So apparently the MPAA and BitTorrent, Inc. are working together to clean up piracy (specifically film piracy in this case [of course since they are the MPAA]).
From Dan Glickman (MPAA Chairman and CEO):
Okay, that sounds like a good first step (and hopefully down the road they will start selling movies for download). But uhm… they seem to be failing miserably at this. If you do a search for a movie using the search function right at the top of BitTorrent.com, it looks like you can download pretty much anything (and this is the company that the MPAA thinks is “leading the way for other companies by their example”?). I suppose BiTorrent, Inc. could be logging everything that people download and giving it to the MPAA so they can file lawsuits, but wouldn’t that be some sort of entrapment?
All this stuff is very bizarre, but terribly interesting at the same time. We have the MPAA promoting BitTorrent’s site, yet you can download anything illegally right from the site they are promoting. You have Warner Brothers getting ready to distribute movies legally via BitTorrent (and promoting BitTorrent as well), but then at the same time Warner Brothers own message board is full of people helping each other to download Warner Brothers material that is under copyright via BitTorrent (and WB doesn’t currently offer any legal downloads via BitTorrent that I know of).
Either way, if I was the MPAA (or any movie studio like Warner Brothers), I would tell BitTorrent, Inc. to piss off/clean up their crap and at the very LEAST I certainly would stop sending them traffic.
The underlying technology for BitTorrent is nothing short of revolutionary, and if done properly it could change the way any sort of media is distributed (legally), but for some reason they don’t seem to be leveraging what they have. If they can “fix” their issues, I hope they go public, because I would be the first in line to invest in them (the ideas/technology behind it is amazing). BitTorrent, Inc. needs me as a software developer/business consultant I think. 🙂
Links:
“Okay, that sounds like a good first step(and hopefully down the road they will start selling movies for download)”
You mean to tell me that even after this whole MPAA ordeal, you intend to actually support them? ;/
And im sure the MPAA is aware of your blog,which they probally read, which means you probally just gave Mark Cuban a free lawsuit ;o
I wouldn’t say I’m supporting (or not supporting) them. I was just saying that it’s kind of funny how the MPAA and Warner Brothers promote bittorrent.com, yet it’s probably one of the most used search engines for finding stuff that infringes on the MPAA’s copyrights.
I think it’s kind of ironic how a site that the MPAA partners with and promotes (bittorrent.com) is on their own Pyramid of Internet Piracy as one of the biggest violators at the “Facilitators” level.
Well its just a search engine, he doesn’t control whats on it. Its like holding Google accountable for illegal activity they index. In fact, Bram Cohen has always seemed to be someone who was against piracy, unfortunately not having his facts straight in certain cases while speaking against it. Bittorrent is currently one of the major distribution channels for anything at all, really. Especially linux distributions. I’m sure he has a section on his site somewhere to notify him with a DMCA complaint.
The MPAA is talking favorably about BitTorrent.com because they are complying with the law, i.e. the MPAA tells BitTorrent to take down specific torrents from their index and BitTorrent is complying. They have at least 200.000 torrents indexed… how would you go about identifying which ones are ok and which ones are not? Impossible.
Your a beauty, bittorrent is great! Fuck the MPAA they are assholes!