Another week, and another BitTorrent site has been shut down. This time round, it's LokiTorrent - with the site being replaced with a message from the Motion Picture Association of America, warning: "You can click, but you can't hide".
"There are websites that provide legal downloads," the message says. "This is not one of them. This website has been permanently shut down by court order because it facilitates the illegal downloading of copyrighted motion pictures. The illegal downloading of motion pictures robs thousands of honest, hard-working people of their livelihood, and stifles creativity. Illegally downloading movies from sites such as these without proper authorization violates the law, is theft, and is not anonymous. Stealing movies leaves a trail. The only way not to get caught is to stop."
LokiTorrent, of course, was different from some of those shut down in that the site's administrators were raising money through the site to try to defend the case. Thousands of dollars had been donated by users. The site was taken down after a Dallas court agreed that Hollywood lawyers would be allowed access to LokiTorrent's server records which could let them single out those who were sharing files illegally. It's also being reported the MPAA is attempting to shut down hosts who operate central servers for the eDonkey network - a more traditional peer-to-peer system.
The trackers shut down so far - Suprnova being the most high-profile - served all sorts of different files. Of course, the MPAA is particularly interested in the films being shared, many of which are only just out at the cinema with others being ripped off pre-release DVDs and all but indistinguishable from a genuine copy. It's easy to see why they wanted to crack down on the problem. But where next for movie downloads?
"There are websites that provide legal downloads," the message says. "This is not one of them. This website has been permanently shut down by court order because it facilitates the illegal downloading of copyrighted motion pictures. The illegal downloading of motion pictures robs thousands of honest, hard-working people of their livelihood, and stifles creativity. Illegally downloading movies from sites such as these without proper authorization violates the law, is theft, and is not anonymous. Stealing movies leaves a trail. The only way not to get caught is to stop."
LokiTorrent, of course, was different from some of those shut down in that the site's administrators were raising money through the site to try to defend the case. Thousands of dollars had been donated by users. The site was taken down after a Dallas court agreed that Hollywood lawyers would be allowed access to LokiTorrent's server records which could let them single out those who were sharing files illegally. It's also being reported the MPAA is attempting to shut down hosts who operate central servers for the eDonkey network - a more traditional peer-to-peer system.
The trackers shut down so far - Suprnova being the most high-profile - served all sorts of different files. Of course, the MPAA is particularly interested in the films being shared, many of which are only just out at the cinema with others being ripped off pre-release DVDs and all but indistinguishable from a genuine copy. It's easy to see why they wanted to crack down on the problem. But where next for movie downloads?
Neowin spoke to LokiTorrent's owner, Lowkee, a few weeks ago, as the legal battle was just getting underway. "I run a completely legal website that the MPAA or anyone else has no right to force me to close," he said. "In just the past few weeks, the MPAA has forced the shutdown of many other BitTorrent sites which were set up to do nothing more than allow people to share what they wished. It will be a dark day when we roll over to let organizations such as the RIAA and MPAA make our freedom of speech laws for us.
"Piracy is a byproduct of peer sharing," he added. When peer-to-peer software is being written, there aren't 10 developers wringing their hands together over how much software and music people can steal from those who make a living selling it. Peer sharing is used to allow people who don't have the financial funding of the MPAA and RIAA to share their works, for free, to a worldwide audience without the massive costs of bandwidth punishing them for being popular."
Remember, for all its faults (including the odd lawsuit against 12-year-olds, or dead people), the Recording Industry Association of America did do one thing differently. It waited until there was a mainstream, easily-available and legal alternative to the P2P networks before it launched its legal actions. Napster, iTunes and all have taken off - they may not yet have the same volume of downloads as services like Kazaa did in their hey-day, but it's growing all the time, and surely it won't be that much longer until legal music downloads actually do take over.
