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Media Defender emails leak onto Net
Author: Phil CogarPublished: 17th September 2007
The leaked emails can be found on everybody's favorite torrent site among many other places
P2P clients are hard to ignore today. With the proliferation of client programs and networks, media corporations have targeted them in order to help slow the spread of copyrighted works across the internet - but they can't do it alone. Instead, they hire outside companies to track files, send DCMA notices and, in this particular case, spread false torrents and websites to catch those that have participated in file sharing. One of the leading companies of such tactics is Media Defender.
Media Defender hasn't really had the best track record with the internet savvy among us as it poisons torrents and has even tried to set up a false video sharing website in order to catch users uploading and downloading copyrighted media red handed.
Once the company had been caught creating that false service, it denied the whole thing stating that it was an internal project that was never meant to go online. No matter how much the company denied it though, full information about the project and loads more eventually came out into the open this weekend when the huge file containing thousands of emails was leaked onto the Internet.
The emails detail the "miivii.com" project as well as its next stage in evolution after it was discovered to be run by Media Defender, a collaboration with the New York Attorney General to help catch people involved with sharing child pornography, and even the company's strategies when it comes to poisoning and tracking P2P networks.
The leak is definitely going to cost the company a pile of money in order to keep the trust of any companies that it has a working relationship with and could potentially bring about legal ramifications over the child porn issue. Part of the system that is being worked on apparently monitors P2P networks for files and records IPs of users that are located in New York. That's not all though, as there are also servers that download copies of the files to retain for evidence. With the server being held by a private company instead of a Government agency, Media Defender could possibly wind up in court itself.
This is certainly a lot of interesting reading, albeit very time consuming. I'll be trudging through the documents over the next couple of days to see just what all Media Defender has been up to, but with such a massive load of information available, look for it in a series of forum posts with a roundup near the end of the week here in the news discussion. If you feel up to grabbing a copy for yourself, you know the usual places to get a hold of it - but don't expect it to go unmonitored for long.
In the meantime, discuss with us the ripples in the P2P community that you think this might cause. Head on over to the forums or leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Comments (20)
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I wouldn't be surprised if heads rolled in the NYDA office too, I don't see warrants for all those recorded IP addresses and download histories, not including that download accelerator fiasco that just happened to scan a private PC and sends all results to MediaDefender...isn't that a breach of privacy, spreading spyware, and entrapment? good job! do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.
Yep, and what's worse is that using a private company to do a public job without going through public channels to obtain all of this stuff not only puts the NYDA at risk, but also Media Defender - which could be sued into non-existence if anyone is actually contacted regarding these operations. ;) The problem is, it's child porn - that makes it hard to side with the perps. It's one thing if we were talking more copyright infringement, but the NYDA's sting is on something that's hard to say no to.
"You're catching child porn traders and picture takers by illegal means..."
How many people would care if it busts up a ring of 100 or so kiddie-molesters? Unfortunately, people are willing to trade away their liberties for the illusion of safety every day of the week.
If so what if it was your own email box on the net would you be happy? What about these laws for privacy which are there to protect you?
Or is it a case of becaue its a company you dont like you decide its ok to look and therefore for them to be "infiltrated"?
Not gonna agree with what there doing if what you posted is correct but wouldnt exactly agree with you looking at the stuff either after if its been obtained illegaly. But my argument all hinges on if this was an inside person who wanted to expose things fair enough however if its a hacker then shame on you.
No it's not right, but it's what they've done to countless individuals and now its happened to them. In that way it is very amusing.
Ah, but three lefts do! :)
theres one problem though...
Seriously, its a clear failing of the government if it gives away the fight against criminals to companies (that they make money of it is even worse)....
law enforcment needs to be with the police, and absolutly noone else.
but, both the government and the police have failed to enforce that... so, it is the right and the responsibility of the people to stand up and fight before its too late.
Even though the people they helped put away were doing some evil stuff, the courts exist for a reason, the law exists for a reason, and even the most evil people in the world deserve a fair trial.
as one of our forum member's sig states:
I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -voltaire
but they weren't working for the RIAA or MPAA, the MPAA has specifically said they had no knowledge of MediaDefenders actions. They were working for the NY District attourneys office. God knows how much information they downloaded for "evidence." I'm sure there would have been child pornography included, but all of it is inadmissible in US courts...that whole illegal search and seizure amendment...so all they did was ruin their reputation, cause a lot of people to look like idiots, and break the law themselves.
good intentions maybe, child porn is sick, but it's still illegal.
Oh great no more Law & Order then, poor Jack Mcoy is out of a job :D
that constitution that today is full of holes because of other laws that were approved during these past years?
+1
I wonder if their employees ever took a backup of the evidence home just encase of an office fire...
1. There doesn't seem to be any indication that the company downloaded anything without the copyright holder's permission, which means that they did not download anything illegally.
2. Also, the government does not need a search warrant to obtain information that people freely put out into the public (for example, if a person walks out their front door, people, including the government, are allowed to take pictures of the person because the person voluntarily put their physical selves into the public). By going onto downloading sites and putting their ips out there for the world to see, downloaders essentially tell the government, "please take a picture of me and my ip". The government does not need a search warrant to get that information. Also, from the emails, the only people MediaDefender seems to be tracking are people into kiddie porn. Dateline has been doing stings for years in order to catch kiddie porn people and pedophiles and then hand these people over to the police. For whatever reason they are doing it, I'm glad someone's finally taking a serious look at pedophiles and sending those sick freaks to jail.
3. As for the argument that government should be doing all of its own work, well, that simply does not work. There are numerous companies out there that contract with the government for all sorts of projects. For good or bad, the government works in conjunction with companies to get a lot of work done. This is just another example of a private company working with the government. If you have a problem with the government establishing these contracts, talk to your senator or assemblyperson. If instead, you choose to hide behind your computer screen and let the contracts continue without using your political voice, then you are allowing these contracts to continue and, as far as I'm concerned, you've forfeited your right to complain about them.
4. I'm not defending MediaDefender nor do I agree with the so-called MediaDefender-Defenders. I think wrongs have been committed on both sides and both sides will suffer severe consequences. MediaDefender-Defenders intentionally or unintentionally brought in not only state law but also U.S. federal law by posting the confidential information about the employees check out the Department of Justice's website at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html..."Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act . This legislation created a new offense of identity theft, which prohibits knowingly transfer[ring] or us[ing], without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law.").
5. I think that an open and honest discussion of what has happened is an important step in addressing these issues and I encourage people to continue this discussion. However, because of the possibly serious implications, I urge people to do a little research about the laws regarding these issues before doing something like posting any links to the stolen emails or phone conversation.