There is an “Early Neutral Evaluation Conference” on May 23, 2006 to determine if this matter can be settled. Personally, it seems like an utter waste of time because at this point about the only thing I would settle for is if they dropped the case, paid my attorney fees and then dissolve their whole organization.
They offered me an initial settlement of $2,500 (before they decided to take it to court), which was rejected on the basis of principle. Then today I talked to my attorney and they are offering a settlement of $3,500.
Bahahahahahaaha! So if I refused your $2,500 out of principle, what exactly makes you think I’m going to give you $3,500 now? That’s comedy. 🙂
From everything I’ve read online, the MPAA (and RIAA) has been pretty much extorting everyone simply because they can’t afford to fight it. This certainly will give me something interesting to blog about. I just pray it goes to a full trial, where they will lose and then give everyone else that is being sued a nice lawsuit they lost as a reference for their lawsuit… “MPAA vs. Shawn Hogan” That has a nice ring to it. Maybe this loss will be the start of their demise. (Hmmm… I seem to have quite the aspirations, eh? haha)
From a purely business standpoint, I think all the lawsuits that the MPAA and RIAA are throwing out are only hurting them in the long-run. From everything I’ve read, it does not curb piracy at ALL. I would even argue it increases it because all of a sudden people that weren’t aware you could download music/movies now realize you can (and some will start). Then you are going to compound this by everyone talking about it and reading other’s blogs. I’m a perfect example… from talking my attorney and then researching stuff online as a result of that, I now know that if you have the proper software installed, you can download pretty much any movie (or anything else) you want.
Not only that, but you would think they would be wiser about who they choose to extort.
For as big of an organization they are, my website gets roughly 10,000 times more traffic than theirs (hell, this stupid blog gets more traffic than their site). Then again, digitalpoint.com more traffic than buy.com or adobe.com.. hehe
So what just happened? Well now a few hundred thousands people per day were just educated about 1. about their general extortion and 2. they also now know that you can download whatever you want. I’m starting to think maybe the MPAA might actually kill the movie industry (which this dude shares my viewpoint). If they were smart, they certainly would choose their racketeering targets a little wiser (like maybe someone without the resources to fight and a captive audience of 80 million people per month that will read my viewpoint). This could turn out to be some good/interesting reading though. Reminds me a bit of the Winn and Sims fiasco.
Wanna see something else funny? Check Google’s top 10 results for “MPAA”… It seems I’m not the only one that thinks the MPAA is looney. 🙂
//www.google.com/search?q=mpaa
Oh, and just as a side note, they are utter liars… They told me they identified the specific computer that did whatever they claimed and they traced it back to me (of course I knew that was a lie since it never happened). But now they are saying they don’t have any such information (MAC address basically). {rolls eyes}
Kick their asses 🙂
I just don’t know why the Mississauga Pilipino Athletic Association would be suing you. Weird…
Dugg…
BTW Where did that traffic lift come from?
Thanks for looking out for the little people.
Shawn Hogan for President!
Good luck!
Sue ’em out of existance!
Hey, just out of curiosity how much money do you expect it will cost you to fight this? Does your lawyer have any ideas? Who is your lawyer and how may I get ahold of him, when the lawsuits rain down like the frogs from magnolia, on my front lawn?
Kick their sorry little ass
A man after my own heart.
I bet they back down rather than undermine future intimidation/extortion potential.
I’m rootin for ya! I’m hoping you’ll keep us updated as to the proceedings and outcome of the hearing and trial… There’s a mutiny afoot! Earrghh!
Bust em up Jiga. I hate them dirty bastards. I downloaded a movie got caught and told em id upload it back, but they wouldn’t settle damn them.
Please visit my new website http://www.turktech.us
Glad you got your server back up quickly. Good luck.
Are you john doe?? 😛
They could not find him even today.
I tell you. Its Santa who’s been troubling the MPAA with his hopping around.
I’m not American, so i guess i’m a little imune to MPAA ( come and get me suckers haha! ) but i wish you lots and lots of good luck in beating those M.F…
In the end, sue them for moral damages and make them pay your layer, your time, everything with BIG interest’s.
Very very interesting article. I think it is rather amuzing and I hope you nail their a$$es.
They said they “traced it back to you?” Oh, that’s rich, considering that all internet connections run through about six or seven different servers and last time I checked, browsers don’t leak MAC addresses or Windows serial numbers through html headers.
So, this makes me wonder: what was their “probable cause” and where was their warrant when they broke into your computer to retrieve solid personally identifying information?
