Hollywood steps up piracy fight

[BJ_M]

Major studios announce fresh crackdown on illegal downloads.
December 14, 2004: 3:26 PM EST
By Krysten Crawford, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Motion Picture Association of America announced a new campaign aimed at slowing the illegal downloading of movies off the Internet.

The MPAA, the main lobbying group for Hollywood's major studios, held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to trumpet the latest crackdown, which representatives said included both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions around the world.

"We have taken action against over 100 servers in many countries on four continents," said John Malcolm, the director of worldwide anti-piracy at the MPAA. He said steps were taken this week in the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Finland and the Netherlands.


The announcement comes one month after the MPAA filed its first batch of lawsuits against more than 200 individuals it accused of stealing movies off the Web.

The measures taken this week, however, were not directed at individuals who download movies. Instead, the targets were people who act as conduits between downloaders and three specific "peer-to-peer" file-sharing technologies: BitTorrent, eDonkey, and DirectConnect.

These intermediaries provide users with lists of movies, songs and television shows that can be swapped with other users.

"This is another category of pirate," said Macolm. "These people are parasites leeching off the creativity of others."

Malcolm also said that legal notices have been sent to Internet service providers ordering them to intervene and shut down these middlemen, also known as "trackers," "servers" and "hubs."


BitTorrent, the fastest-growing peer-to-peer service on the Internet, and eDonkey together make up the bulk of all peer-to-peer traffic, according to CacheLogic, a Cambridge, England-based market research firm that tracks Web traffic.

BitTorrent is especially frightening to Hollywood because it can download movies in just a few hours. And the software is designed so that downloading a film gets easier as more people try to access it.

The actions were not directed against the creators of BitTorrent, eDonkey or DirectConnect.

Details of the initiative were scant. The MPAA did not dislcose the number of lawsuits filed, whether arrests were made, or the identities of the Internet service providers who received "cease-and-desist" letters.

But the announcement follows a decision last week by the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a seminal case that pits the movie and music industries against two other peer-to-peer services, Grokster and Morpheus operator StreamCast Networks.

While Malcolm said there was "no connection whatsoever" between the high court's Dec. 10 move and this week's enforcement efforts, the flurry of activity has renewed a debate over whether movie piracy is a problem and, if so, whether anything can be done to stop it.

Analysts say that Hollywood does not face the severe crisis that the record industry confronted when the Napster file-sharing appeared a few years ago and music downloads turned into a mass free-for-all.

There are several reasons for this, including the enormous amount of time it still takes to download movies and a lack of consumer interest in watching movies on computer screens.

For now, reliable data on the prevalence of illegal movie downloads and the cost to Hollywood do not exist. The MPAA itself, which claims its on track to lose $3.5 billion this year to the black market in physical DVDs, does not yet know how much money the industry loses on the Web.

The MPAA's Malcolm said Tuesday that the problem of Internet piracy is on par with widespread copying of physical DVDs. In three years, he estimates industry losses from online theft will be "staggeringly high."

That is why Hollywood is moving now on two fronts: to use the courts to rein in piracy and to develop technology that, if not impenetrable, at least makes stealing difficult.

The industry faces challenges on both fronts.

Andrew Parker, chief technology officer of CacheLogic, the peer-to-peer tracking firm, was skeptical that law enforcement tactics can work.

He noted that peer-to-peer traffic dropped after the music industry first launched a series of lawsuits against individuals accused of illegal downloading, but that overall downloading has since rebounded.

What's more, he said, users have become adept at shifting from one technology to another, which is what he says happened when record companies starting suing users of Kazaa, previously the No. 1 peer-to-peer site.

"We saw a sudden shift in usage patterns to BitTorrent and away from Kazaa," said Parker. "A similar thing will probably happen here."

But Charles Sims, a New York lawyer who has represented entertainment companies in court cases against peer-to-peer networks, said Hollywood recognizes that litigation is not the panacea.

"The (lawsuit) route is not perfect, in the same way that the war against drugs isn't perfect either," said Sims, a partner in Proskauer Rose. "But there's probably less heroine and cocaine out there now than if we weren't doing anything."

