MPAA vs. Bittorrent :(

Here is the article:

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12...vs_bittorrent/

MPAA to serve lawsuits on BitTorrent servers
By Tony Smith
Published Tuesday 14th December 2004 11:17 GMT
The Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) will today launch a legal attack on BitTorrent users in a bid to prevent ripped DVDs being shared across the network.

The lawsuit will target BitTorrent server operators, Reuters reports rather than downloaders, indicating this is less an assault on the technology and more on the people misusing it.

BitTorrent, developed in 2001 by Bram Cohen, speeds file transfers by segmenting the content and downloading parts from multiple users according to who offers the fattest pipes to your machine. As you receive a file, so other BitTorrent users are able to grab it from you in the same way. The idea is to ensure a more even sharing of bandwidth between participants.

It's not a classic P2P application in the sense that it's about improving download performance rather than sharing files per se. Files are found not through the application itself but through links on websites. These trigger the code to download the content, grabbing files where possible from peers rather than the initial server.

It is this latter component that the MPAA is targeting. Websites encouraging BitTorrent dissemination of movie material for which they do not have distribution rights will be on the receiving end of lawsuits, the organisation is expected to say. Cohen himself is not believed to be in the MPAA's sights, sources told Reuters.

The move marks the latest step an escalation of action the MPAA is taking against illegal file sharers. Last month, it initiated legal proceedings against more than 200 named and unnamed individuals sharing movies on P2P networks.

Precedent leaves the MPAA with little choice but to attack movie-sharers rather than BitTorrent itself. But if next July's anticipated Supreme Court ruling in the MPAA/RIAA vs Grokster/Streamcast goes in favour of the movie and music industries, the heat is going to be on any technology, no matter how benign the intentions of its developer, that nevertheless makes piracy possible. ®

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This really blows because now suprnova.org is down. Supronva was pretty much the leading provider in Bittorrents. And now everyones source to applications and DVD's is gone. Yeah... the MPAA is pretty bad....

I'm glad they are cracking down on more warez sites.

This really blows because now suprnova.org is down. Supronva was pretty much the leading provider in Bittorrents. And now everyones source to applications and DVD's is gone. Yeah... the MPAA is pretty bad....

I am glad they are cracking down more. I have actually bought most of the applications i downloaded for free. Hopefully this is the first in a long line. The warez scene angers me no end, people deserve the money for their hard work. It is also very benefical for the freelance community, the number of kiddies being able to get their hands on photoshop etc will no doubt fall

As far as movies go, i'm happy with the way it's turned out.

As far as music and games go, it's a catastrophy for me. Music is majorly overpriced here in Britain, and there are some songs i wish to hear without having to pay £12-15 for a few songs, then there are games, newer ones shouldn't really be pirated, even though some people just want to try games before they decide if it's worth their money. I'll miss downloading SNES ROM's from there though.

Yep.. once and a while I download a song to see if I like it, but no need for that anymore! now launch.yahoo.com has free music and videos!

Originally Posted by blip888 Yep.. once and a while I download a song to see if I like it, but no need for that anymore! now launch.yahoo.com has free music and videos!

They've had that for the past few years now.