Silly MPAA, telling themselves they have some kind of legal authority like the police.
I really hope you counter-sue them for everything from violating your privacy to wasting your time.
EFF the MPAA! XD
Shawn,
I don’t see a link for donations. I’m sure your lawyer is expensive (unless he’s taken your case pro bono), so I know I speak for many people when I say I’d like to kick in a few bucks (all I can afford right now) to the cause.
And, BTW, nuke ’em till they glow!
I’m not really looking for donations for this… If you *really* want to donate for something, you can donate towards the new server farm (I’m sick of front-page bringing stuff to a crawl). But I certainly don’t expect anyone to of course.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/donate.html
Kick their collective asses. Let me know if you need bandwidth. I’ll donate every packet I have.
Hundreds of millions of file sharers around the world are rooting for you. These **AA dinosaurs are an endangered species gasping for air as they go DOWN …
Is there a phone number where I can get ahold of your lawyer?
If you don’t want to post it, please email it to Tim at [email protected]
Thank you.
We’re all behind you dude… I personally don’t have a lot, but if there were anything I could do…. I’d fight tooth and nail for a cause like this.
You just gained another blog watcher, buddy. Keep it up my friend, I hope things go well!
Why do you want to get ahold of my lawyer?
Shawn, you’re a hero to all of us.
I hate the MAFIA (Music And Film Industry Associations – aka “RIAA” and “MPAA”) with every fiber of my being.
Not because I rip stuff off, but because a) they are trying to curb our freedoms, b) they lie about their motivations (“protect the artists” – BS!!! It’s all about $$$), and c) they prey on innocent people with intimidation and threats.
Want to know what I’d do? I’d write Jon Stossel @ 20-20 (ABC Television) and offer him a great story. He’s historically been strongly supportive of individual freedoms, standing up for the little guy (OK, let’s overlook your 80 million monthly hits, you’re still a “little guy”, and I am ONLY referring to the David vs. Goliath aspect)
I think you know how incredibly powerful it could be if you fight this thing away… just think of the precedent. Could be a watershed case. And the whole world will be watching.
Anyway best of luck, go get ’em, take no prisoners and stand your ground.
And most of all, make a HELLUVA lot of noise in the process!
i am a legal wordprocessor if you need any document help for free!
Until recently I worked for one of the big players in the recording industry and I completely disagree with what they are doing. I have been patiently waiting for a concerted movement againt them, please, please bring them down if you can… Given the raw financial muscle backing these giants I doubt you’ll do much to put them out of business, but if you can get the message out there, to the average joe, then maybe things will start getting better… Unfortunately, there just arent enough people who are, um, informed enough to read anything more than the front page of Newsweek. (See: Global Warming, and the lack of public interest until the mainstream news publications just recently picked up the story. Time Mag for example.) Stopping these a**-holes should be a top priority, i mean, they just sued a family that dosent even own a computer for Christs sake!!! I pledge my assistance on basic moral principles alone; what the recording lables and motion picture assoc. have become are ruthless predators feeding on their own customer base because.. they can and nobody is willing to stop them. Wake up people, these guys are capable of passing laws that benefit only themselves because they have the money to birbe public officials who YOU elected to represent your best interests! Do yourself some reading and ask yourself if the DMCA is really in your best interests..
Dude, I have no idea who you are, but I love this. I’ve hated the RIAA and MPAA since high school, and I actually won’t buy CDs because of principle. Your case could offer a reference to not only the MPAA, but the RIAA as well. If you’re the one to crush them in court, you’ll be my hero. I even wrote my senior paper in high school on how the RIAA was evil, got 17 pages if I remember correctly, 3 were sources.
Laws are being passed that are being written and pushed by the Bush administration with backing from the RIAA and MPAA (along with other copyright holding organizations) that would make downloading a movie punishable by ten years in prison. The laws are soon going to be worse for movie downloaders than for those who assault policeman and download child pornography. So please, please, give these guys a major boot in the ass before it becomes a criminal offense where there is no innocent until proven guilty.
Yes! I’m glad you are fighting back. It will take a lot of work, but there’s nothing like being an internet hero.
I’m behind you too, dude. These guys are trying to circumvent reality. All I can offer up is web design skills, but I’m a big fan of the wordpress, so if you want a new template or something, just let me know!
If they said that they traced you from MAC address, it’s a lie. The MAC address doesn’t get propogated through the router, so they’d have to be sniffing on your actual subnet.
Good luck, dude.
Good Luck Dude!!