[Nilfennasion]

"The (lawsuit) route is not perfect, in the same way that the war against drugs isn't perfect either," said Sims, a partner in Proskauer Rose. "But there's probably less heroine and cocaine out there now than if we weren't doing anything."

Oh yeah, the war on drugs was oooooooh so successful! :P

Seriously, are they ever going to realise that charging upwards of forty Australian dollars for a 576I rendition of a film people could have seen as 4000P in a theatre is only encouraging more and more piracy? Not to mention that a lot of pirates who share content wind up buying things they otherwise wouldn't have because of a pique in interest at seeing what was in the content? Are these people really from the same planet as us?

[BJ_M]

....... and a lack of consumer interest in watching movies on computer screens.

don't want to get into a whole debate - but it also seems that some there have no clue about what can be done with a downloaded movie --

[canadateck]

What do they want to accomplish? Besides stoping people Sharing Movies?Stop File sharing all together?

[BJ_M]

i think that would be one goal

[canadateck]

....... and a lack of consumer interest in watching movies on computer screens.

don't want to get into a whole debate - but it also seems that some there have no clue about what can be done with a downloaded movie --

Yeah this is a hard topic to get into without starting a debate.

[dvdguy4]

If they only make better movies for us to see in the theater then I think people would like to go back and view it on the big screen. Look what Pixar's doing. They're doing things right while the other studios are cyring wolf. Downloading movies just takes to long anyway, well when your in the stone age like I am.LOL

[BJ_M]

If they only make better movies for us to see in the theater then I think people would like to go back and view it on the big screen. Look what Pixar's doing. They're doing things right while the other studios are cyring wolf. Downloading movies just takes to long anyway, well when your in the stone age like I am.LOL

big screen sales are not down and anyway that is a poor excuse ..

that is saying "those earings are ugly - so stealing them is ok"

[glockjs]

i think if anything what they are doing is making these things more of a public knowledge now. usually when they release these news storys they say how people are doing it. so now more people know 1.that it can be done 2.where to start looking to me thats funny. the more light they shine on it and themselves the worse its gonna get for em

[BJ_M]

i think if anything what they are doing is making these things more of a public knowledge now. usually when they release these news storys they say how people are doing it. so now more people know 1.that it can be done 2.where to start looking to me thats funny. the more light they shine on it and themselves the worse its gonna get for em

i was wondering about that also -- they really gave out how to do it ....

but then talking to high schoolers around here (yea, i hang out around high schools if one of the OTPW hasnt already tagged it ) , they dont need much instruction ....



(my wife teaches at a HS and I do lectures there on the movie industry and audio industry about once a month)

[glockjs]

yeah but it's just the notion that it's out there. the people that didnt know before now know. they might not need much instruction it's just the knowledge of it actually being there is what sparks the interest

[dvdguy4]

I wasnt talking about TVs.If thats what you thought.
Im talking the silver screen.

[Nilfennasion]

The problem is that these companies expect us to pay, sight unseen, for films that may well be of mediocre at best quality. And they don't seem to care about their audience much anymore to boot. I mean, seriously, Andrew Schofield said it best during Sid & Nancy, especially in light of the choppy theatrical edit of Return Of The King: "You ever feel like you're being cheated?".

The fact of the matter is that most ma and pa pirates will in fact buy something if they think it is worthy of being paid for, regardless of whether they have pirated it. Films like Repo Man or Flesh + Blood have found a whole new life because of bootlegs being distributed and waking people up to their existence.

I have vowed many a time that I will not pay to see the extended cut of ROTK for a number of reasons. The audio commenatries on the previous two extended cuts of these films have been slow going at best, and inane babble at worst. They assembled dozens of people, and not one of them has the slightest idea of how an audio commentary should work. So there's four soundtracks that come under the banner of "throw that crap away". The listing of the names of every member of the fan club after the end credits is also quite insulting. I wouldn't pay over $60AU to see such a waste of MPEG-2 space, so once someone offers me a DVD-R of the second disc with that crap chopped off... well, you get the idea.

The lesson the MPAA should be learning here is to never take your audience for granted.

