Digital Film Swappers Face Crackdown
Fri Jul 19, 2002
By SIMON AVERY, AP Business Writer

Credit Yahoo News

The movie industry is hunting down people who swap digital films online and demanding that their Internet service be cut off — all part of an effort to stamp out piracy and avoid the online trading frenzy that has plagued the music business.

The Motion Picture Association of America uses a special search engine to scour the Web for copyright movies, which circulate on the same peer-to-peer software networks as MP3 music files.

Since 2001, more than 100,000 customers have been ordered to stop their activities through cease-and-desist letters sent from their Internet service providers, the MPAA said.

In a newer initiative, AOL Time Warner's broadband division has begun trying to identify and stop customers who upload huge amounts of data — which in almost all cases means people trading bulky video or music files.

"We are not blocking the use of any applications or access to any Web sites," said Mark Harrad, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable. "But we are doing various things to manage bandwidth better and to interfere with people who are in violation of (their) service agreements."

Harrad declined to elaborate on interference techniques. But he denied the effort was specifically targeted at people swapping music and movie files, saying the issue is bandwidth hogs, not piracy.

AOL Time Warner owns one of the seven major studios, Warner Brothers, a member of the MPAA. It also owns Warner Music Group, one of the five major record companies.

Meanwhile, Rep. Howard Berman, D.-Calif., is preparing legislation that would allow entertainment companies to obstruct the peer-to-peer networks with a variety of invasive electronic techniques, including software that blocks file transfers, redirects users to other sites or confuses users with fake files.

Privately, music industry officials already admit to frustrating file traders by putting up bogus files. Individuals trying to download unauthorized tracks from Eminem's latest CD last month, for example, occasionally got files containing only a single verse repeated continuously, rather than a complete song.

Such acts by companies could, however, be illegal today under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Current rules allow people to duplicate copyright material for their own use. But the distribution power of the Internet, which allows someone to share a personal copy with millions, has left the concept of "fair use" unclear.

Movie files are harder to share over peer-to-peer networks because they are significantly larger than music files. At more than 600 megabytes, a full length movie can easily take six hours to download over broadband. By contrast, an average music file of six megabytes takes a few minutes.

But Hollywood studios worry that the rising number of broadband connections and improved video compression techniques will open the door to runaway piracy.

Between 400,000 and 600,000 copies of movies are downloaded illegally each day, according to the consulting firm Viant. Though far fewer than the 3 billion daily music downloads off the now-defunct music swapping site Napster at its peak, it's enough to spook the movie industry.

"Our industry could be damaged as much as the music industry," said Ken Jacobsen, senior vice president of worldwide antipiracy at the MPAA.

The MPAA uses special monitoring software from San Diego-based Ranger Online Inc. The automated software provides the Internet address of the file-swapper, which the MPAA forwards to the relevant Internet provider.

The MPAA then asks the provider to contact the user with an ultimatum: Remove the copyright files from your computer or have your service disconnected.

Almost everyone served with a cease-and-desist letter by their Internet provider complies, Jacobsen said. The group said it does not keep records of how many users have actually been disconnected, though at least one recipient has fought back.

InternetMovies.com, a Hawaii-based Web site, filed suit against the MPAA for causing a business disruption after it was tagged for illegal file-swapping and had its Internet service disconnected. Jacobsen said the MPAA will wage a vigorous defense.

Some critics of the MPAA's initiative question how long Internet providers will continue to assist the hunt against their own customers.

It's just too expensive for the providers to lose those customers, said Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group representing defendants in copyright infringement suits.

"Hollywood is pressuring intermediaries to do their police work. That was never the intention of copyright law," von Lohmann said.

But the MPAA says Internet providers have many reasons to cooperate: They don't want illegal activity on their networks, they don't want to be exposed to litigation and they don't want users eating up extra bandwidth by trading large movie files.

OKAY WAIT A MINUTE....
" has begun trying to identify and stop customers who upload huge amounts of data "

Bandwidth monitors and snoopers? This is the beginning of the end as we know it.

Big Brother is Here.

Yeah they're doing "Bandwidth Profiling" Shit I'm gonna be in trouble with my ISP since I uploaded 166MB of CA senate hearing last night.....

Boy this really sucks, how are we going to fight this off? I hope some one steps forward and sets up the "boot leg network" Something where we can use a C.B to transmit data over the air to other users who can then repeat the signal down to the rest of us, man this blows!

unlike audio files which are very close to the originals, most video files I've downloaded are not 600 megs, they are usually split into 2 files that are some where around 90 to 150 megs big, for a total some where around 300 megs for the longer play time movie files, so to say that the movie industry can then turn around and get away with this invasion of privacy is an out rage.

If there is a place where peer to peer really helps both the seller and the buyer is the movie industry, you know how many movies my girl has purchased because she was able to view the movie in it's poor quality self, then go out and buy the DVD, or even made me get in the car (fuel) and drive down to the drive-in theater to watch the movie (food, shop, etc.) as you can see, that really helped the economy.


But it is about getting control of the digital format and the Internet, as long as no one other then those appointed to reap the cash from every video and music file by the various organisations, this files which are being sent over the Internet network in America and soo the world is plain old crazy!

I do not want to be limited by my ISP as to what and how much I can download, I can just see it, the new format will have codes interleaved in the data pockets, telling the servers what large video file it can allow through and what files to send over some where to be viewed, approved and allowed through, I'm getting scared.

I really hope the privacy is not taken away, cops are at my door and all of a sudden ISP company's are telling every one about the new one meg transfer limits.

Can't the money for all this crap come from the ISP providers anyway? The deal needs to be worked out between the movie, audio and software industry; so they can all spend money to build a net work where for $50 a month and sometimes &100 when you want both Internet and T. V channels. (That's like 100 billion a year!! something like that) is that enough? Can we all be happy now? and that's not counting the money from CD sales, DVD, movie theaters, merchandise, etc., etc., etc.