ManagerJosh
05-14-2005, 08:26 PM
p2pnet.net News:- The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has taken action against what it calls “TV Show Thieves (http://p2pnet.net/story/4832)”. Yesterday, they issued a press release announcing they'd filed lawsuits against six BitTorrent Websites (trackers).
“Internet thievery of all creative materials is unacceptable and these thieves need to realize they are not anonymous,” said MPAA president and ceo Dan Glickman. “There are thousands of people in the entertainment industry who are working to develop, produce, and promote television shows. Those shows and those jobs are worth protecting. Every television series depends on other markets-syndication, international sales – to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy and those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen. On these sites , anyone in the world can download entire television seasons in a single click.”
Glickman is arguing that people who download TV shows cut into their profits and, because of this, those who work in the industry will lose their jobs. This is an outrageous statement considering that he has no evidence to back up his claims and it’s very unlikely that there are many people who cancel their cable or satellite subscription just because they can download some of their favourite shows.
Glickman is also trying to redefine the word “thieves”. The only way to download a file using BitTorrent is if someone is sharing it. Files are shared and copies of files are created. Nothing is being stolen. Glickman isn't so dumb as to believe copyright infringement and theft are the same things, but to create the illusion that millions of dollars are being lost, he resorts to making absurd statements.
He went on to say, “Since we began shutting these sites down, the time that it takes to download a file on BitTorrent has increased exponentially which means the experience of downloading copyrighted films and TV shows is not what it used to be. We intend to make it even worse. Protecting the television industry is essential.”
This analysis is very inaccurate. Since the MPAA began suing BitTorrent tracker operators in December, 2004, dozens of new trackers have appeared online. The biggest blow to the BitTorrent community occurred when Suprnova.org closed down - and that had nothing to do with the MPAA.
Glickman is either not aware of the impact their lawsuits against BitTorrent tracker operators have had, or he’s simply trying to sensationalize their effect to make it appear that they’re eliminating all BitTorrent trackers.
The six Websites they have filed a lawsuit against are:
<LI type=disc>Zonatracker [www.zonatracker.com]
<LI type=disc>#BT-Efnet [www.btefnet.net]
<LI type=disc>Scifi-Classics [scifi-classics.net]
<LI type=disc>CDDVDHeaven [cddvdheaven.co.uk]
<LI type=disc>Bragginrights [www.bragginrights.biz]
ShunTV [www.shuntv.net]
Btefnet is the biggest and most popular of the six. Braggingrights, ShunTV and Zonatracker are relatively small trackers. Scifi-Classics Website has not been updated very often in the past few months and CDDVD Heaven isn’t a large tracker either. It appears that these trackers were targeted because their servers are all located in the U.S.A.
File sharers have learned how to adapt. When the anti-p2p companies took advantage of Kazaa’s weak hashing and were able to successfully flood the FastTrack network with decoy files that appeared to be genuine mp3 files, file sharers looked to alternatives such as the Ares and Gnutella networks.
Azureus (a BitTorrent client) has recently incorporated a distributed hash table (DHT) to its client. In a nutshell, DHT allows any client to become a tracker, eliminating the need for trackers hosted on Websites. Torrent files can be exchanged by email, IRC, instant messengers and on forums. Even if the MPAA somehow manages to takedown every BitTorrent site, it will still not be the end of BitTorrent.
Drake Zamanov - Canada
“Internet thievery of all creative materials is unacceptable and these thieves need to realize they are not anonymous,” said MPAA president and ceo Dan Glickman. “There are thousands of people in the entertainment industry who are working to develop, produce, and promote television shows. Those shows and those jobs are worth protecting. Every television series depends on other markets-syndication, international sales – to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy and those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen. On these sites , anyone in the world can download entire television seasons in a single click.”
Glickman is arguing that people who download TV shows cut into their profits and, because of this, those who work in the industry will lose their jobs. This is an outrageous statement considering that he has no evidence to back up his claims and it’s very unlikely that there are many people who cancel their cable or satellite subscription just because they can download some of their favourite shows.
Glickman is also trying to redefine the word “thieves”. The only way to download a file using BitTorrent is if someone is sharing it. Files are shared and copies of files are created. Nothing is being stolen. Glickman isn't so dumb as to believe copyright infringement and theft are the same things, but to create the illusion that millions of dollars are being lost, he resorts to making absurd statements.
He went on to say, “Since we began shutting these sites down, the time that it takes to download a file on BitTorrent has increased exponentially which means the experience of downloading copyrighted films and TV shows is not what it used to be. We intend to make it even worse. Protecting the television industry is essential.”
This analysis is very inaccurate. Since the MPAA began suing BitTorrent tracker operators in December, 2004, dozens of new trackers have appeared online. The biggest blow to the BitTorrent community occurred when Suprnova.org closed down - and that had nothing to do with the MPAA.
Glickman is either not aware of the impact their lawsuits against BitTorrent tracker operators have had, or he’s simply trying to sensationalize their effect to make it appear that they’re eliminating all BitTorrent trackers.
The six Websites they have filed a lawsuit against are:
<LI type=disc>Zonatracker [www.zonatracker.com]
<LI type=disc>#BT-Efnet [www.btefnet.net]
<LI type=disc>Scifi-Classics [scifi-classics.net]
<LI type=disc>CDDVDHeaven [cddvdheaven.co.uk]
<LI type=disc>Bragginrights [www.bragginrights.biz]
ShunTV [www.shuntv.net]
Btefnet is the biggest and most popular of the six. Braggingrights, ShunTV and Zonatracker are relatively small trackers. Scifi-Classics Website has not been updated very often in the past few months and CDDVD Heaven isn’t a large tracker either. It appears that these trackers were targeted because their servers are all located in the U.S.A.
File sharers have learned how to adapt. When the anti-p2p companies took advantage of Kazaa’s weak hashing and were able to successfully flood the FastTrack network with decoy files that appeared to be genuine mp3 files, file sharers looked to alternatives such as the Ares and Gnutella networks.
Azureus (a BitTorrent client) has recently incorporated a distributed hash table (DHT) to its client. In a nutshell, DHT allows any client to become a tracker, eliminating the need for trackers hosted on Websites. Torrent files can be exchanged by email, IRC, instant messengers and on forums. Even if the MPAA somehow manages to takedown every BitTorrent site, it will still not be the end of BitTorrent.
Drake Zamanov - Canada