You rock. Not only are those people idiots—but they are engaging in criminal activity (e.g,. criminal anti-trust, etc.) which is damaging you in connection with your business–a violation of the RICO act. In addition they really don’t want thier dirty little secret to get out—controlling a market through price fixing, etc., essentially invalidates all copyright protections.
Good luck, We are all hoping someone makes a difference. Please post anything we can all do to help you.
-Michael
Remember, if they have any info on you how did they get it??? Did they track your packets? Did they probe your firewall? Did they ping you? Well if so, then you have them under the computer crimes act that was passed… infact these ‘terroist’ hackers are breaking the law by even inspecting any packet out there that is not theirs… i think federal charges need to be brought against them similar to all the crap that happend with the great hackers like Mitnick
good luck dude 😀 hope you win and counter sue them for invasion of piracy or something along those lines 😀
good luck dude
You know what is sad? This happens to you and you think “At least I have something interesting to blog about.” Do you really go through your entire day thinking “Hmmm,,,what can I write in my fucking DIARY and them put it on the internet like anyone wants to read my 12 year old girly thoughts.”
Seriously..you are a blogger. Doesn’t hat make you want to kill yourself? It should. You will lose the cas and make them stronger.. Congrats.
Good luck guy. I have almost 500 DVDs that I have purchased and I’m started to get tired of the MPAAs greed. For instance, I just had to purchase Event Horizon again to get the extended edition which was supposed to have all this extra content and really doesn’t have worth paying for. I have about 20-30 DVDs. I’m getting really close to the point where I’m just going to rent and copy.
Their greed is going to be their downfall.
Good luck. 🙂
No way, nonvirgin, he’s totally gonna win the cas. BTW: I like that little trick you do where you put all the punctuation at the beginning of a sentence so you don’t have to worry about it later. I’m gonna start doing that!
the guy above (nonvirgin) is stupid.
I hope you win and I’m glad to hear more people and more well to do people are fighting back. Yea, if you did win your case you could seriously be on all the court dockets as a reference to ‘when the MPAA lost’
Good luck!!!!
hi, fortunately i dont live in US, but i really hate MAFIA = MPAA + RIAA… so i give you a tip or two, to win this battle: you say you dont download anything, right?, so you already win this case because they just have circunstancial evidence or evidence that just prove something related to the crime, but is not a crime, and im not sure but the MAC adress can change time to time if you reinstall XP or change your Router or your ethernet port or just change without notice, if not,
You just buy… yes is a shame… the things you download, and break it, then when you go to court, just present the broken cd’s or dvd’s as evidence and say you just need a backup, instead from buying again, you download it the movie or music or program or anything, but you have the original, so is completely legal to backup all that you want, if is for your personal use, and they just dont have anything to sue you, so their will be on his knees, so kick his face… and sue him for waisting your time, and the time and money from the city… that teach their, and the cds can be used, so will be cheap, and i wish you the best… please, please dont lose or lose with style…
Good luck, Shawn!
This is what most of have been hoping for: one of the AAs picking on a risk taker that realizes what an opportunity this is to set legal precedence and kill the legitimacy of future AA lawsuits while hopefully making a few bucks doing it. Risk takers made the US and it’s nice to find one that’s still around.
Yes the the case will be dismissed because you get more traffic than MPAA.org. How dare they came after you….oooooo
IMO, you should team up with Michael Weiss from Streamcast Networks.
“Streamcast Networks has broken off settlement negotiations with record labels and movie studios and now intends to take its chances in court. ” – http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/7476.cfm
Good luck, Shawn.
I’d never heard of you before (how is that possible?) but I found this on Digg and love it. I wish you the best, and love what you’re doing.
Nice work. Keep it up.
I’m a songwriter and a recording artist. I support the RIAA who are trying to collect royalties for myself and others, from pirates who are STEALING. Piracy is illegal and defrauds those of us who have a hard enough time earning a living as it is.
Shawn, good luck to you. The DigitalPointers are rooting for you. I hope you make it to full trial and become a reference point in every parallegal’s library.
-JM
i love you man!
if i had the money and the knowledge i would have the “bring it on” approach.
but i dont….
therefore, i dont know, but kick their ass.
@bagelwood
Run a packet sniffer and see what a TCP/IP header has. MAC addresses a plenty. Of course, spoofing a MAC address takes 2 seconds, but thats another story….
