Chances are, the digital reprimand would be the work of Randy Saaf or Marc Morgenstern, whose small companies belong to a budding cottage industry devoted to thwarting file-sharing and other Internet piracy.
Sowers of decoy files and digital detectives, these agents of entertainment and software companies tend to work stealthily, at their clients’ behest.
Morgenstern, president of Overpeer, said his year-old, 15-employee company in New York fools would-be pirates some 300 million times a month by flooding file-sharing networks with decoys, mostly masquerading as popular songs.
Some decoys are blank, circulated to make real files harder to find. Others carry warnings or other messages. An embedded programming script might even take individuals expecting free songs and movies to a Web site where they are sold.
Though neither Saaf nor Morgenstern would name clients, Madonna fans who tried to download her new song this spring instead heard from the singer, “What the —- do you think you’re doing?”
Saaf, president of MediaDefender, said his Los Angeles company also tries to tie up queues by posing as real users who want to download large files through slow modems.
MediaDefender’s engineers — previously in the business of foiling radar systems for the Pentagon — began thinking of ways to stymie file-sharing three years ago just as the recording industry began its legal fight to end Napster, Saaf said. Its tactics, he said, aim to make downloading so frustrating that people simply give up.
Other companies, like BayTSP and Ranger Online, use software to seek out pirated materials at peer-to-peer, or P2P, networks along with chat rooms, newsgroups and Web sites. Another group that includes BigChampagne measures the scope of P2P trafficking.
Many executives in the anti-piracy game say music labels, movie studios and other content creators have only recently taken their services seriously, and some have disappeared or shifted their business focus in the meantime.
Yet demand for such companies will likely grow after the recording industry threatened last month to file hundreds of lawsuits seeking monetary damages against individuals who share songs.
The Business Software Alliance, a trade group that includes Microsoft and other leading software makers, is also a client.
The software industry has increased its infringement notice output 20 times since it began using such an automated system from MediaSentry, said Bob Kruger, the alliance’s vice president for enforcement.
“I guess it’s good that somebody is somehow making some money off P2P piracy,” Kruger said.
Ranger counts the Motion Picture Association of America among its clients, while BayTSP’s customers include Adobe Systems.
The anti-piracy specialists are generally secretive about their techniques and clients, citing confidentiality clauses. Overpeer’s Web site features nothing more than contact information. One California company, NukePirates, wouldn’t disclose its location (it uses a P.O. box) or size.
“Right now, we’re kind of an unknown,” said Chuck Gurley, managing partner for the company, which tries to locate and close software piracy sites. “They don’t know if I’ve got a staff of five or 50, which comes to be an advantage at times.”
Related Posts
- File-sharing Battle Leaves Artists Caught In The Middle
- File-sharing debaters swap harsh words
- Lobby group for European file-swap firms
- Fingerprinting firms crack down on illicit file-sharing
- File Sharing Growing Like a Weed
Loading ...
