Krell
February 23rd, 2006, 06:22 PM
The Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it sued a new round of popular Web sites associated with movie piracy, including several that serve as search engines but do not distribute files themselves.
The lawsuits mark an expansion of the copyright holders' legal strategy in the file-swapping world, targeting sites that help make downloading easier, but aren't actually delivering the files or the swapping technology themselves.
It's also the first time the group has sued organizations that direct their members to the Usenet newsgroup system, an MPAA spokeswoman said. The movie group makes little distinction between a peer-to-peer network and the search engines that point to pirated works, saying that all facilitate the distribution of copyright works.
"Disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution is a significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet," John Malcom, MPAA director of Worldwide Antipiracy operations, said in a statement.
The issue of targeting search engines rather than actual file-swapping networks themselves has been a touchy one in Silicon Valley, because ordinary search engines such as Google and Yahoo also can be used to find pirated works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww4.law.cornell.edu%2F uscode%2Fhtml%2Fuscode17%2Fusc_sec_17_00000512----000-.html&siteId=3&oId=2100-1030-6042739&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex) protects search engines from liability for linking to pirated works, but only if the site operators don't know that the specific content is infringing, are not deriving financial gain from the links, and act quickly to remove the links when contacted by copyright holders.
Unlike a traditional search engine such as Google, the sites targeted Thursday are filled almost exclusively with links and references to copyright movies, software and music.
IsoHunt (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fisohunt.com&siteId=3&oId=2100-1030-6042739&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex), one of the largest search engines targeted, does provide a copyright statement that says, "We respect copyright, and will filter such P2P links at your request."
The full list of sites sued Thursday include Torrentspy.com, IsoHunt, BTHub.com, TorrentBox.com, NiteShadow.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net.
The MPAA previously announced an agreement with BitTorrent.com, the creators of the BitTorrent file-swapping technology who also run a file search engine. Under that agreement, BitTorrent agreed to take down links to feature films (http://news.com.com/Hollywood%2C+BitTorrent+creator+strike+deal/2100-1032_3-5967750.html?tag=nl) in its search tool.
http://news.com.com/MPAA+sues+BitTorrent%2C+newsgroup+search+tools/2100-1030_3-6042739.html?tag=st_lh
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The lawsuits mark an expansion of the copyright holders' legal strategy in the file-swapping world, targeting sites that help make downloading easier, but aren't actually delivering the files or the swapping technology themselves.
It's also the first time the group has sued organizations that direct their members to the Usenet newsgroup system, an MPAA spokeswoman said. The movie group makes little distinction between a peer-to-peer network and the search engines that point to pirated works, saying that all facilitate the distribution of copyright works.
"Disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution is a significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet," John Malcom, MPAA director of Worldwide Antipiracy operations, said in a statement.
The issue of targeting search engines rather than actual file-swapping networks themselves has been a touchy one in Silicon Valley, because ordinary search engines such as Google and Yahoo also can be used to find pirated works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww4.law.cornell.edu%2F uscode%2Fhtml%2Fuscode17%2Fusc_sec_17_00000512----000-.html&siteId=3&oId=2100-1030-6042739&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex) protects search engines from liability for linking to pirated works, but only if the site operators don't know that the specific content is infringing, are not deriving financial gain from the links, and act quickly to remove the links when contacted by copyright holders.
Unlike a traditional search engine such as Google, the sites targeted Thursday are filled almost exclusively with links and references to copyright movies, software and music.
IsoHunt (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fisohunt.com&siteId=3&oId=2100-1030-6042739&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex), one of the largest search engines targeted, does provide a copyright statement that says, "We respect copyright, and will filter such P2P links at your request."
The full list of sites sued Thursday include Torrentspy.com, IsoHunt, BTHub.com, TorrentBox.com, NiteShadow.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net.
The MPAA previously announced an agreement with BitTorrent.com, the creators of the BitTorrent file-swapping technology who also run a file search engine. Under that agreement, BitTorrent agreed to take down links to feature films (http://news.com.com/Hollywood%2C+BitTorrent+creator+strike+deal/2100-1032_3-5967750.html?tag=nl) in its search tool.
http://news.com.com/MPAA+sues+BitTorrent%2C+newsgroup+search+tools/2100-1030_3-6042739.html?tag=st_lh
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