, but only if the site operators don't know that the specific content is infringing, are not deriving financial gain from the links, and act quickly to remove the links when contacted by copyright holders.
Unlike a traditional search engine such as Google, the sites targeted Thursday are filled almost exclusively with links and references to copyright movies, software and music.
IsoHunt, one of the largest search engines targeted, does provide a copyright statement that says, "We respect copyright, and will filter such P2P links at your request."
The full list of sites sued Thursday include Torrentspy.com, IsoHunt, BTHub.com, TorrentBox.com, NiteShadow.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net.
Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann said that the courts had not yet ruled on whether search tools could be held liable for copy infringement. Most relevant cases, such as record labels' suit against MP3Board several years ago, have been settled before the issue has come to trial, he said.
"We haven't had a case that really tests the case of whether providing an indexing service by itself an infringement," von Lohmann said.
Thursday's suits are part of a growing series of lawsuits, criminal and civil actions taken around the world, as the movie industry works to stamp out the still-strong growth of film and TV show swapping online.
The MPAA has had a string of successes targeting sites that distribute movies in the BitTorrent file format, shutting down popular hubs such as Suprnova, LokiTorrent, and others. Earlier this week, the Hollywood announced that it had collaborated with Swiss and Belgian police to shut down a major European server called Razorback 2, part of the eDonkey network, which was allegedly used by as many as 1 million people.
File-swapping traffic has continued to grow globally throughout the course of the legal actions, however. Net monitoring firm CacheLogic estimates that P2P still accounted for more than 60 percent of overall Internet traffic at the beginning of 2006, with video files accounting for about 60 percent of that data.
Traditional peer-to-peer software companies such as eDonkey and Lime Wire have not been targeted by lawsuits in recent months. However, they have faced warnings from record labels and the MPAA that their turn could come soon if they continue to allow unregulated swapping online.
The MPAA previously announced an agreement with BitTorrent.com, the creators of the BitTorrent file-swapping technology who also run a file search engine. Under that agreement, BitTorrent agreed to take down links to feature films in its search tool.
See more CNET content tagged:
newsgroup,
P2P,
search engine,
eDonkey,
file-swapping
Well, if that's the case, Microsoft is facilitating the distribution by creating an OS that the Bit Torrent client runs on. Mozilla is facilitating the distribution by supporting the display of the HTML from the search web sites. And here in California at least, PG&E is facilitating the distribution by powering computers that can both download and upload bits. And let's not even start on SBC, Verizon, etc. for providing a network backbone for these files to be shared across.
Man, everyone's FACILITATING the distribution of these works. Time to shut down the Internet!
Unfortunately, these major label companies are so used to making incredibly large margins on their products, that they have an obvious reluctance to adapt their business to their environment. Instead, they are trying to adapt the environment to their business model, and it is definitely not working.
Are the vast hundreds of dollars they receive from their silly lawsuits really compensating them for the millions they lose on the internet? Definitely not. Sadly, if they would only be willing to reduce their margins and begin to offer a quality, downloadable product, they would quickly recoup their 'perceived' losses.
The success of iTunes is proof that given the choice to either pay for or steal their music, an overwhelming number will actually fork out the money.
If the big labels do not adapt their business model soon; they will find themselves extinct as the simplicity of production and distribution of content over the internet quickly renders them obsolete.
That's like saying that phone directories are equally responsible for an advertisers bad or unethical business practices.
Someone should sue the MPAA for making the world a dumber place.
http://blog.bryanserven.com
My only wish: guys, speed up the development of independant search engines.. No web links, no tracking, let's try to be as anonymous as possible.
And I would love to pay 10/15 euros a month to download anything I want. The fault? RIAA & MPAA most certainly. They are the one slowing down the progress. That was my 5 cents, keep it.
Guess what? I didn't die. I realized that it just wasn't so important. *IF* I had been able to get a decent copy quickly/cheaply, they would have still had my eyeballs slavishly devoted to their content and its commercials. As it is, I now sometimes watch. Likewise, I realize that it is not that vital to me if I see movies when they first come out. I'm content to wait until I can rent it or even borrow it.
If the MPAA continues to alienate its customers, and make them fearful, there will be a backlash. And what they fear most may happen: people will wake up to the fact that the content isn't worth it. With movie theater ticket prices too high and no good sources online, people may just decide that they don't care about getting "the latest and greatest" which seems to be so much of what the movie's business model is based on. Instead, they'll wait for DVD, or even eschew recent content for that vast library of old movies that is out there.
I think their own attempts at slanting the playing field have backfired. Now there mad....Waaaaaa!
> P2P still accounted for more than 60 percent
> of overall Internet traffic at the beginning
> of 2006, with video files accounting for
> about 60 percent of that data.
According to other articles today on this subject, some of these sites have small memberships (e.g. 25,000 members).
The funny thing about this whole digital download battle is that no one can point to any hard data proving that the industry is being hurt by the small percentage of people who use stuff like Bittorrent. Conversely, Apple is making a big deal out of the fact that they've exceeded a billion downloads via iTunes. So the math doesn't add up.
I don't know if consumers will ever tire . I don't know where the tipping point is before a major consumer backlash against the content industry tactics (sch as multiple formats of the same content, customers being sued, heavy handed DRM, and so forth) begins. But it seems to me that more and more anger is brewing over these tactics, and the content industries would do well to heed the warning.
Nonetheless, there is only one way to fix this battle, and that is a complete consumer boycott of MPAA and RIAA material.
Where is the real evidence facts figures information, court filings ,subpeona's et al
Looks to me that the Judith M reporting of facts as fiction, is the rule rather than the exception in the mainstream corporate media!
Looks like 1984, is rapidly becoming reality, as the average journalist now files corporate propaganda as fact, rather than ask the six basic questions and the news editors conviently forget same as happened over at the New York Times, with Judith M.!
Do you remember history from grade school? Of course now the books have been rewritten but when I went to school they told about a tea party that took place in Boston. Seems the overbearing, unfair overlords had taken advantage to those who were unable to prevent it... At least until the common people agreed together that something had to happen... The secret? Unity! Alone I can do nothing. Together, we can change the course of the 'overlords' of entertainment.
Item #1: Refuse to purchase ANY form of media with DRM attached. There are a great number of performers that create and sell their own media... Support them. Contact your favorite (RIAA)performer's website and inform them you will not be buying their CD's due to their alliance with the overlords.
Item #2: Ask all political candidates their stand on DRM before elections. Follow up on their performance afterward. Make that performance public knowledge so that interested FREE citizens can vote out the liars. I would be very interested in this one... Senators, representatives etc...
Item #3: Boycott any operating system that adds to the already too stringent DRM abilities of MS. Can you say No Way to Vista?
Item #4: Any software that requires DRM to function should be returned to the manufacturer with the message that you do not agree with the EULA and demand your money back
Together we can break the slavery that the entertainment overlords have placed us under!
--
"If you think you know everything, you should know about http://www.enthem.com by now"
- NEVER ENOUGH
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by stansoft
February 26, 2006 12:17 PM PST
- SCARE TACTICS AS ALWAYS...
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"If you think you know everything, you should know about http://www.enthem.com by now"