Not that it’s really relevant to my situation (since there was no downloading to begin with), but MAC addresses aren’t visible to the destination. You can sniff packets and see YOUR MAC address, but you won’t see the address of the web server (if it’s an HTTP address) for example. Usually just your upstream router/gateway will see your MAC.
I wish you luck. Kick their bloody bums back into the depths of hell they spawned from.
@Chris,
The MAC address contained in a packet / frame will change multiple times during its transmission – it’s used to get from hop to hop. The IP address is the one that stays constant between the source and destination. So, if a remote destination says they can see your MAC address, they’re almost certainly full of it.
Dude did you hear about the Sundance movie director that made a movie about the MPAA? He submitted it for review and the MPAA made copies and gave it out to MPAA employees. Well now the director is suing the MPAA for making illegal copies of his movie entry to the Sundance about the MPAA.
Oh Snapp!!!
Mabuhay
Chris, your a noob, you don’t know shit, the only MAC addresses your sniffing is the ones on your own network you moron. You script kiddie hacker wannabe pile of shit. Only way RIAA got a MAC address was by unlawfuly gaining access to his machine.
I think your fight is a great one, screw the MAFIA. Also SOMEONE needs to start a WEBSITE that is similar to the Video Game Voters Network, a place where we can all join and fight for a cause. I believe that would show them just how powerful WE can be. I’m sure that we could easily get a lot of members (in the millions). I have no website/design skillz, so I cant really do anything, but someone should.
Let the games begin. Best of luck! I’d love to see them go down in flames.
Hey ricky, I see you support the RIAA. Do you also support the new technology fee they charge YOU for every CD they press, even when cds have been around for decades. Or fees you still pay for new technology even if the song is offered ONLINE LIKE ON ITUNES?
And shawn, you are half way right. Sniffing packets would show your mac address, but it would also show the mac address of your router/modem. But the thing is, the mac address is only added to that segment. The next hop would have the mac address of the router and the isps router, no longer your computers. Either way, they wouldnt have been able to get your mac address from packets or anything like that. But the ip address issued to your computer and router based on isp records stay in the packet thruout the entire length of the message.
Right… I should have clarified that… you can see the MAC address of something one-hop away. My point was just that you aren’t going to see the MAC address of anything other than your computer and your gateway (or traffic on your local sub-net).
I’m glad to see someone willing to stand up for his principles. It takes someone unwilling to fold under pressure to show everyone else how it’s done.
yeah, go shawn, and i can back cde up. i am in networking classes and we covered MAC addresses first semester and how a router will change a source MAC to the router’s MAC, leaving the destination unchanged, and thats just within the network. there would be several (hundered maybe) to get to destination if there was downloading. who knows how many MAC changes mine will go thru untill it gets to you, but the last one should be one of your or your ISP’s.
DOWN WITH THE LYING BASTARDS!!!!!!!! you now have fans from rural Indiana!!
Give em hell, buddy! What the world needs is for someone to get enough money together and produce a viable alternative to the MAFIAA; if that were to take place the big boys would go down in flames.
And a word to that ricky choad up there who sides with the RIAA. If you knew your ass from a hole in the ground, you’d be aware that you’d make ALOT more money, were it not for the RIAA taking your profits. Besides, as an artist you should be happy anyone listens to your music. You should be honored that anyone would listen to your musical expression of your soul. But since you’re mad about it, you’re not an artist at all. You’re just a money-grubbing worth-for-naught trying to make a few bucks on some generic crap music. Get a job you damn loser!
I admire what you are doing. I don’t advocate or even condone piracy, but the MAFIA limits consumer freedoms and commits fraud in order to create illegitimate lawsuits for the whole purpose of extortion and intimidation.
Fight the good fight!
It’s about time someone stood up to the bastards. Fight the good fight! And make sure you bring em down, and hard. And make sure the world knows what sort of greedy assholes they are.
Keep us posted Shawn – this oughta be interesting … have you suggested the MPAA hire Winn and Sims for their legal counsel … 😉
Umm good luck in your fight but using alexa stats to try to talk up the popularity of your webmaster forum when it’s obvious that its alexa stats are hugely inflated because many more webmasters have alexa toolbar installed than regular websurfers makes you seem ignorant.
We do primarily billing/accounting software actually…
Become a millionaire from this lawsuit and continue the crusade until the end! 😉
Good luck!
Good luck Shawn! I wish you all the best in your battle. They make me sick.
check out allofmp3.com – download tracks for a couple of pennies and cut out the middle man(RIAA) But im pretty sure they actually cut out everyone so not even the artist gets money, so go to their concerts or send them a couple of bucks
Funny that MPAA would pick someone….I mean SOMETHING like this to mess with. I doubt things will ever be quite the same for that org. They better get ready to hang on to their hats and lose their shorts!
