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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Nov 18th 2009 4:22pm




Filed Under:
bittorrent, lawsuits, trackers

Companies:
openbittorrent


Entertainment Industry Wants More People To Know About OpenBitTorrent Tracker

from the for-what-reason? dept

The definition of insanity, the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For the past decade, the entertainment industry has sued one site or service after another that was used for unauthorized file sharing at some time. In every single case, the act of suing that site or service ended up only serving to massively increase attention and usage of those services. Suing Napster made Napster into the service to use. Ditto with Kazaa and Grokster. The Pirate Bay wasn't that big until Hollywood got Swedish authorities to raid the operations and confiscate the servers.

So, here we go again -- except this time it's even more ridiculous. Entertainment industry representatives have filed a lawsuit against the OpenBitTorrent tracker's hosting company (Update: noting that the lawsuit is against the hosting company), which is not a file sharing site or service at all. It's just an open tracker. Now, I recognize that folks in the entertainment industry aren't particularly knowledgeable about how technology works, but at some point, aren't they supposed to at least understand the basics? The tracker alone is not responsible for anything here -- and even more ridiculous is that the OpenBitTorrent guys (despite not being in the US) set up a DMCA-like process for taking down any info_hash if they want (which, by the way, was the reason the industry claimed it didn't sue Google -- because it took down links on request -- but now that OpenBitTorrent does the same thing, it's a problem?). Either way, with the rise of trackerless solutions means that even taking this site down won't much matter. Still, it makes you wonder what they're thinking over in the entertainment industry other than ways to increase their legal bills.

25 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  •  
    identicon
    vyvyan, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 4:34pm

    I think the article of TorrentFreak said, they have filed lawsuit against OpeBitTorrent's hosting company, Portlane.

     

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    DocMenach (profile), Nov 18th, 2009 @ 4:54pm

    I think I found it!

    Still, it makes you wonder what they're thinking over in the entertainment industry other than ways to increase their legal bills.

    That's it right there. When lawyers are the ones making the decisions, they make decisions that benefit lawyers.

     

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  •  
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    senshikaze (profile), Nov 18th, 2009 @ 5:41pm

    So anyone want to make a data haven like in Cryptonomicon? We need an idland country starving for cash with a king/queen/prime minister/president/dictator/whatever that won't interfere and big pipes to the internet's backbone.

    I have a dream, and it is free data.

     

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    scarr (profile), Nov 18th, 2009 @ 5:43pm

    "Insanity"

    "The definition of insanity, the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

    This faux-definition bothers me (especially the frequent attribution to Einstein to make it sound more important). Anyone who has studied modern physics knows there are plenty of things you can do the same way and get different outcomes.

    /nerding

     

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    •  
      identicon
      Lucretious, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 6:00pm

      Re: "Insanity"

      It's particularly oft quoted in 12-step meetings where it's actually quite accurate to how one behaves in the throes of addictive behavior.

       

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    •  
      identicon
      nerdier nerd, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 6:51pm

      Re: "Insanity"

      actually, the key word is EXPECTING. yes, some things can result in a different outcome, but the different outcome is not the norm, and thus not logically expected, so the definition holds.

       

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    •  
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, Nov 19th, 2009 @ 4:29am

      Re: "Insanity"

      –noun, plural -ties. 1. the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind.
      2. Law. such unsoundness of mind as affects legal responsibility or capacity.
      3. Psychiatry. (formerly) psychosis.
      4. extreme folly; senselessness; foolhardiness.


      this is the definition of insanity.

       

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  •  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 5:45pm

    The entertainment industry is screwed and here's why. This is an anecdote.

    I overheard a conversation in a coffee shop where the man, a minister, was talking about how his kid downloaded Wolverine for him.

    He was delighted at this. He didn't have to leave his house to go rent the movie. His kid downloaded it. This minister was amazed.

    Give it a few more years and either the movie industry will have to adapt to a changing landscape or it will wither up and die.

    And nothing of value was lost.

     

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  •  
    identicon
    Lucretious, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 5:56pm

    Cool, I didn't even know about this site. *bookmark added*

    Thank you music industry! :D

     

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    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 6:05pm

    It's obviously an evil raporist website that must be destroyed. After all, it has "torrent" in the name, so it must be true.

     

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      nasch (profile), Nov 19th, 2009 @ 7:45am

      Re:

      I wonder what would happen if you put up a site called "democracyandpuppiestorrent.com"... would they have the cojones to go after puppies and democracy?

       

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  •  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 6:30pm

    It's amazing how something as useless and harmful to society as intellectual property can do so much to hinder such a useful and beneficial innovation like the opebittorrent tracker. This isn't about stopping piracy, the record labels and the government have made that VERY clear by making it very difficult for independent artists to release their music on corporate owned airwaves and on corporate owned cableco/telco infrastructure and by ensuring a monopoly on those airwaves and on that infrastructure. This is about ensuring that ALL content that is easily accessible to the public is only available at monopoly prices and that independent artists and movie makers get censored. This is EXACTLY what Hollywood et all seek to accomplish in their efforts and the evidence is that they have accomplished just that outside the Internet.

     

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      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 6:38pm

      Re:

      No doubt. Another form of competition to these industries is the public domain. Ever wonder why, in the United States at least, why the cut-off date for works entering the public domain is 1923?

      If copyright lasted a reasonable amount of time, let's say, all told, 28 years, then everything made prior to 1991 would be in the public domain!

      It would be free for anyone to take and experiment with. I'm sure the public would waste a lot of precious time reconsuming artistic works from their youth.

      And not spend as much time, or money, on whatever the entertainment industry is pumping out in the here and now.

      Of course, they would have access to all that work as well but then again, the entertainment industry isn't known for it's forward-looking abilities.

      "I say to you that the INTERNET is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." - The Greatest Shill of All Time

       

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    identicon
    Vic, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 7:35pm

    That's your third (fourth, fifth, ...) party

    They are doing exactly what I expected them to do - they are going after third, then fourth and fifth parties... Pretty soon they are going to prove that strictly speaking (using their laws and logic) everybody is a criminal.

    Next in line - people whose donations might have gone to sites that could have been kinda hosting torrent how-to's.

    Next - those people's employers. 'Cause those money came from them. ;)

     

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    •  
      identicon
      vyvyan, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 11:25pm

      Re: That's your third (fourth, fifth, ...) party

      Just wondering how many years it will take them to blame Mitochondrial Eve for piracy?

       

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  •  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 18th, 2009 @ 9:23pm

    The fact is that the damage that intellectual property is causing our society has gone far enough. THIS NEEDS TO STOP!!! NO ONE OWES ANYONE A MONOPOLY and we should NOT allow something as harmful as intellectual property to hinder perfectly good innovations for no good reason.

     

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  •  
    icon
    Daemon_ZOGG (profile), Nov 19th, 2009 @ 12:09am

    MAFIAA/RIAA..

    These stupid idiots are headed down the same road as what used to be the SCO Group(UNIX).
    " http://techdirt.com/articles/20040303/076202.shtml "
    " http://techdirt.com/articles/20090824/2244595987.shtml "

    Yeah.. that hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper.
    I certainly won't miss them. Time for these MAFIAA groups to go the way of the dinosaur. Since they are THAT OLD, anyway.
    CDs have out-lived their use. Just as 8-track & cassette tapes have. DVDs are not too far behind them.
    ARRRRRRRR!
    ;)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]


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