Net News

MPAA Targets TV Download Sites

Continuing its war on Internet file-swapping sites, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said last month that it has filed lawsuits against a half-dozen hubs for TV show trading.

The trade association said that piracy of TV programming is growing quickly online, and that shows are as important to protect as big-budget films. This is the first legal action from the group that has focused most heavily on TV content.

“Every television series depends on other markets [such as] syndication and international sales to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy,” MPAA Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman said in a statement. “Those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen.”

The latest round of suits retains a focus on BitTorrent technology, which has been widely used online to distribute movies and films.

The suits are focused on the sites that serve as traffic directors for BitTorrent swaps, rather than on individual computer users uploading and downloading content. The MPAA also has sued individuals, but has not said how many people have been targeted.

The six allegedly offending sites include ShunTV, Zonatracker, Btefnet, Scifi-Classics, CDDVDHeaven and Bragginrights.

A minor and his parents have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Yahoo and a man who once operated a Yahoo Groups site where members traded child pornography.

The lawsuit, filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, charged that Yahoo breached its duty of care by allowing co-defendant Mark Bates and others to share child pornography on a site, called Candyman, that Bates created and moderated via the Yahoo Groups service.

Yahoo spokeswomen Mary Osako said the company had not been served and did not comment on pending litigation.

Bates pleaded guilty in 2002 to setting up the Candyman group site for the trade and distribution of child pornography, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. The site attracted thousands of users and was in operation for 2 months before Yahoo closed it down in February 2001.

Pornographic photos of the plaintiff ' who is using the name Johnny Doe ' were taken and posted to the Candyman site by a neighbor, said the lawsuit.

Among other things, the plaintiffs alleged that Yahoo was aware of the activity on the site and that it took no action to block or remove the pornographic images of Doe and other children.

Attorneys familiar with cases involving online service providers said the Communications Decency Act generally shielded Web sites from responsibility for material posted by users.

“Unless the plaintiff has very concrete proof that Yahoo knew that this group contained child pornography, it's very likely that Yahoo will not be liable,” says John Morris, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, DC.

“We believe that they knew, and at a minimum didn't exercise reasonable care on their sites,” says Adam Voyles, the plaintiffs' lead attorney.

A child pornography investigation led by the FBI and dubbed Operation Candyman targeted Yahoo Groups users and resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people in the United States.

The final chapter of the Star Wars saga has gone over to the Internet's dark side.

“Star Wars: Episode III ' Revenge of the Sith” has been leaked onto a major file-sharing network just hours after opening in theaters, at a time when Hollywood is increasingly concerned about online piracy.

At least two copies of the film, which was first shown in theaters at midnight on May 18, have been posted to the BitTorrent file-sharing network ' a new and increasingly popular technology that allows users to download large video files much more quickly than in the past.

The MPAA has been aggressive in going after Web sites that provide “tracker” links that enable BitTorrent downloads of copyrighted material, including six lawsuits this week against sites with links to TV shows (see related story, above).

According to Web site Waxy.org, one print was leaked before the film was even released in theaters. The movie was time-stamped, suggesting it may have come from within the industry rather than from someone who videotaped an advance screening.

One popular tracker Web site showed more than 16,000 people currently downloading the film via BitTorrent.

Hollywood is trying to avoid the fate of the music industry, which claims it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales to illicit file-sharing networks.

Movie files are about 50 times larger than music files, which makes them much more cumbersome to download, but new technologies such as BitTorrent and increased high-speed Internet penetration are closing the gap.

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly filed suit last month against an Internet spam ring operating near Boston, using information obtained by Microsoft Corp. in its fight against unsolicited e-mail touting everything from miracle drugs to get-rich-quick schemes.

“The most important thing is that we're asking a court today to shut them down to prevent any further victims,” Reilly told reporters at a news conference in Boston.

Reilly and Microsoft said the lawsuit against seven individuals and two companies details their efforts to promote various products through “hundred of millions” spam e-mail messages sent to people worldwide from domain names registered in Monaco, Australia and France.

Leo Kuvayev was named as the leader of the spam group and the suit said his operation worked out of Boston and Russia. He was not immediately available for comment.

“This is one of the most serious spam violators that we have seen on the Internet,” Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told reporters.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has been engaged in a 3-year fight against virus writers, hackers, spammers and Internet scam artists, saying harmful software could hurt users of its Windows operating system, which runs more than 90% of the world's personal computers.

U.S. Internet advertising surged 33% in 2004 to a record $9.6 billion, surpassing levels seen during the early Web boom, and will grow at a similar rate in 2005, according to data released last month.

The figures bolster reports from individual advertisers who say they are moving more of their marketing budgets online as consumers devote more time to the Internet and fewer hours to television and other media.

The data also underscores breakaway earnings results for major Internet media companies and search engines like Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., as well as the digital divisions of traditional media companies like the New York Times Co.

“Interactive advertising has clearly become a mainstream medium and one that can no longer be ignored,” says Greg Stuart, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The IAB says that Internet ad revenue of $9.6 billion in 2004 compared with ad revenue in 2003 of $7.27 billion and exceeded the previous revenue record of 2000 by nearly 20%. Fourth-quarter revenue grew to $2.69 billion, the highest level for a three-month period. The data was compiled by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Looking ahead, research firm eMarketer predicts online ad growth of 33.7% in 2005 to $12.7 billion, raising a previous estimate of $11.5 billion for the year. eMarketer had estimated 2004 ad revenue at $9.5 billion.

“The reported results from Yahoo and Google showed I was being too conservative” with regard to the Web search advertising those companies have popularized, says eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman.

He says eMarketer's new 2005 forecast assumes revenue from Web search advertising, also known as paid search, to grow 40% year-on-year to $5.4 billion. His previous forecast had been $4.7 billion.