[canadateck]

yeah but it's just the notion that it's out there. the people that didnt know before now know. they might not need much instruction it's just the knowledge of it actually being there is what sparks the interest

I first heard about Bittorrent on "CNN" I'm sure.. I'm not the only one.

[SilverBlade]

They think they'll get anywhere by trying to sue servers for transmitting bits of information? May as well try to sue the theatres for letting the sound from a movie being heard in the hallway.

[BJ_M]

i guess you have never been sued -- even if you know you might win, the cost to defend it is so high that it is pointless to even try ....

[painkiller]

Quite right.

No matter if you have logic, and what's right, on your side - it really boils down to who has the deepest pockets with wads of cash in them.

Likely, it isn't you or I.

[Nilfennasion]

Indeed. The cost of justice is such, I remember reading about how Jello Biafra was nearly bankrupted by defending against spurious obscenity charges. I suppose countersuing could always be considered... assuming you have any reason to believe you will win.

Honestly, though, the best strategy is to avoid detection altogether. Trading between friends and acquaintences is just as, if not more, efficient compared to P2P networks, and during the heyday of the Commodore 64, it was considered virtually unstoppable.

[bugster]

The really are getting serious

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/14/finnish_police_raid_bittorrent_site/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/dutch_raid_against_edonkey_sites/

[EvilWizardGlick]

War on Poverty, great success.
War on Drugs, great success.
War on filesharing, same thing.
A few years ago during a European conference one of the major anti-piracy media lights stated that they will LOSE the war. That filesharing will become so sophisticated they can not ever hope to compete.
For evey two sites, and these only share links not files themselves ( which offers some freespeech questions among other aspects), five pop up.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
What the media companies need to do is offer a new model. Right now they are like the trapped monkey. They need to drop the fruit to get out of the hole.
But the greedy assed bastards refuse to.
Remember file sharing actually caused an increase in cd sales, even though the media companies were caught pricefixing. I imagine the same holds true with film.
Also file sharing is far different than piracy. Pirates steal product and sell them for profit. Fileshares do not.
Maybe big media should focus on the profit making pirates.

[EvilWizardGlick]

Quite right.

No matter if you have logic, and what's right, on your side - it really boils down to who has the deepest pockets with wads of cash in them.

Likely, it isn't you or I.

Nor the media companies.

If anything the following figures are lower and do not even take into account newsgroups. No media giant can afford to prosecute even 1/10 of these. Also because filesharing is worlwide it complicates the issue even further.
http://www.slyck.com/
Network Users
eDonkey2K 2,920,593
FastTrack 2,538,693
Warez 1,296,591
Overnet 1,261,568
Gnutella 1,140,735
DirectConnect 365,557
MP2P 261,969
Filetopia 5,269

[EvilWizardGlick]

If they only make better movies for us to see in the theater then I think people would like to go back and view it on the big screen. Look what Pixar's doing. They're doing things right while the other studios are cyring wolf. Downloading movies just takes to long anyway, well when your in the stone age like I am.LOL

big screen sales are not down and anyway that is a poor excuse ..

that is saying "those earings are ugly - so stealing them is ok"

More like taking it for a test drive before buying.

[adam]

The war on drugs HAS been a success. Obviously you cannot prevent drug trafficking entirely. So you enforce drug related crimes to enough of visible extent that the public at large understand the ramifications of being convicted for those crimes. This serves as a reaonable deterrent for the vast majority of individuals. Yes, an uncontrollable amount of people still use drugs and distribute those drugs in small amounts. But the heavy traffickers are limited to those people who are willing to take that huge risk. This creates visible targets for law enforcement to concentrate on, such that when they eventually do get caught it actually has an impact on the drug exchange.

This is what the RIAA, MPAA, and to a lesser extent, the BSA are attempting to do. In my opinion it is working....slowly. P2P has not slowed down, but if these suits continue I bet it will over time.

[tekkieman]

So in the end adam, the only people who will stop are the ones causing the least amount of harm. The so called "casual user" (either drug or downloader). The large scale pirates (or trafficers) will still be in business causing the most harm.