Kick some arse man. Glad to see someone standing up to them finally. What they are doing is a joke, they know it, we know it, now we need precedence to prove the fact and then maybe they’ll get back to extorting producers and directors instead of the public!
Reportedly, MAC addresses can be extracted from the browser using JavaScript, Java, or ActiveX.
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/9005
Set a precedent!!!
(2 years in the future) “Your honor, I move for a dismissal based on MPAA vs. Shawn Hogan”
You have a whole community behind you on this one. Get a judge to admit this is racketeering and get into the history books!!!
Good deal! Its about time someone took them to task, what a twisted society we are in. But then again it’s capitalist, so I guess it is par for the course.
Good luck, but somehow I don’t think that you’ll need it.
Go Shawn Hogan! I back you man. Go for it.
Something really needs to be done about this witch hunt that MPAA and RIAA are doing.
Remember the story that they were trying to sue a dead woman, who never owned a computer in the first place? Read my post http://www.cd-burner-help.com/blog/?p=93
Shawn I am glad to see they are now trying it on with you and not because I dislike you 😉 but more because I know your not going to stop without a fight.
Good Luck with kicking their ass, its about time someone does it!!
I really support what your doing. As you said you can’t stop them from dropping the case. However, if they do isn’t there something you could sue them for. Like attempted extortion… or abuse of the legal system or something. Something that they are doing must be illegal.
Quick note–it’s “principle” in that context, not “principal”. I wouldn’t point it out, but you’ve made that mistake on at least a couple of your posts 🙂
One’s capital or the head of a schoolhouse, the other is a “fundamental basis for something”. Other than that, good job. It will definitely be interesting to see how this turns out.
Oops… I spell gooder. 🙂 (fixed, thanks)
I’m sure to keep on reading the latest news from you. What’s going to happen next?
Sean,
Good to see you have found Declan (Politechbot). Find also the EFF if you haven’t yet and see if they may be of assistance in helping you with representation. I don’t know if the RIAA MPAA has been tested by trial yet – In Canada things didn’t go so well for them. The settlement desk is extortsion and you are right to fight the fight – build a team of attorneys and supporters to regain fair use and non commerciasl sharing of ideas.
NB
Carry it right to the end. They should have to prove allegations once they’re made. A worthwhile cause…
I am an attorney in Kansas City, MO. I have a client who was sued by a studio for alleged copyright violations. There is no way this middle age, middle class married man stole a copy of meet-the-fockers.
They are sniffing IP addresses. They file cases against John Does and get emergency expedited discovery to obtain the user names from the ISP. The ISP (SBC in my case) gives them the MAC address of the router and the name of the subscriber. Then they file the correct lawsuit. That’s how they get the MAC address.
In any event, I haven’t heard of anyone using the defense of a cover proxy in a case like this. I’m pretty certain that’s what happened to my guy – a trojan installed a cover proxy and it was used by someone’s torrent client. I was hoping some of you technical-types would let me know if there is a flaw in this logic???
Patrick –
Hmmm… it sounds like your client and myself were in the same batch of “John Doe” lawsuits.
My upstream provider is also SBC, and the movie I allegedly downloaded is Meet The Fockers as well (which ironically I own the DVD for).
Could be (March, 2005 was the alleged violation date???).
My client actually purchased the movie on in-demand prior to the alleged download date. He owns 100 or so DVD’s.
We’re in settlement negotiations right now so I won’t discuss the case much here unless they break down completely.
I also
amwas a big DVD buyer. I probably own 150-200 or so… I was too lazy to go to the Blockbuster twice (once to rent, once to return), so I always just bought any movie I wanted to watch once. The whole movie industry has put a bad taste in my mouth lately though with all this. I didn’t consciously decide to stop buying DVDs or going to the movies (they aren’t going to care or notice any lost sales from me), but I’ve found myself just not watching movies (or TV for that matter) in the last 6 months. My TV gets about 2 hours of use per month now. {shrug} There are a lot more interesting things to do in the world anyway. 🙂I don’t even know when the alleged violation date was, but March of 2005 sounds familiar (lawyers have all my documents, so I can’t look right now). 🙂
Good luck with the settlement stuff. If it goes through, and there isn’t a non-disclosure attached to it, I’d love to hear about it when it’s done.
