RIAA, MPAA, DoD, target US military personnel
p2pnet news view MPAA | RIAA:- Some US military personnel serving abroad are finding it impossible to get their legitimate movie and music fixes.
“An insider at a US base in Japan has been in touch with TorrentFreak to tell us of a new initiative underway which is being operated by the Department of Defense,” it says.
“The campaign is running in overseas bases and is targeting members of the military currently using BitTorrent and other P2P software to obtain media.”
In direct response, personnel have “stepped up” a campaign to “download as much content as they can using BitTorrent”, says the story.
And at the bottom of their troubles are the RIAA and MPAA, it states.
“For years many of us have spent time and money, hand over fist, looking for ways to work around IP blocks placed by companies operating from the states to access services such as NetFlix, Amazon, and others, to enjoy the same level of access as anyone living in the US does,” TorrentFreak has a military contact in Japan saying, also declaring:
“We have sent letters to the RIAA and the MPAA repeatedly letting them know that our downloads are a direct representation of their failure to allow us to be good consumers as others in the US can be.”
The two entertainment cartel enforcers send copyright notices daily to military personnel via their base ISPs, says the story, going on, “In turn, the personnel are threatened with account suspension and in serious cases, disconnection.
“Sucks, but all of us have kept doing it [file-sharing] as we have made every reasonable attempt to gain access to the content legally as any person living on US sovereign ground can,” complains the source.
“We have offered money to the companies in exchange for lifting the blocks and have offered up information as to how to allow military members into their content while strictly enforcing the contract.”
But, the post continues, “the pleas to the various media companies appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Our contact believes that the content providers must have no interest in the business available from overseas military personnel, as they continue to block them from accessing content legitimately.”
It adds:
“While there is an apparent crackdown on online file-sharing, there is an interesting footnote to this story. TorrentFreak is informed that when personnel are deployed, they have access to sanctioned ‘Morale’ hard drives which are allegedly filled with copyright materials acquired by “nefarious” means, and available for anyone to download and keep.”
..… and identi.ca
p2pnet music downloads – and stuff
TorrentFreak – US Military BitTorrent Users Targeted By MPAA/RIAA, January 18, 2010
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January 19th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Hmmmm a story from torrentfreak… not the most reliable fellows in my experience. I wonder if these “contacts” of theirs have big floppy ears and pink fur.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
“Some US military personnel serving abroad are finding it impossible to get their legitimate movie and music fixes.”
Unless they are in a combat zone, all US military personnel, and especially those in Japan and Europe, have access to the same services we have in the US. This story is just a smoke screen.