Hollywood denies MediaDefender link
p2pnet news | Movies:- Last Month The Pirate Bay filed complaints against some of the key players in the entertainment industry for corrupting and sabotaging their BitTorrent tracker.
The MPAA has now responded to these claims, denying it they worked with MediaDefender.
Unfortunately for the MPAA, we have proof that they did.
MPAA attorney Espen Tøndel (right) told the Norwegian newspaper Dageblatet the companies represented by the MPAA never requested MediaDefender to do the things The Pirate Bay claims.
This is a lie of course, and there ’s an archive of leaked emails to back this up.
To give an example, Universal Pictures, a company represented by the MPAA, contracted MediaDefender to protect movies, which basically means that they pollute BitTorrent sites with fake files to make the real files harder to find. There are several emails that prove this, and quotes such as “can you jump all over this swarm and try to kill it?” – leave little room for speculation.
Universal Pictures is not the only MPAA movie studio MediaDefender worked for, the emails clearly show that they were also hired by Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures. I would suggest Tøndel to go through these emails before making ungrounded claims like this again.
Brokep, one of The Pirate Bay founders, told TorrentFreak earlier they decided to file complaints because they want to make these big media companies aware of their own wrong doings: “I want them to take their crappy methods and stop their wrong-doing. They are going around accusing the pirate community for doing immoral stuff, when they do illegal stuff,” he said.
It’ll be interesting to see how this case develops.
One thing is for sure: it’ll be hard for these media companies to deny their involvement with these emails as evidence.
Torrentfreak – The Netherlands
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November 5th, 2007 at 11:57 am
But will these emails be admitted as evidence in court?
I’m no lawyer but I fear the answer is no because they weren’t legally obtained…
November 5th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
From what I have read, that doesn’t matter in Swedish court. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
The MPAA (US Based and focussed) and the MPA (US Based, but Internationally focussed) are Trade Associations, which, although the 6 major Hollywood studios make up the membership, are wholly separate legal entities from those studios. Each entity, trade association and studios, are entitled to act independently to pursue means of anti-piracy, HOWEVER one major exception is that Trade Associations are not allowed by US law to engage in “interdictions” the very kind of services MD sells. Sure every Hollywood studio and most major record labels (RIAA members) contract with firms, including MD, to conduct interdictions, but the trade associations as separate entities, and by their legal nature are strictly prohibited to do likewise by US anti-trust law.
You might see them as one monolith or as a cartel perhaps, but US law sees them differently. I cannot comment on Swedish Law. Nonetheless, what is the real penalty that Universal and the like could face if found in violation of Swedish Law. If it’s just a fine and some embarrassment, perhaps that was part of the risk assessment made by these ‘evil’ capitalists. So, ultimately they see the result as just the cost of doing business.