Share What I Know, Learn What I Don’t …
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/5257/Share+what+I+know,+learn+what+i+don't
…if you want the version with the hyperlinks intact, it took me 2 years of research (since I have a ‘real job’) and is worth a look. Just let me know & I will send the original.
Take them down. I would die for file-sharing. I have sent money directly to musician’s independent labels [personal checks by their name in letter form SOLELY to them] & they have always ended up sending the money back & the requested autograph. (hundreds of dollars depending on which artist I love the most…). Information is not a crime. Someday I dream of someone throwing a brick through the headquarters in NYC. Maybe one day this will be a reality in the form of a symbolic legal precedent. Godspeed.
savethemusicfan.com
I agree, there’s so much more to do other than watch tv and movies. I watch the news and stocks, but other than that my TV stays off. Writing code is more productive.
I hope you take them down hard, you should turn around the lawsuit and sue them. Then we could all start sueing them until they go out of business for good
Negotiations fell through and now we’re in litigation. I filed an answer on behalf of my client today and will be setting up our own blog soon.
Lowest offer was $3000.00. Our highest counter was $300.00.
We will await discovery to see if counterclaims are warranted. Depositions of Mediasentry will be top priority. My expert is obtaining permission from his employer right now, but he is a network and security design engineer for the largest security software vendor in the world.
My client indicated he’d rather pay me than them…Should be a good one.
When I get my blog up, I’ll post all the docs and try to keep everyone informed.
Patrick Cuezze
Shawn, I’m no legal expert. But if you own the dvd then surely you own the right to copy it (for your own personal use/backup whatever).
I’m sure your law dudes would have picked up on this….Nethertheless it seems odd to me.
Hi, I’m from sweden and deeply admire you for fighting back at mpaa! Reacently, the biggest torrent-tracker in the world, http://www.thepiratebay.org , were shut down by our swedish version of mpaa( Antipiratbyrån, APB) with some help from the government (wich is goning to loose the election 2006 THANK GOD!). They suspected that illegal copies of movies and such were stored at thier server. But they wouldnt settle with just confiscating thepiratebay’s server.. nono, they took the WHOLE BLOODY SERVERPARK! This means that a couple of hundred of Swedens biggest sites, many of them very “piracy”-friendly, are beeing held at the police. Did APB find anything on ThePirateBay’s server than? No, offcourse they didn’t (although they claimed they had found copyright-protected material on the server even before they’d broken it’s encryption..) and now The PirateBay has a HUGE sum of money waiting for them beacuse of the false acusations. This makes you think a bit.. This whole thing about be able to shut down any sites you like if you have contacts in the government, doesn’t it feel a bit “eastern-eurpoe-at-the-80s”? Do we really want to go back to a society with no respect for personal integrity or human rights? This terrible act from the swedish government makes me ashamed of beeing a swede! Well, hope you’ll get a ridiculous large sum of fresh, green cash, and you millions of blogg-readers will stay tuned! Yeah, and PS. mpaa, apb, the swedish government and all those supporting them, may you burn in hell (wich you’ll probably will).
Now you know Shawn, while DP might get a lot of traffic, using Alexa is not going to give you accurate traffic comparisons. The skew towards webmaster sites is very substantial. My webmaster site is ranked as well on Alexa as another one of my sites with 200x the traffic.
Forget Shawn for President,
I move for Shawn to appear on the Simpsons.
(I almost feel sorry for the MPAA, not knowing who they were taking on)
Hope you own “Meet The Parents” too,
funnier than the sequal IMO.
😀
very interesting read . down where i am , downloading eve anything over 100 MB is a pain , so can even think of downloading a full movie 😛
anyway best of luck for your full trial 🙂
If they decide to drop the case and you should file a suit for all the anxiety etc… Bring them to their knees for all the little guys they have done this to in the past. Someday, you will be president….
i would sue em’ for hacking into my computer 🙂
So, plain and simply, what is the case that you are going to bring up against the MPAA? I would imagine that the case would look like you showing them just how inaccurate their testing methods are, or simply going up to the jury/judge and saying what their methods are, and how it is illegal/invasion of privacy
This would especially be true if you worked behind a router. You need a damned password to get into those things.
Heck ya! Slam those Hypocrits!! if you need donates, post a link. Since I haven’t been buying new movies or CD’s anyway, I got extra cash 😛
So how’s it going on the case? Haven’t heard anything in awhile.
