MPAA Demands Hotfile Data From Google, Search Engine Refuses

In yet another episode in Hollywood’s year-long legal battle with one of the world’s biggest cyberlocker services, the MPAA has now drawn Google into the dispute. The MPAA says that Google holds valuable information on Hotfile and should produce it, but the search giant is refusing without the file-hoster’s consent. Hotfile says ‘no’ on the basis that the deadline for discovery expired last year.


In February 2011, the MPAA announced that it would be suing Hotfile, one of the Internet’s most popular cyberlocker services.

“In less than two years, Hotfile has become one of the 100 most trafficked sites in the world. That is a direct result of the massive digital theft that Hotfile promotes,” the movie industry group said.

Since then there have been dozens of court filings and Hotfile even sued MPAA member Warner Bros. right back for allegedly abusing its copyright takedown tools.

The MPAA wants to prove that Hotfile had a business model centered around piracy and one in which the file-hoster encouraged users of its service to upload copyrighted motion pictures and TV shows to Hotfile servers and then link back to them using third-party sites.

In recent weeks, more and more court filings in the case have been marked restricted/sealed but this week an interesting one was made available. According to Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Columbia and Warner, an urgent discovery hearing is required to cut through what is described by them as “a procedural morass that is prejudicing Plaintiffs’ ability to complete important discovery in this matter.”

The problem has its roots in August 2011 when Hotfile was ordered to hand the MPAA mountains of data including information it holds on the files it hosts, the company’s users and its many affiliates.

But the MPAA didn’t receive all of the data it was expecting. While Hotfile said it had no objection to producing any of the data it holds, it claimed that handing over everything requested was impossible since it did not carry some of the information.

Determined to obtain the data anyway, on December 6th 2011 the MPAA served a subpoena on Google to obtain access to Hotfile’s Google Analytics account which can show the sites driving traffic to Hotfile and the host’s most popular pages.

But Google said that absent Hotfile’s consent, it would not supply the data to the MPAA. In turn, Hotfile refused to give consent or hand over the data now since the discovery date deadline, December 23rd 2011, has now passed.

The MPAA insists that the information could be made available via a simple “push of a button” and is now asking the court to order Hotfile to either produce it, or authorize Google to do so urgently. The MPAA are in a rush because at the end of next week they will file for summary judgment against Hotfile and to do that effectively they need the traffic data in advance.

According to court documents, a mediation meeting that took place January 11th 2012 between the studios and Hotfile’s owners ended without the parties reaching settlement.

View: Original Article

BitTorrent Giant BTjunkie shuts down

BitTorrent Giant BTjunkie Shuts Down For Good

BTjunkie, one of the largest BitTorrent indexes on the Internet, has decided to shut down voluntarily today. A combination of legal actions against fellow file-sharing sites and time-consuming projects have led to the drastic decision that takes out one the main players in the BitTorrent landscape.



Founded in June 2005, BTjunkie has been among the top BitTorrent sites for more than half a decade.

The site was never involved in any legal action, and to keep it this way the site’s operators decided to shut the site down for good today. The following message was posted on the BTjunkie homepage a few minutes ago:

“This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!”

Talking to TorrentFreak, BTjunkie’s founder said that the legal actions against other file-sharing sites such as MegaUpload and The Pirate Bay played an important role in making the difficult decision. Witnessing all the trouble colleagues got into was cause for a lot of worry and stress, and those will now belong to the past.

That said, BTjunkie’s owner still thinks there might be a future for other BitTorrent sites.

“I really do hope so, the war is far from over for sure,” he told TorrentFreak.

While BTjunkie was never targeted directly by copyright holders, the site was reported to the US Trade Representative (USTR) November last year. Both the RIAA and MPAA listed the torrent index as a ‘rogue’ site that facilitated mass copyright infringement.

BTjunkie is also one of the search terms censored by Google because it’s piracy related, alongside The Pirate Bay, RapidShare, uTorrent and others.

As a result of the decision to shut down BTjunkie, one of the top 5 torrent sites with dozens of millions of users a month is no more. Judging from previous shutdowns like that of TorrentSpy and Mininova, users will quickly find a new home at other sites.

Nonetheless, it’s the end of an era.

RIP BTjunkie



View: Original Article

Piracy Is The New Radio, Says Neil Young

Piracy Is The New Radio, Says Neil Young
Posted: 01 Feb 2012 01:39 PM PST
Neil Young has been making music for nearly 50 years, so we have to assume that he’s an expert at the topic.
Speaking at D: Dive into Media, Young discusses the state of the digital music business.
While the singer is concerned about the fact that many people share low quality MP3′s, he’s not falling for the argument that piracy is killing music.
“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone. [...] Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around. [...] That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”
The comparison to the radio is interesting as that has been one of the biggest promotional tools of the music industry in recent history.
But it wasn’t that loved at the beginning of last century.
In the 1920s the music industry blamed broadcast radio for their woes, as revenue dropped during the great depression.
Times haven’t changed much.
Source: Piracy Is The New Radio, Says Neil Young

Whats this all about?

Daily the internet is changing and there is powers unknown to most. If people do not start educating themselves on what is really happening can be related to the attitude not too long ago when most would simply say about "Big Brother" - It really does not matter to me what He is up to unless He cross's my white picket fence? Well if you own a computer and use it regularly He has crossed your white picket fence and He is watching!!! Please learn what you can do to keep the internet free as this country (USA) originally started out to be but is by far not now!!!!!

God bless you all and if you do not know Jesus please ask Him to show Himself to you, you will not regret this personal decision.

Also in the first paragraph (He) is not referring to Jesus but to the US Government.

Did The FBI Use Spyware To Get Evidence On Megaupload?

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 01:18 PM PST
In their case against Megaupload the FBI detailed discussions that took place over Skype between company employees, prompting questions of whether the authorities had a backdoor to the communication system or access to its remote logs.
However, the Skype company says it only holds remote records of IM conversations going back 30 days and the Megaupload conversations cited in the indictment go back several years.
Furthermore, sources told CNET that Skype had not been asked to turn over information to the authorities in connection with the Megaupload case.
So, adding to the climate of fear surrounding cyberlockers and the sudden interest in them by powerful US authorities, the suggestion now is that the FBI obtained the conversations by some other means.
Since Skype holds logs of conversations locally on users’ machines, these could be obtained through the use of FBI-planted spyware.
The U.S. Department of Justice told CNET that a judge had approved a warrant to obtain the electronic evidence, which would not have been necessary had the leak come from an informant.
Details of the surveillance software that could have been used can be found here.
Scary stuff…
Source: Did The FBI Use Spyware To Get Evidence On Megaupload?

White House Declines Comment on MPAA Bribery Petition

White House Declines Comment on MPAA Bribery Petition
Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:34 AM PST
Two weeks ago we reported on a “we the people” petition asking the White House to investigate the MPAA’s alleged bribery practices.
A few days ago the petition reached its goal of 25.000 votes, and the Obama administration has now issued an official response.
“We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov,” the note starts.
“However, consistent with the We the People Terms of Participation and our responses to similar petitions in the past, the White House declines comment on this petition because it requests a specific law enforcement action.”
As far as we know, no official complaints have been filed against the MPAA.
However, several citizen rights groups have put pressure on Congress to return “Hollywood’s dirty money.”
Source: White House Declines Comment on MPAA Bribery Petition