Fox sends YouTube! a subpoena

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 26th January 2007
Comments (10) Stumble
"Give me the name of the uploader or I'll shoot!"

"Give me the name of the uploader or I'll shoot!"

When you're in a time crunch, the lag of just a few days can be pretty detrimental. This is particularly true when your business is the season opener of one of the hottest shows on television...say, 24, for example. And maybe that show's premier is still six days away, but you find your show on YouTube. Subpoenas follow.

Apparently, the four-hour premier of the show was "preaired" on YouTube a week earlier than it was scheduled. YouTube has since taken down the videos (after a bit of delay) and suspended the uploader, who goes by the handle of ECOtotal. Twentieth Century Fox filed a subpoena after discovering the videos on January 18th, in hopes of determining the true identity of ECOtotal. While it was investigating, the company found that the same user also uploaded 12 episodes of The Simpsons onto YouTube.

Fox intends to go after ECOtotal with all its might, but has failed to note one important thing in the process. The first instance of the videos, which are full DVD rips taken from the concurrent DVD release, appeared on newsgroups the day before the YouTube incident. It quickly showed up on BitTorrent, as well.

If anything, ECOtotal is just a tiny little facet of a much bigger picture - for instance, how the real pirate got his or her hands on the DVD a full eight days before release. Personally, I wonder how much all of this legal idiocy costs, and how much of that is passed on to legitimate purchasers of the products.

Have you got a thought on the subpoena? How about the studio's choice to target the least useful person? Tell us about your thoughts on the tactics in our forums.
Quote samkiller42 26th January 2007, 16:35
I dont blame Fox for being mad, i would be too. And this other guy who uploads them must have alot of spare time on his hands to put them onto youtube.

Sam
Quote specofdust 26th January 2007, 17:28
Heh, that's a funny point about the consumer paying the legal bills. Even better, by not buying stuff, the pirates actually deprive the corps of extra money with which to wage their legal battles against the pirates. Two birds, one stone.
Quote DeX 26th January 2007, 19:39
Fox shouldn't have made that DVD in the first place if they wanted everyone to watch it when the show actually aired. Considering that the DVD was a pre-release I would think they would more easily be able to track the source of the leak from their end rather than at the point that it has reached consumers.
Quote Firehed 26th January 2007, 20:10
Getting early release material without the internet isn't exactly hard, provided you're vaguely in the entertainment business. Where I worked, we'd get the Tuesday new release movies the Friday beforehand, and obviously the company that we order them from has them long before that.

Of course, it's a bit different for TV shows in general, but they're obviously going after the wrong people when there are academy screeners online (that's to say, inside job of sorts).
Quote mattthegamer463 26th January 2007, 21:49
Whats this about the premier being six days away? I saw the premier two weeks ago. In Canada 24 is already 5 hours in. Can someone explain that to me?
Quote DeX 27th January 2007, 00:38
The article's first paragraph is hypothetical. That's why it begins with the word "When".
Quote Tulatin 27th January 2007, 01:33
Oh Fox, I wonder how much they'll piddle when they realize just how bleeding easy it is to get any one of their shows off the web.
Quote mattthegamer463 27th January 2007, 05:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeX
The article's first paragraph is hypothetical. That's why it begins with the word "When".
Ah I see now. That escaped my notice while reading the first time.
Quote GiGo 27th January 2007, 09:46
Hehehehe.....

Why not just find the people who had the pre-release DVD and investigate them. I surpose going after the uploader will send a 'warning' to other uploaders? I wonder......

Regards
GiGo
Quote ikra 27th January 2007, 15:27
yep, especially its very hard to be tracking down those who got it and who uploaded it. And youtube has just become phenomenal
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