Nothing much… the court system is sllllooowwwwww…. 🙂
http://www.shawnhogan.com/?s=mpaa
I can’t believe I missed all of this… Anyways.. hoping things go well. There is simply so much flawed with the whole process on the MPAA side of things. It is clearly a scam by them to extort money and create a public scare. Every aspect of their process for uncovering people is just horribly flawed. Since when is an ISP log some sort of certified evidence of fact?
Will be very interested to see how this progresses. See you got wrote up in Wired too.
Good luck Shawn!
Full support here!
good luck, I bet artists, casual musicians, the entire P2P community (which does much more than piracy) and the entire internet age, are so glad that they will be taken to court.
My favorite thing is when the MPAA says “you wouldn’t steal a car, why a movie?” well that is a gross description of it, it is more like if one could make an exact duplacate of the car with the owner’s permission and make sure the owner of the original can still use their car perfectly the other person can use a clone of it perfectly so that no damage was done, why would that be considered stealing? It would apear that the MPAA is trying to hinder new and exciting technologies.
(by the way you should call your lawyer team “Hogan’s Hero’s”)
It’s sad to see how the RIAA and MPAA have handled general music piracy concerns – the aggressive and bullying tactics that don’t always seem to be about stopping music piracy.
I was one of those independent musicians who set up on MP3.com years ago – the RIAA authorised MP3.com to offer downloads of major label artists – then sued them because of the file storage system used.
The share price for MP3.com dropped, and then – surprise – major recording company Vivendi-Universal bought it out.
The RIAA and MPAA tactics leave a lot to be desired, and absolutely need taking down a peg or two, to show that being aggressive against your own customers isn’t the way to make sales.
Just be careful not to make any comments they could use against you, Shawn – and best of luck with making these corporate bully boys face the consequences of their actions.
Kick their asses!!! 😀
My basic question is: why is the MPAA even involved in searching for so called “violations”? Who gave them the athourity in the first place to monitor any net activities? Since when did a ratings organization ( yes Virginia, the MPAA was set up to provide the PUBLIC with ratings, not to protect the movie industry or enrich the movie companies) become involved in corporate capatalism in the first place? At least i understand the RIAA doing so,, since it’s a watchdog group for the recording industry, to help protect their profits. I personally have always subscribed to our constitutional doctorines the right to privacy, the right of search and seisure without probable cause. I’m just wondering how many people who do not download anything even quasi-illegal have had their computers scanned for information that would fall under constitutional illegalities.
Don’t you think it’s time that we put a stop to this invasion of our basic rights?
Keep fighting these pricks. They’re all former b-grade political hacks. Valenti is a talentles ponse and former catamite of the Johnson administration.
Quote “My favorite thing is when the MPAA says “you wouldn’t steal a car, why a movie?” well that is a gross description of it, it is more like if one could make an exact duplacate of the car with the owner’s permission and make sure the owner of the original can still use their car perfectly the other person can use a clone of it perfectly so that no damage was done, why would that be considered stealing? ” End Quote
Well the car manufacturers own the design rights, so if you had permission from the manufacturer then no you are not stealing. If you copy an actual customers car then yes you are stealing. Hogan you will lose this case. How would he feel if his companys product were being freely distributed. Intellectual property must be protected. Its that simple.
Gov’t & laws are supposed to be balanced & protect both commerce and the people. Big business buys politicians who turn the laws against the people. The DMCA is evidence of this fact. Since copyright law is politically corrupt & broke, I’ve decided never to give another penny to these greedy pigopolist.
God Bless you Shawn. These greedy, parasitical extortionist have finally encountered someone with the courage & means to contest their extortion attempts. I hope 2 things for your outcome.
1. You win
2. You receive damages for this frivolous lawsuit.
Since RIAA & MPAA began these lawsuits, I have been boycotting the parasitical big labels. If I want a certain cd from the big 5 or almost any DVD, I buy it used on eBay, Amazon, etc….
Hi,
Go for it!! What these people don’t, or will not, realize is that music and movie downloads help promote their products. I often buy DVDs/CDs after downloading them to view first. The people that they need to target are those that sell counterfeit DVDs and CD they are the ones that are ripping everyone off.
Good luck
mac address schmack address, glad to see the MPAA is being made a complete fool yet again.
They’re so full of it on so man levels it stinks.
thank god that much more of the general public now has better idea of how to call their bluff, LOL
I stopped buying cd’s and dvd’s about 3 years ago and MPAA is the one which made me stay away from buying them.MPAA is the one who is poking the film industry in the eye by annoying more and more people and making people aware that they dont need to go out to a shop to buy a dvd,you can just use torrents to download it for free.