The movie business, however, is nowhere near this level. Napster has mentioned it plans to get into it at some point in the future, but no dates have been mentioned yet. There are a few services up and running now, but many of them are (once again) American-only - and others have a small selection of films that most of us have never heard of. Hardly that great of an incentive when a quick search will yield the latest blockbuster, watchable within just a few hours. Link up your computer to your TV and a decent surround sound system, and it's pretty much impossible to tell it apart from the real thing.
I have no doubt legal movie downloads - whether they're pay-per-view, download and keep, or a 24-hour "licence" to watch (pretty much like getting a movie out of Blockbuster or somewhere else at the moment) will come. However, it seems that it's still quite a long way off. More and more people have broadband, more and more people are wanting to use it to its full potential. More and more people are discovered the wonders of downloading films quickly and easily; until there are some viable, legal alternatives, the MPAA is facing an uphill struggle in shutting down BitTorrent trackers.
Neowin's Tom Graham contributed to this report
View: Neowin forums discussion View: BBC News coverageIt is important to note that Neowin does not endorse or support piracy of any kind; members posting links or detailed information will face severe action.
To protect the rights of an abstract concept of man, you mean. Not necessarily to protect actual individuals.
What difference does that make?
The MPAA has a right to protect their collective property. You're saying that just because ownership is held by a business (MPAA), that said business has less rights to it's own property??
That tack has never worked in court.
If people have nothing to use it on except emails and web, they could all stay on 128k connections.
As soon as people in the UK start getting boned by the law, then people will have no point to go for expensive "1mb or higher + no cap" deals.
The only time I can get LEGAL good use out of my connection is for demos, patches, freeware.
I never use my connection for sharing/uploads, and on the rare occasion I venture in somewhere, there's always queues or my download fails.
What about gamers, too?
Not everyone is in the same boat, people are spread across the whole bandwidth-needing spectrum
and besides the MPAA has no weight in some countries in Europe
In the end they will lose , just like the RIAA lost (or close to it)
If movie downloads were to become legal in a way, I certainly hope Apple or some non-microsoft organisations utilize a DRM not associated with WMV9.
I wouldnt be able to stomach the fact that potentially in the future the market dominance will be MS Based media players attached to our entertainment centres. Since Microsoft is pushing heavily for subscription models, Id be guessting their future "movie store" will be similiar to Napster's!
Last edited by 21917 on 12 Feb 2005 - 13:54
Don't blame your crappy movies on piracy
(they have a point though)
and tbh, any movie i've downloaded has been one i would never pay to see or rent or want to own normally (so it's not a lost sale). But having said that, there have been numerous times where having watched a movie i've downloaded i've liked it so much that i went out and bought it. (which mean it's a gained sale)
Shutting down the sites is the easiest way but as we all know there are also decentralised networks (like kademlia for Emule client) which are impossible to unplug.
"The illegal downloading of motion pictures robs thousands of honest, hard-working people of their livelihood,"
Yeah, this is really funny
ill bet there all living well above average!
Now, I should pay an insane amount of money for something that should be payed half of what I'm forced to?
Personally, I love buying original games and movies. They have a certain feel I cannot resist. But face it, with that kind of prices, you can't expect people to buy original. Not movies, not music, not software.
On a side note, I have no idea of how much Windows XP goes for these days, because it's too crappy to be bought. Microsoft did something, and that's making the releasing of Patches and Fixes something "Admirable"... has anyone thought that they sell unfinished products terribly high prices and then they fix whenever they want, when the money is already on their pockets...
See? That kind of behavior is what puts off international consumers when it comes to buy original. Expensive and crappy stuff in general. The good prodcuts, those I buy original. Mac OS X 10.3, Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission... I don't know, The Matrix and Traffic. Those movies I have original, in DVD or in VHS...
if yes... you have thin chances
elsewhere... no... not at all (hrmmm... maybe in the UK) heh
they really are money bags
poor fuks... let them spend millions of dollars on anti-piracy... money that they could easily invest in to make better movies...
personally... I don't download movies anymore...and don't buy them at all as a matter of fact. why? simply because they are not even worth it. I'd say that 95% of what's out of the hollywood business is total crap. it's a shame, but it seems that's how american loves movies.
ohhh... by the way... I have a message for you... you hungry money hores if your listening... my girlfirend bought me a CD for my birthday... and there was a sticker on it with the copy protection from EMI music...
since I can play those CD's NORMALLY without installing your ****ty little software that comes with it... and since it doesn't works on half of my CD player including my car radio...well... I've returned the damn CD... and guess what! i'll download it!!!
