Federal agents shut down a popular Web site For Star Wars downloading

1887 Views 34 Replies 22 Participants Last post by SSJBatMAN5000, May 30, 2005

Katsuya

Discussion Starter · May 27, 2005 (Edited)

Isn’t the department of Homeland Security’s primary mission to prevent, and respond to acts of terrorism in the United States?

Why are they handling intellectual property issues?

-data-

Source: McNews/Cnet

Homeland security agents served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group's main server. The agency said it was the first criminal enforcement action aimed at copyright infringers who use the now-popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology. Visitors to the Elite Torrents Wednesday found a bright red screen displaying a message that operators were under investigation for criminal copyright infringement.

"Our goal is to shut down as much of this illegal operation as quickly as possible to stem the serious financial damage to the victims of this high-tech piracy--the people who labor to produce these copyrighted products," Acting Assistant Attorney General John Richter said in a statement. "Today's crackdown sends a clear and unmistakable message to anyone involved in the online theft of copyrighted works that they cannot hide behind new technology." Federal investigators have been increasingly active during recent months in targeting organized groups of copyright infringers online, a process that has dovetailed with civil litigation launched by Hollywood studios and record labels.

According to the investigators, the "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" movie was made available though the site before being shown in theaters, and was downloaded more than 10,000 times. The site had 133,000 members and distributed more than 17,000 individual movie, software and music titles, investigators said. "Today's actions are bad news for Internet movie thieves and good news for preserving the magic of the movies," said Motion Picture Association of America Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman in a statement. "Shutting down illegal file swapping networks like Elite Torrents is an essential part of our fight to stop movie thieves from stealing copyrighted materials."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/

-data-

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1 - 20 of 35 Posts

Talbain

· #2 · May 27, 2005

Hooray for government! Homeland security won't protect us from terrorists, but they sure as hell seem to be willing to protect us from ourselves.

demon16

· #3 · May 27, 2005

They are tring hard but sadly piracy will not die because its a matter of "Why pay for it when I can get it for free" and "They already have enough money it won't hurt" attitude. But at least they trying.

Talbain

· #4 · May 27, 2005

You wouldn't feel that way if you were arrested for doing what shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

CKemu

· #5 · May 27, 2005

Shouldn't be illegal?

Yeah genious that. So you work your ass off making a film, designing stages, writting scripts, hiring actors, hiring special effects artists, spend a fortune on advertising, bring in stunt teams, make-up artists, hire tonnes of engineers, sound specialists, musicians, matte artists etc...and then some spotty geek teenageer just l33ch's your hard work because the miserable ******* can't be arsed to spend his pocket money....yeah so I assume then, they're meant to do this all free?

Isn’t the department of Homeland Security’s primary mission is to prevent, and respond to acts of terrorism in the United States?

Well duh, this is America, $ first and foremost

....well actually I suppose tehy have to look like they're doing something...anything...

Boltzmann

· #6 · May 27, 2005

Well, the Bush administration has to protect their corporate interests, that's for sure. And why not use Homeland Security, since they're getting lots of funding these days?

It's sad that so many resources are spent to protect intelectual property, when they could be spent creating or financing new products.

RZetlin

· #7 · May 27, 2005

Yes,those evil rebel downloader must feel the power the Dark Side! :duel:

The Feds may have shut down one site, but more will show up.

cowfez

· #8 · May 27, 2005 (Edited)

CKemu said:
Shouldn't be illegal?

Yeah genious that. So you work your ass off making a film, designing stages, writting scripts, hiring actors, hiring special effects artists, spend a fortune on advertising, bring in stunt teams, make-up artists, hire tonnes of engineers, sound specialists, musicians, matte artists etc...and then some spotty geek teenageer just l33ch's your hard work because the miserable ******* can't be arsed to spend his pocket money....yeah so I assume then, they're meant to do this all free?

And then you profit millions of dollars in the first week alone.
At which point you take this money and climb to the top of your $3 billion gold heap and toss it on while laughing maniacally. What about the price of a movie ticket? Talk about theft.
And the punishment for downloading the Star Wars movies?
Is it the price of admission? Nay, it is far crueler.

Samor

· #9 · May 27, 2005

well, I think this was an understandable action...

and if a good film is popular, the ppl that made it can't make money on it? Well, if you think like that, maybe you shouldn't be seeing the movie in question....

cowfez

· #10 · May 27, 2005

Samor said:
well, I think this was an understandable action...

and if a good film is popular, the ppl that made it can't make money on it? Well, if you think like that, maybe you shouldn't be seeing the movie in question....

What exactly gives you the idea that ep3 is not making money?

dukenukem

· #11 · May 27, 2005

I'm still waiting for these movie companies to wake their candy asses up and see that the internet is a great place to have your product supplied.Now what i mean is that they make their content available to download but with a fee but also allow us to permanently watch the file instead of this 30day crap i have seen.They continue to fight a losing battle and soon a new site called piracy4life.org will open soon.

bobide

· #12 · May 27, 2005

what magic of movies? $10 so i can watch a terrible film? Also, why the hell is the homeland devision in on this, wouldn't this be more....a FBI thing?

Coolsvilleman

· #13 · May 27, 2005

although this is a good thing torrents are used for more than just piracy... and besides thats 1 of like 100000 sites that still exist not to mention irc networks and other p2p networks. i say they make a legit p2p program where you can pay to download a program, without packaging and labour or material the movie/game would cost less to make for sure. i think instead of correcting the symptoms this administration should correct the problem. (problem: ridiculous prices, aweful quality, supply/demand) and then maybe people would be less inclinded to pirate movies/games/programs

Cid Highwind

· #14 · May 27, 2005

bobide said:
what magic of movies? $10 so i can watch a terrible film?

