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story category MediaDefender Makes Both Legal and Illegal Downloads Available
Approaching the piracy issue from both ends makes things confusing
02:59PM Sunday Jun 15 2008 by KathrynV
tags: legal · Fileswapping · business · trouble
MediaDefender is an anti-piracy business that is known primarily because it’s hired by organizations like RIAA and MPAA to put illegal downloads online in order to trap people who are engaged in illegal filesharing. However, that’s not all that MediaDefender is about. They’re also in the business of offering legal P2P downloads. They’ve done this for awhile (they paired up with Sprint and Atlantic Records last year to offer branded P2P song downloads) but they appear to be getting more aggressive in moving forward with this part of the business. Perhaps that’s because their recent efforts at anti-piracy have taken down legitimate sites and placed them in a lot of hot water. Still, you have to wonder, how is a user supposed to know if a file placed online by MediaDefender is legal or illegal to download?

Related:
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  3. RIAA Says You Can’t Copy Music To Your Computer
  4. EFF Joins Arizona Man's Fight Against RIAA
  5. Major Artists May Sue RIAA
  6. Judge Orders Marshall University to Help RIAA
  7. Pirate Bay Faces Off Against Corrupt Entertainment Industry
  8. Wednesday Evening Links
Forums » MediaDefender Makes Both Legal and Illegal Downloads Available
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Post a:
lordofwhee

join:2007-10-21
Everett, WA

There's no way to know

That way, they can sue people trying to download legal files, probably on the assumption that if a user downloads anything via P2P, they also pirate.

Jameson
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Re: There's no way to know

said by lordofwhee See Profile :

That way, they can sue people trying to download legal files, probably on the assumption that if a user downloads anything via P2P, they also pirate.
Sounds about right..shady ass company

Nerdtalker
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This is almost entrapment at this point.
Smith6612
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The only time I've ever needed to use torrent was for game demos and Linux distros on release days when all of the normal mirror sites are slow or dead because of the downloads going. Does that make me a pirate if I'm doing Ubuntu/Fedora and downloading new game demos that have been released on loads of sites?

MysticGogeta
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Reminds me of the police stings.
wispalord

join:2007-09-20
House Springs, MO
i use peergaurdian, and it seems to do the trick to block them
james1

join:2001-02-26
antarctica

How is a user supposed to know

"Still, you have to wonder, how is a user supposed to know if a file placed online by MediaDefender is legal or illegal to download?"

Technically, since MediaDefender is authorized by the copyright holder to distribute the file that they hold copyright of, doesnt that make it legal? Even in the case of the "it's a trap" ones?

They need to stop chasing downloaders and chase the people selling mp3s and pirated cds, if someone pays for a the music from a pirate, that is an actual lost sale.

Nightfall
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Re: How is a user supposed to know

said by james1 See Profile :

They need to stop chasing downloaders and chase the people selling mp3s and pirated cds, if someone pays for a the music from a pirate, that is an actual lost sale.
Actually, they need to really go after downloaders more seriously. The problem is that they are trying to circumvent the system and expedite lawsuits which is total crap. If they went about it better, there wouldn't be much of an issue.

I personally know of 20+ people who illegally download and share music, movies, applications, games, and so on. You want to talk about "lost sales" as only those people willing to pay for these kinds of things. Lost sales also are calculated by people who don't want to spend the money on intellectual property. They would rather download freely than spend money on a product.

Intellectual property has to be protected in some form. Course, the only people who really feel strongly about that are artists, program writers, and corporate interests. I have a vested interest in it as well since I am a photographer and have caught companies using my work in publications without paying me for using them.

This whole thing with MediaDefender stinks though. Instead of the RIAA, MPAA, and software piracy groups doing the right thing which is turning their findings over to the authorities, they are trying to do it themselves. That is pure crap.
james1

join:2001-02-26
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Re: How is a user supposed to know

said by Nightfall See Profile :

You want to talk about "lost sales" as only those people willing to pay for these kinds of things. Lost sales also are calculated by people who don't want to spend the money on intellectual property. They would rather download freely than spend money on a product.
I suppose we're going to have to disagree here, the only reason the RIAA is fighting free distribution over the internet so much is because it is bypassing their monopoly on getting bands publicity.

They used to PAY radio stations to play their band's music, so that people would go to the concerts and buy t-shirts and autographed merchandise. Now they want internet radio stations to pay them for promoting their band worldwide, even the stations that don't charge or have ads.

The RIAA is in it's death throes and simply trying to delay it as long as possible while grabbing as much money as it can.

quote:
Intellectual property has to be protected in some form. Course, the only people who really feel strongly about that are artists, program writers, and corporate interests. I have a vested interest in it as well since I am a photographer and have caught companies using my work in publications without paying me for using them.
I agree that copyright has to be protected to a certain extent, for example if someone is passing off your photographs as their own or if they are making money off your work, then they should be punished.
But if someone posts your photograph on their website, cites you as the photographer and gives a link to your site, and says "this picture is amazing, check out more of their work here". Then I say that is not only fair use, but beneficial to you (so long as the person is not charging people money to see your pictures, or is making more money on ads than it costs to run the site).

