Comments on news posted 2007-09-19 14:34:40: The entertainment industry has gone to great lengths to disrupt the broadband trading of pirated content. ..
I'm not an advocate of piracy at all, but there has to be limits as to how these **aa organizations can pursue folks in their quest for intellectual property and content protection... media defender deserves to have their operation revealed for what it is... it probably won't end there, but this is an example of a far overreaching attempt on the parts of the **aa's and this is the blowback from it...
Actually my main impression from the excerpts was that file-sharers have little to worry about. The ineptitude of the MediaDefender folks is really amusing, and their interdiction efforts of pitiful scale in relation to the volume of p2p.
TSK TSK... The pitcher is now playing catcher, and hates being second string. Let me get out that small fiddle and laugh proverbially along with the music. What these companies don't realize is the Europe ISN'T America. Bullying simply doesn't work there as it does here. Their politicians are not as easily purchased when it comes to issues of copyright.
I like Ars Technica's hypothesis on the origin of "asstunnel":
quote:(I'm guessing that an "asstunnel" is what you get when a European whose first language isn't English tries to say "asshole." It seemed awkward when I first read the response, but the expression has since grown on me.)
... That one day it will be Hackers that are our last defenders of Freedom, because what they do will be illegal... which is, expose the truth, while embarrassing Corporations and Governments... of course, that makes them "Cyber-Terrorists"....
I guess these days they use the distinction of "White-Hat" Hackers (Good) vs "Black-Hat" Hackers. (Evil)
But I suspect that in the views of Authoritarian types everywhere, Hacker = Evil = Terrorist.
Instead of trying to hide their actions, they should just start up dozens of these sites until they get the IP addresses of all pirating users and then sue them in court.
Imagine if your local police placed a stolen gun on your lawn. When you came out and saw it, they jump out of the bushes and arrest you for possession of it, even if you haven't picked it up.
Imagine if your local police placed a stolen gun on your lawn. When you came out and saw it, they jump out of the bushes and arrest you for possession of it, even if you haven't picked it up.
This type of thing is a favorite tactic of the US Postal Inspectors. They mail someone some pornography and as soon as it is delivered and signed for (even before they person has had a chance of opening the package) arrest him for "Possession of Pornography".
This type of thing is a favorite tactic of the US Postal Inspectors. They mail someone some pornography and as soon as it is delivered and signed for (even before they person has had a chance of opening the package) arrest him for "Possession of Pornography".
Um, can you cite one example of this?
Even if "someone" did send you something in the mail, it confers about zero proof that you willingly ordered it.
That, and I'm pretty sure US postal inspectors operate under the same laws of entrapment.
Furthermore, as another poster said, pornography is not illegal.
Instead of trying to hide their actions, they should just start up dozens of these sites until they get the IP addresses of all pirating users and then sue them in court.
Instead of trying to hide their actions, they should just start up dozens of these sites until they get the IP addresses of all pirating users and then sue them in court.
Hey... I really like it.. the O.J. Technique of finding out who's got your shit and how to get it back!!!
Instead of trying to hide their actions, they should just start up dozens of these sites until they get the IP addresses of all pirating users and then sue them in court.
I really hope you aren't advocating that breaking the law to find criminals makes the first action acceptable. Granted, I haven't read their software's EULA, but unless it outlined its purpose in the fine print (which I doubt), MediaDefender's guilty of computer crimes of their own.
Two wrongs don't make a right. Good luck MD on defending your shenanigans.
Instead of trying to hide their actions, they should just start up dozens of these sites until they get the IP addresses of all pirating users and then sue them in court.
Hey, that is a great idea. You really have a grasp on the situation. Thank you for your post, it was most informative.
just because you download a torrent file does not mean you downloaded the actual media file. They need to go a lot further to prove their case, and need i remind you, they haven't seen a single case through to trial for fear the end result would set a negative precedent for their use of the legal system for extortion. i'm shocked the government has allowed this to go on for so long.
also, the only way they can prove your ip downloaded a file is to actually provide the file, something they can't legally do without permission from the copyright holder. and if they copyright holder gives them permission to distribute a copyrighted work, then aren't they also giving the recipient permission to receive it?
just because you download a torrent file does not mean you downloaded the actual media file. They need to go a lot further to prove their case, and need i remind you, they haven't seen a single case through to trial for fear the end result would set a negative precedent for their use of the legal system for extortion.
Thus why they'd have you download & install their spy/crapware in the hopes that they might find pirated media on your drive. The fact that you "tried" to download "Parent Trap" (or whatever), isn't the point. They're after whatever movies/MP3 that you might have on your HD.
what Media Defender is doing when trying to do DDoS attacks is 100% Illegal and if I recall entrapment is also Illegal and if the Info that was leaked proves the entrapment Plan then having the info on the net is NOT illegal.
At least they're smart enough to realize they can't stop piracy. Trying to contain it enough to generate a few thousand more sales is a more realistic and smart approach. Too bad it backfired...
At least they're smart enough to realize they can't stop piracy.
Too bad that sentiment doesn't seem to be flowing up to the execs in the xxAA's.
Ease-of-availability, usability, and good pricing are the three potential death-blows to piracy --- yet none of these guys seem to have gotten that through their cheap wool suits, yet.
the problem is the **AA execs seem to think we still live in an era where they are the sole route to music and movies. Piracy while wrong is competition and they have to see it as such and offer people a reason(other then not possibly getting sued)to skip out on it when it comes to digital downloads. if i have a choice between spending money on a super restricted DRM encrusted legal download or getting it off pirate bay in a totally inrestricted format im going to side with pirate bay. i mean they even seem to think if you buy a movie on DVD that its illegal to copy it for personal use.
Sounds like this is more about hiding evidence that might be used against them in court than protecting trade secrets. There's no defense of Media Defender's actions and they should be embarrassed.
Stupid MediaDefender Exec leaked his Gmail and password
The story is that Jay Maris who is a Media Defender exec used his Gmail account and the Password blahbob to sign up to a torrent indexing site and the Operator of the Torrent site noticed the Mediadefender IP .
Jay Maris was fowarding all his work email to his Gmail account and used the same easy to remember password on Gmail .
So these guys did'nt really hack anything the info was more and less given to them by Jay Maris .
Now Mediadefender cant even stop the spread of their own email over bittorent and are sending hollow C&Ds to Bittorent sites who are hosted outside the US .This company is a sinking ship .
The Mediadefender-Defenders did remove any personal information of the Mediadefender employees on the Index on thier site that is being hosted by the guys from the Pirate Bay .
Since when does sharing or passing on emails you've received equate to "stolen emails"?
quote:Received: from [206.190.53.136] by web63815.mail.re1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:46:53 PDT X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/651.50 YahooMailWebService/0.7.134 Sender: jon yards Subject: mediadefender
I am the CEO of MediaDefender. We have begun our civil and criminal investigations into the stolen emails from our company. We are meeting with the FBI on monday. Your IP address has been logged. I hope it was worth the thrill.
The ends never justify the means. Can't break the law to enforce it.
sure, it's an idea to say "lets poison the well" ...and harvest all the info we can - for the sake of driving more sales, but in all seriousness, the ends here do not justify the means.