Down with MPAA.
Shawn, I want you to win – regardless of guilt or innocence. These dicks need to be shown that they harm themselves and the people they claim to protect with their greedy bully tactics and clandestine hacking into private computer systems. Last time I looked, it was illegal to use trojan software to examine someone’s PC without their knowledge and without a warrant. Just who do these shlongs think they are? There’s safety in numbers. There’ll be a sh!tload of file swapping just in protest alone if they don’t back off and become a lot more reasonable. Less is More…
get all u can of those arsewipes an make the m.f,s squirm in the process,i download all i can download even if i dont really want it…just because i can and i dont intend on ever stopping either so take those cunts to the cleaners mate and should i ever get a notice from those greedy fucks i shall happily shove it far up their shitty ol’ anus
I just got an email from my isp saying i was downloading copyrighted stuff. in the email is an attachment from Mediasentry. It says i downloaded 300 CAM file from bit torrent (i might have, thinking it was the 300 chrysler roadtest from Topgear or fifth gear) Should I be worried? i called my isp and told them i would take care of it. I have a wireless network, so it may have been done by someone else.(it says it is in my pc. id by my user name on it) Has anyone been sued ? should I contact the people listed on the Complaint letter? i think that it may open another pandora’s box if i do, but i am very worried that it will come back tpo haunt me. is this a prelude to beng sued?
I have Kazza and limewire on my computer too, can they “scan” it? I leave it off during the day, can they do it then? I have all my p2p set not to share, but i like the library and player functions. I do not download on these, rather just use their functions mostly (i did use them, but stopped, most of my files range back to Napster.If i use them now, it is mainly for porn (hey, that is why Al Gore invented the internet right?)
I am honestly scared….
Hi I got caught to downloading 300-cam too. My ISP which just so happend to be a university that i attend sent me an email stating that my Network connection will be shut off due to a complaint from the RIAA. Which dosent make any sense to me? Why would the RIAA have anything to do with a movie, shouldnt it be the MPAA? Please help with any info. How much is this going to cost me?
I will digg your story, pass it on to at lease 10 friends to digg and read. Also, I will put a link to it on JunkNova.
You should have a donation button. I would love to donate to help the fight. Just let me know how I can help.
I applaud you good sir! These corporate bastards are gonna gain fire up the arse in due time!!
I got “threatened” last year. I totally ignored them and I never heard from them again.
I wonder how many movies they think I downloaded on a AOL dialup connection?
sounds like they used what is reffered to a rx-bot or a zombie network on your machine these are spoofed system prossess that can remotely control your pc and get info about your system such as cd keys for all mircosoft products internet info
files on your drive even your web history so it sound to like they are using drones imbeded in software to tag suspected ppl’s pc’s
I haven’t heard anything in ages about this, but still would like to know what is happening!
so what is the current status of your case?
I received an e-mail from my ISP saying I violated copyright laws by downloading a 700 meg movie and they listed the name of the alleged movie. The way this fairytale goes is that the alleged movie is a password protected zip file that is the same name as the alleged movie. Inside the zip file is an file telling you to go to this website to call an 800 number for an alleged password. There is no password. So, continuing, if this zip file contains no movie at all and no one can access it, how can this violate movie copyright laws if this isn’t even a movie at all. End of fairytale for the moment. A zipfile is NOT a copytighted movie.
Well I’m not sure what to do about my own. I hope you win. I’m a very poor grad student. I just got a second warning from the cocks at Cox communications.
I’m no blushing innocent. The first warning…was legit.
This second one was for a file I would never have come near with a ten foot pole, never touched, and on a day when according to my personal logs, I never even turned on file sharing of any kind.
They’re all about “oh nobody EVER gets a strike taken away from their records…” Pbbbbth. But…but… They’re WRONG. How do I prove it? I don’t have a wireless network anymore, and when I did it was password protected. I run a ton of AV software and others… Something’s clearly wrong.
I see that the case has settled.
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/01/index-of-litigation-documents.html#Universal_v_Hogan
Well! I never heard of MIAA but I have been trying to educate people to the fact that we are being “represented” and Protected to the point that ALL Americans(particularly patriotic Americans) are being turned into criminals!! Just let congress stay in session long enough and you can be a criminal too. Don’t you dare speak up ’cause then you are a suspect.IT IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!The judiciary is the greatest supporters of communism in the entire world.Protect American freedom, do NOT get a permit or license for anything, except to drive, I suppose. Damn the commie bastards for criminalizing free enterprise!!!
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