Nightfall
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edit:
June 15th, @09:16PM

Re: How is a user supposed to know

said by james1 See Profile :

said by Nightfall See Profile :

You want to talk about "lost sales" as only those people willing to pay for these kinds of things. Lost sales also are calculated by people who don't want to spend the money on intellectual property. They would rather download freely than spend money on a product.
But if someone posts your photograph on their website, cites you as the photographer and gives a link to your site, and says "this picture is amazing, check out more of their work here". Then I say that is not only fair use, but beneficial to you (so long as the person is not charging people money to see your pictures, or is making more money on ads than it costs to run the site).
This I agree with, however, if I choose not to have them using my work then I should have the right to say so. If I email them and tell them to take my work off their site, which I have done a few times, then they have to take it off. Why would I do this? Maybe I don't want to be affiliated with their site or my work put on their site. There have even been some non profit publications I have chosen not to take part in because of what they stand for. Point is, I have the rights to distribution.

Thats the difference in all these cases of piracy. The RIAA and MPAA both have a very legal beef with their product being distributed over P2P networks. Anyone distributing their products should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If the RIAA and MPAA were smarter about it, they would be a lot further along than they are today. They tried to fast track too much, and now the courts and people are fed up with it.

This topic has been beaten to death on these forums, and there are die hards out there that just don't agree with my stance. So, if you don't agree with what I am saying, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.
jebba2005

join:2005-01-13
Portland, ME
Tax the intellectual property like real property.

de_shtter

@rr.com

like the song: they sh*t on you

why try to make innovations, pay the artists more money by investing into needed distribution points,
when you can WASTE millions on monkeyspank lawyers and pay useless businesses like media'defender'...

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edit:
June 15th, @06:08PM

I wouldn't trust anything MediaDefender puts on p2p networks

It might have hidden spyware/adware that phones home and
tells the RIAA what kind of music you have. Not so much for
the purpose of using that data against you in a potential
lawsuit (though that is possible), but more to sell your
music downloading and web surfing habits to third parties
for marketing purposes (and this includes spammers).

MediaSurrender/MediaPretender/MediaDefenseless, you can take
your so-called offerings and stick them where the sun doesn't
shime!
--
"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)

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Re: I wouldn't trust anything MediaDefender puts on p2p networks

Okay, so you don't like that MediaDefender does it. That's fine. What do you think about the offering in general?

A song, legal to download, in portable non-DRM MP3 format. It's "album art" embedded in the ID3 tag and text in comments is an advertisement. You do not need to see or interact with the ads to enjoy the music, move it between devices, or share it with others -- it's an unprotected MP3.
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fonzbear2000
Premium
join:2005-08-09
Saint Paul, MN

So......

You can get busted for downloading! In the file share forum, people always say you can ONLY get busted for sharing. Not true apparently.
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ablack6596

join:2005-01-28
Scarsdale, NY

Re: So......

The "illegal" files they put up are fake and are designed to make it harder for people to find real releases, not to catch people to sue.

funchords
Robb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Hillsboro, OR

There's a third activity, too, I think...

I think they download new files and then acoustically print them for Audible Magic. This lets them link the P2P hash identifiers to known copyrighted titles.

mrchris
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Blah

Nothing but a classic case of entrapment
songmuyang

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Re: Blah

said by mrchris See Profile :

Nothing but a classic case of entrapment
I agree with you
theDUDE
vote with your wallet

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lalalalala

this doesn't bother me at all, why you ask? i was sickened by this long ago so much in fact i have not bought a cd or downloaded anything in 7 years! the radio in my car stopped working a couple of years ago and i don't care if its fixed or not.
is the labels losing money because of pirates or because people like me just tired of their crap.

i'm starting to feel this way about movies. piracy isn't the problem. the movies are garbage!
SiliconBandt

join:2008-05-24
Winnipeg, MB

Re: lalalalala

said by theDUDE See Profile :

this doesn't bother me at all, why you ask? i was sickened by this long ago so much in fact i have not bought a cd or downloaded anything in 7 years! the radio in my car stopped working a couple of years ago and i don't care if its fixed or not.
is the labels losing money because of pirates or because people like me just tired of their crap.

i'm starting to feel this way about movies. piracy isn't the problem. the movies are garbage!
Thats not entirely the fault of the **AA's. When it comes to movies, I fully agree with you. I'm so bored of predictable plots. Its like the B movie slasher flicks where you just know how things'll turn out. Hollywoods happy ending syndrome as I think of it. Music is a bit more subjective since nobody likes everything. Theres fewer and fewer songs I catch on the radio or hear at parties thats worth a second listen to. Most of its the same damned theme replayed at different tempo's and backbeat.
Creativity certainly isn't what it used to be.

Danny P

@rr.com
While I can see your point, not all labels are affiliated with the RIAA or screw over their artists.

Just keep that in mind.
theDUDE
vote with your wallet

join:2008-05-10
Wytheville, VA

Re: lalalalala

just like any other business they have some rotten apples.
theDUDE
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yeah, for creativity you gotta tune into the oldies station and for movies indies are probably best. although the studios did recognize the superior japanese horror flicks and started ripping them off. next thing you know they'll start copying bollywood(?) ironman with musical numbers anyone?
Forums » MediaDefender Makes Both Legal and Illegal Downloads Available


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