YES! that's it! So by putting this protection scheme... you:
First: loose money you were supposed to make (my girlfriend bought it legit and all)
Second: I will download it!
Third: f*** you!
that's what happens when you don't make compliant...standard CD's!
(by the way... if your about to flame me.... lol... I probably have bought more music that you'll ever will with a library of 1500+ CD's and 2000 vinyls... yep your read good... i'm a dj)
Anything the RIAA/MPAA do to stop piracy will just spring up new ways to download things. No one will ever be able to stop it, there are simply too many people doing it vs. too little people trying to stop it.
This is really funny, these called hard working people are the most highest payed workers in the world, these called creative guys are the graphics, animator that have over 100,000 dollars a year job, sometimes even in the millions for making movies, please that's not a fact
The RIAA and slash or MPAA can "suck my tiny yellow balls", as one once put it...
EDIT: *boards Canada Air*
Last edited by 80221 on 15 Feb 2005 - 01:17
Among the things I do not own is a CD Player or any sorts. My CD player is my laptop which I must bring with me to school everyday for my course. If the RIAA puts on copy-protection on CD's I buy, I physically cannot listen to them. So why would I want to go out and BUY a CD only to not be able to listen to it? As a college student, this isn't a cost I want to deal with. $20 is groceries for a week for me. It can also be a CD. I have to make that decision. I end up downloading most of my music because I'm not willing to take a risk on wether or not the CD is copy protected or not.
I pay my levy's on recordable media. I pay for my internet bill. If I want to see a movie I will spend the $6.00 to rent it. The RIAA/MPAA must feel proud for constantly robbing students of money. Everytime a CD price is raised, one less meal a student has somewhere. So instead of college students agreeing and accepting this rising cost of CD's we have turned to piracy for entertainment.
Keep on sueing, keep on raising those prices, and keep us students starving.
I don't really care about any of this, people will continue to pirate regardless of LokiTorrent being there or not, if anything it will just make people more determined (look at eXeem). What really annoys me though is people who can't admit that what they are doing is wrong. There is a law and you are breaking it, not being able to admit that is pretty sad in my opinion.
And as for Cryptic_Night, it sounds like you would have intentions to buy the CDs if you knew they would play on your laptop. Have you ever thought about buying from a music service? iTunes, MSN, Napster, Real, theres plenty out there and they'll all work on your laptop. You can also just spend a few bucks on the song you want, versus $20 for an entire CD. Thats why these services exist.
They usually argue that the law is wrong. Law and morality are considered distinct, by the way.
Copying != stealing, saying it over and over again doesn't make it so either.
Simply because if you are like me and buy the bulk of your blank media for data backups, then why should they be getting free money? Honestly...
They arent loosing anything... I don't think it's the money they are after it's the fact the emerging market isnt under their control. Well they are after money, but least not now... They are fearful of a future without the MPAA/RIAA/Whoever else in control...
Until they take the levy's off recordable media i won't consider it stealing, because afterall you're paying them something for it...
Are there any sites out there that only put up links to material that is free of copyright or open source?
HAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!
Many peer-to-peer networks and technologies will be subject of the same type of witchhunt that's being going on with BitTorrent trackers, but if you think legal services will "take over" anytime soon, you're totally naive.
Downloads on legal services are probably about 1% of the downloads through peer-to-peer systems.
There'really s nothing new in this short report.
Interesting point, but flawed logic.
Yea right.
* I realise that the comment was not supposed to be taken seriously, as such.