MPAA file against more torrent and usenet sites

[Spike]

Feb 23rd 2006

Movie monolith, the MPAA, has issued a press release announcing that it has filed seven lawsuits in what appears to be the next round in the war between movie studios and p2p networks. Specifically, the press release cites TorrentSpy and ISOHunt as two of the websites it hopes to takedown.

Torrentspy.com and Isohunt.com are two of the most popular sites used for finding pirated content. By taking action against these sites today, MPAA aims to build on its effort to shut down major piracy networks by thwarting their supply of illegal materials and their means of distribution.

“Website operators who abuse technology to facilitate infringements of copyrighted works by millions of people are not anonymous – they can and will be stopped,” said John G. Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA. “Disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution is a significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet.”

You would be forgiven for thinking that ISOhunt was yet another tracker site, but in fact it merely indexes the torrents on other trackers, in much the same way that a search engine indexes web pages. Does this constitute an illegal copyright infringement? I'll leave it to you to decide, based on ISOHunts own copyright policy...

isoHunt.com provides only links and metadata in its search results, and hosts no actual file for download. We strive to provide a conprehensive index of P2P resources, and our automated indexing cannot discriminate copyrighted or non-copyrighted works. Torrent files (*.torrent) you download here are metadata, which describe and link to BitTorrent resources. We index and search such metadata.
We respect copyright, and will filter such P2P links at your request, provided you show proof that you directly represent the owner of copyright for the content in question. P2P links pointing to your identified copyrighted works will be disabled. If you see P2P links to material under your copyright, send us an email with a list of the P2P links in question. For our processing, list the links on separate lines and in plaintext format.

Gary (whose surname may or may not be Fung), administrator of ISOHunt, has posted an immediate response to the MPAA announcement, on the front page of the torrent indexing site...

I still have yet to receive a formal cease and desist letter directly from MPAA Legal, but all seems to indicate this is for real and it's only a matter of time.

This is somewhat a followup to the series of MPAA letters we've received a year ago.

At this point, it is still uncertain what they are actually suing us for, considering we have a thorough copyright policy outlining our stance and takedown procedures. It is sad that despite our best efforts in helping out copyright owners, in both disabling copyright infringing links to their works everyday while for others, helping them distribute their works globally and cheaply using P2P technologies, it is still not enough for the MPAA. Have they ever learned from the VCR or Napster? When will corporations stop fighting technology and learn to embrace it?

In the very same response, he remarked that "isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com, are forming a coalition together with other P2P operators being sued and yet to be sued, and if possible with the help of the EFF," in order to take on the legal challenges of the MPAA.

Given that even search giants such as Google and MSN provide links to torrents (if you search for torrents) and that there is obviously some debate as to whether or not ISOHunts copyright policy infringes on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, it could be interesting to see how the dust settles when it's all over.

It is also the "first time the MPAA is taking (*sic) action against sites enabling users of Newsgroups to easily find and download illegal content", which given that even some ISPs offer usenet access is a very wide-ranging mission statement, with some potentially far reaching consequences.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Nice article Spike.

It would seem that it`s only a matter of time for p2p/torrent networks.

The fact that ISOhunt as well as other torrent sites don`t actually have the copyrighted material per se, doesn`t really make any difference. The owners of theses sites know full well that what they are doing is aiding people to steal copyrighted material. That in itself may well be illegal, as it could be construed as being an accessory to theft.

As far as I`m concerned, if they get taken down. They`ve only themselves to blame.

Regards Howard

 

[Spike]

Thanks Howard, very much appreciated

I very much agree with you on the morality of the issue - these people know exactly what they're doing. I'm especially convinced of that in terms of premium torrent sites and usenet "distributors" that profiteer from such infringing material. I worry though over where this all is going in the long term.

The moral side is quite clear cut in most cases, but the legal side is a lot more complicated. Ultimately you can't blame only the MPAA and Co. for the kind of action they take against both these sites and individual users, but niether can you blame soley these p2p sites for the legislation and precedent resultant for the whole affair, which is becoming more and more draconian while doing little to solve the problem. Sadly it's gone past the point now where technology takes a back seat to DRM (which will never be foolproof), and the only people either party hurts is the consumer. Only time (and results) can tell where this is going, but in my opinion there are moral arguments on both sides, and both sides are ultimately in the wrong. Time will tell.

edit: Incidentally, on reading the blurb at the bottom of that press release (Thought I better had, just for good measure after reading its content twice already), it seems the MPAA in an ironic twist have "secret" advertising in it - clicking just at the top of the second or third page you get a browser window to http://pdf.iteksoft.com