[EvilWizardGlick]

The war on drugs HAS been a success. Obviously you cannot prevent drug trafficking entirely. So you enforce drug related crimes to enough of visible extent that the public at large understand the ramifications of being convicted for those crimes. This serves as a reaonable deterrent for the vast majority of individuals. Yes, an uncontrollable amount of people still use drugs and distribute those drugs in small amounts. But the heavy traffickers are limited to those people who are willing to take that huge risk. This creates visible targets for law enforcement to concentrate on, such that when they eventually do get caught it actually has an impact on the drug exchange.

This is what the RIAA, MPAA, and to a lesser extent, the BSA are attempting to do. In my opinion it is working....slowly. P2P has not slowed down, but if these suits continue I bet it will over time.

That is the funniest thing I ever heard. Drug prices are at an all time low with more users than ever. Do you even bother to check the news? Heroin is the LOWEST ever as is Cocaine. Prescription drugs are abused by damn near everyone.
Somebody is parroting the Republican talking points.

[adam]

EvilWizardGlick:

which offers some freespeech questions among other aspects

Freespeach guarantees, or any other Constitutional guarantee, only limit what the government can do. As long as the copyright holder is not an arm of the goverment, free speach is irrellevant.

Also file sharing is far different than piracy. Pirates steal product and sell them for profit. Fileshares do not.

Under the law this is a distinction without a difference. Blacks law dictionary defines "piracy" as: The unauthorized and illegal reproduction or distribution of materials protected by copyright, patent, or trademark law.

Profit is not a prerequisite for piracy or copyright infringement.

Also because filesharing is worlwide it complicates the issue even further.

Not as much as you'd think. Under TRIPS, enforcing a US copyright in a foreign WTO member country (most of the free world) is no different than enforcing it domestically. It doesn't cost any more money, actually it usually costs less, and as far as the law is concerned there is no difference....you use the law of the country where the copyright is held.

[leebo]

Also file sharing is far different than piracy. Pirates steal product and sell them for profit. Fileshares do not.

I'm glad someone remembers this. "Pirates" used to mean people who made illegal copies of music and movies and sold them, usually on the street. Then the music industry started using that word to describe file sharers. They've used it so much they pretty much successfully brainwashed people into accepting that definition. I guess if you say anything enough people will accept it as fact.

The movie industry is trying the same tactic with ads saying that if you download a film, you are taking income away from movie crews such as carpenters, electricians and grips. Last time I checked, these guys got paid after the job is completed, not in percentage of ticket and DVD sales. I defy anyone to name a grip who has gotten a percentage of a movies profit.

[adam]

So in the end adam, the only people who will stop are the ones causing the least amount of harm. The so called "casual user" (either drug or downloader). The large scale pirates (or trafficers) will still be in business causing the most harm.

The large scale pirates have always been the ones they have targeted, and always will be. But now they are additionally targeting smaller scale distributers (P2P) to serve as a general deterrent. As with the "war on drugs," the "war on piracy" is not one that is meant to be won. The purpose is just to try to keep things under control, aka maintain the status quo.

[leebo]

Well, assuming Adam is correct, it really wont make a difference in the end, will it? Whats happened with music "sharing"?
Oh yeah. It's still going strong.

[samuraijack]

quote="adam"]The war on drugs HAS been a success...[/quote]

(Cough Cough..) War on drugs? You mean the one where we told the kids not to do them , but they did them anyway, and then cut funding for our border patrols so more could get in? Thus making it easier for the kids to get them? Hmmmmm....Success huh?
File shareing is here to stay. I have to admit I have done it a few times and gotten movies I really wanted to see, but werent in theaters anymore. I got a crap copy that gave me a good idea if I wanted to buy the movie or not. I think my seeing those gave more even more incentive to buy them. The more the MPAA tries to strangle this one, the more slippery it will become. They need to embrace the fact that we have entered a digitial age and their analog control issues simply wont cut it anymore.
They also need to supply us with some real talent instead of these bimbo, flash in the pan, wannabe media puppets. I bought Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" with money I saved hard for. It satisfied.
Now, you are lucky if you get one good song.
I have bought discs from ten or twelve independants over the net in the past few years because they offered more talent than the big music machines. Im happy I did.

A message to those who think they can control the music like they did in the past. Time to adapt or die.