MPAA caught infringing copyright

Author: Phil Cogar
Published: 4th December 2007
Comments (27) Stumble
MPAA caught infringing copyright

The MPAA will act in seconds when you violate its copyright but won't act at all when it violates your copyright.

Last month, the MPAA began sending out a "university toolkit" to several universities across the US. These toolkits monitor network traffic and created graphs and charts showing the prevalence of file sharing across the school networks.

The whole aim was to bring more attention to copyright infringement happening in these networks but the toolkit itself is chock full of irony - it's violating the GPL agreement.

The toolkits were built upon open source software that is licensed under the GPL. As we all know, when you use any GPL'd code in your software and distribute it, you're required to provide the modified code to all. Well, that's the part that the MPAA apparently does not understand.

After being contacted by Matthew Garrett, one of the coders of the GPL'd software, several times in an attempt to have the source code distributed, Garrett took matters into his own hands. The fine gentleman contacted the MPAA's ISP and had the content removed from the servers. Take that MPAA.

So far, the source code and changes have yet to be made available so this could get even more interesting if the MPAA does not provide them. Maybe Garrett will take them to court like other GPL holders have done lately. That would certainly make this man's day/week/year.

Are you laughing from the irony yet? Poke fun at the MPAA over in the forums.
Quote Almightyrastus 4th December 2007, 12:44
Oh the irony, it's so delicious it should be fattening
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 4th December 2007, 12:59
Does this mean that mpaa uses tools, we (the community) made. But doesnt want to pay contribution. Is that not the same thing the MPAA acusing us for?

wait... hold that thought!

Does this mean we (the community) can scan/hack/monitor all the MPAA networks for use of iligaly activities and get away with it?
Quote Shadow_101 4th December 2007, 13:01
that news story had me :) all the way through
Quote DXR_13KE 4th December 2007, 13:14
this made me smile, thanks.
Quote BlackMage23 4th December 2007, 13:19
you hear about all the bad things going on, and this kind of story shows up and makes your day. :)
Quote Kurayamino 4th December 2007, 13:32
LMMFAO
Quote Redbeaver 4th December 2007, 13:43
first thing when i start at work! yay! :D
Quote Flibblebot 4th December 2007, 13:51
Early Christmas present!
Quote proxess 4th December 2007, 13:57
Bwahahaha! Take that! I hope this is taken to court... that would be an interesting turn out and worthy of bit-tech news space ^^
Quote C-Sniper 4th December 2007, 13:58
TAKE THEM TO COURT!!!!!
Quote Lazarus Dark 4th December 2007, 14:02
AHAHAHAHAHA
Thank you for reporting this, Bit-tech!!
Made my friggin week!

How does that medicine taste, MPAA?

*sigh*
Oh yeah. Good stuff, good stuff...
Quote E.E.L. Ambiense 4th December 2007, 14:21
Anyone else not surprised?

What a buncha weasels, those guys.
Quote samkiller42 4th December 2007, 14:44
heh, thats pretty cool.

Sam
Quote Tyinsar 4th December 2007, 15:33
Quote:
Originally Posted by [USRF]Obiwan
...Does this mean we (the community) can scan/hack/monitor all the MPAA networks for use of iligaly activities and get away with it?
:) ;)
Quote Dev25 4th December 2007, 16:01
Ha Ha

They deserved it !!!
Quote Delphium 4th December 2007, 16:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by [USRF
Does this mean we (the community) can scan/hack/monitor all the MPAA networks for use of iligaly activities and get away with it?

ROFL ;) :) :)
Quote yakyb 4th December 2007, 16:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by [USRF]Obiwan
Does this mean we (the community) can scan/hack/monitor all the MPAA networks for use of iligaly activities and get away with it?

it also means we can add very bloated DRM into all GPL software just to make sure that they only use it on the one machine they downloaded it onto oh and of course a program to make sure that they only use it in a certain way also

i think this is the best news of the year i hope they get stung bad for this
Quote AcidJiles 4th December 2007, 16:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flibblebot
Early Christmas present!
Quote liratheal 4th December 2007, 17:04
I think I gained a few pounds reading that article.

Do they still get to preach morality?

I hope not.
Quote pendragon 4th December 2007, 18:23
HA-ha! That story is made of 'awesome' and 'win'! :D ;)
Quote TTmodder 4th December 2007, 18:51
Oh snap :)
Quote VictorianBloke 4th December 2007, 18:56
This has brought a smile at the end of a sh*t days work! :)
Quote Bluephoenix 4th December 2007, 19:03
the problem the MPAA has is tht THEY set the precendent for him to win on this

take them to court and be the modern-day robin hood
Quote mikeuk2004 4th December 2007, 21:08
so true Blue Phoenix
Quote The_Beast 4th December 2007, 22:22
hahahaha

Quote DXR_13KE 4th December 2007, 22:44
the thing that scares me is if the MPAA pinch some of their pocket senators into making a law to help them out......
Quote c.u.later 5th December 2007, 11:19
haha, loving it! shows they don't really care bout copyright infringement unless it's of their own stuff. made me laugh :D

c.u.later
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