There's a simple solution you know... Just don't go to the movie. And why resort to piracy if the movie is terrible anyway?

cowfez said:
And the punishment for downloading the Star Wars movies?
Is it the price of admission? Nay, it is far crueler.

Duh... If it were the same price what's the risk? A 10 buck fine isn't going to scare anyone from doing it.

INCA

· #15 · May 27, 2005

I guess now that pirates are going to be moving to new way to trade files like when they moved away from kazaa.
I actually like bittorrent and seeing more and more people using it for non illegal content. Like on http://systm.org/ . I remember seeing few soccer matches from peru on torrents that my cousin gave me that i couldnt watch on my tv that got me interested in bittorrent. But i do see why movie producer are going after the torrent hosts.

I hope that movie producers and movie companies will see that some people dont wanna to see movies at the theaters. One day i hope we will be able to watch new movies on Paperview channels it becomes more secure. They might aswell try this approach since they will make the money being lossed to pirates.

As for the Homeland security agents finally cracking down on piracy is was when kinda when question. But i do agree few people here that Homeland security agents shouldnt waste their time on piracy but on more important issues. I dont like how my taxes are used on such a dumb raids.

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Seta-San

· #16 · May 28, 2005

INCA that isn't even the issue. people are cheap and will justify there piracy by any means necessary. They hate corporations because they have too much money, they are poor, they just want to see if it's any good, etc. The list of excuses go on forever but none would ever hold in a court of law.

Kirby

· #17 · May 28, 2005

Alot of will-be college students, including myself, are feeling the pinch of trying to pay for mandatory expenses, college books, and whatnots....expecially during these times of Bush dictatorship. The last thing we need is to waste 10 bucks on a CD, when it could easily pay for 5 gallons of gas (it use to be 10 gallons.....)

Yet these corporate *******s are living it up in their mansions, thinking that 10 bucks for a CD and a movie can be easily obtained by working america. Well, before, it use to. Piracy was hardly mentioned in the dotcom boom....except for Napster, which was far away from an epidemic during that time. But once a recession came rolling around (Bush again), piracy becomes a big problem. Retailers seems to mold with the current economy, but the entertainment industry refuses to budge. Yes...entertainment is not required to live, but entertainment has been intertwined into the american culture that it is somewhat required to have, including music and movies. People really want to buy music and movies, but they can't....this resulting in piracy on the internet. Expecially since mass production is extremely cheap, the perception of why prices are so high is embedded into every mind.

So get this equation through your ****ing heads MPAA/RIAA: piracy = economy strength.

I support piracy....for a non-profit standpoint. There would be no iTunes without piracy. The RIAA wouldn't of lowered their CD prices by 2 bucks (I know, whopedo) without piracy. I would be broke without piracy

Some unknown artists wouldn't of been noticed without piracy.

I know...I know...most likely I wouldn't of said the same thing if I was an actual artist or programmer. But if I was one, I would still not allow overpricing....

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Lentoman

· #18 · May 28, 2005

My personal opinion:
Anyone using theft/stealing in conjunction with software-piracy/copyright in a sentence have no idea what they are talking about and cannot be trusted. Why? Well, nothing is stolen, it is duplicated: Unauthorized duplication, what a concept...

The entertainment industry deciding what you see and in essence, what you do. Corrupted politicians selected by the people, makes all of this possible. New laws are now being created by and for the industry. Do the politicians actually bother finding out what people think, or more importantly, do they even have any idea what it is all about? I think they are pretty clueless, these laws aren't for the people. Welcome to the corpolitical world of the 21st century.

What's next...? What are you looking at, you're stealing visions, you're going to jail! Hey, you, what are you doing here!? You're not authorized to hear this song, you're going to jaaail!

INCA

· #19 · May 28, 2005

Lentoman said:
My personal opinion:
Anyone using theft/stealing in conjunction with software-piracy/copyright in a sentence have no idea what they are talking about and cannot be trusted. Why? Well, nothing is stolen, it is duplicated: Unauthorized duplication, what a concept...

The entertainment industry deciding what you see and in essence, what you do. Corrupted politicians selected by the people, makes all of this possible. New laws are now being created by and for the industry. Do the politicians actually bother finding out what people think, or more importantly, do they even have any idea what it is all about? I think they are pretty clueless, these laws aren't for the people. Welcome to the corpolitical world of the 21st century.

What's next...? What are you looking at, you're stealing visions, you're going to jail! Hey, you, what are you doing here!? You're not authorized to hear this song, you're going to jaaail!

I only see stealing is by taking physical object, but thats my take. But i do want a way like Itunes to sell movies over the internet for people like me that wanna watch a new movie in my own home. I don't download movies because i dont wanna get caught. I understand that some people can't afford it if they go to college but dont you have more change getting introuble by downloading in dorms using the Universities internet in the USA? Well i don't judge others choice to downloading and just hope you don't get caught. Oh yeah i do see piracy as good thing in certain aspects. I remember all music cd's used to cost 20 bucks and once Napster came out they dropped to $10-13 dollars. I see that as a good thing. But some people go overboard with downloading.

hellmasterx

· #20 · May 28, 2005

RZetlin said:
Yes,those evil rebel downloader must feel the power the Dark Side! :duel:

The Feds may have shut down one site, but more will show up.

you rebel scum

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