Industry experts say the growth of high-speed Internet in the United States, now estimated to be used by over 50% of homes connected to the Web, will further boost the medium in years to come as marketers can deliver more sophisticated video or pay-per-view content.

MPAA Targets TV Download Sites

Continuing its war on Internet file-swapping sites, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said last month that it has filed lawsuits against a half-dozen hubs for TV show trading.

The trade association said that piracy of TV programming is growing quickly online, and that shows are as important to protect as big-budget films. This is the first legal action from the group that has focused most heavily on TV content.

“Every television series depends on other markets [such as] syndication and international sales to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy,” MPAA Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman said in a statement. “Those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen.”

The latest round of suits retains a focus on BitTorrent technology, which has been widely used online to distribute movies and films.

The suits are focused on the sites that serve as traffic directors for BitTorrent swaps, rather than on individual computer users uploading and downloading content. The MPAA also has sued individuals, but has not said how many people have been targeted.

The six allegedly offending sites include ShunTV, Zonatracker, Btefnet, Scifi-Classics, CDDVDHeaven and Bragginrights.

A minor and his parents have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Yahoo and a man who once operated a Yahoo Groups site where members traded child pornography.

The lawsuit, filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, charged that Yahoo breached its duty of care by allowing co-defendant Mark Bates and others to share child pornography on a site, called Candyman, that Bates created and moderated via the Yahoo Groups service.

Yahoo spokeswomen Mary Osako said the company had not been served and did not comment on pending litigation.

Bates pleaded guilty in 2002 to setting up the Candyman group site for the trade and distribution of child pornography, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. The site attracted thousands of users and was in operation for 2 months before Yahoo closed it down in February 2001.

Pornographic photos of the plaintiff ' who is using the name Johnny Doe ' were taken and posted to the Candyman site by a neighbor, said the lawsuit.

Among other things, the plaintiffs alleged that Yahoo was aware of the activity on the site and that it took no action to block or remove the pornographic images of Doe and other children.

Attorneys familiar with cases involving online service providers said the Communications Decency Act generally shielded Web sites from responsibility for material posted by users.

“Unless the plaintiff has very concrete proof that Yahoo knew that this group contained child pornography, it's very likely that Yahoo will not be liable,” says John Morris, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, DC.

“We believe that they knew, and at a minimum didn't exercise reasonable care on their sites,” says Adam Voyles, the plaintiffs' lead attorney.

A child pornography investigation led by the FBI and dubbed Operation Candyman targeted Yahoo Groups users and resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people in the United States.

The final chapter of the Star Wars saga has gone over to the Internet's dark side.

“Star Wars: Episode III ' Revenge of the Sith” has been leaked onto a major file-sharing network just hours after opening in theaters, at a time when Hollywood is increasingly concerned about online piracy.

At least two copies of the film, which was first shown in theaters at midnight on May 18, have been posted to the BitTorrent file-sharing network ' a new and increasingly popular technology that allows users to download large video files much more quickly than in the past.

The MPAA has been aggressive in going after Web sites that provide “tracker” links that enable BitTorrent downloads of copyrighted material, including six lawsuits this week against sites with links to TV shows (see related story, above).

According to Web site Waxy.org, one print was leaked before the film was even released in theaters. The movie was time-stamped, suggesting it may have come from within the industry rather than from someone who videotaped an advance screening.

One popular tracker Web site showed more than 16,000 people currently downloading the film via BitTorrent.

Hollywood is trying to avoid the fate of the music industry, which claims it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales to illicit file-sharing networks.

Movie files are about 50 times larger than music files, which makes them much more cumbersome to download, but new technologies such as BitTorrent and increased high-speed Internet penetration are closing the gap.

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly filed suit last month against an Internet spam ring operating near Boston, using information obtained by Microsoft Corp. in its fight against unsolicited e-mail touting everything from miracle drugs to get-rich-quick schemes.

“The most important thing is that we're asking a court today to shut them down to prevent any further victims,” Reilly told reporters at a news conference in Boston.

Reilly and Microsoft said the lawsuit against seven individuals and two companies details their efforts to promote various products through “hundred of millions” spam e-mail messages sent to people worldwide from domain names registered in Monaco, Australia and France.

Leo Kuvayev was named as the leader of the spam group and the suit said his operation worked out of Boston and Russia. He was not immediately available for comment.

“This is one of the most serious spam violators that we have seen on the Internet,” Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told reporters.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has been engaged in a 3-year fight against virus writers, hackers, spammers and Internet scam artists, saying harmful software could hurt users of its Windows operating system, which runs more than 90% of the world's personal computers.

U.S. Internet advertising surged 33% in 2004 to a record $9.6 billion, surpassing levels seen during the early Web boom, and will grow at a similar rate in 2005, according to data released last month.

The figures bolster reports from individual advertisers who say they are moving more of their marketing budgets online as consumers devote more time to the Internet and fewer hours to television and other media.

The data also underscores breakaway earnings results for major Internet media companies and search engines like Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., as well as the digital divisions of traditional media companies like the New York Times Co.

“Interactive advertising has clearly become a mainstream medium and one that can no longer be ignored,” says Greg Stuart, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The IAB says that Internet ad revenue of $9.6 billion in 2004 compared with ad revenue in 2003 of $7.27 billion and exceeded the previous revenue record of 2000 by nearly 20%. Fourth-quarter revenue grew to $2.69 billion, the highest level for a three-month period. The data was compiled by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Looking ahead, research firm eMarketer predicts online ad growth of 33.7% in 2005 to $12.7 billion, raising a previous estimate of $11.5 billion for the year. eMarketer had estimated 2004 ad revenue at $9.5 billion.

“The reported results from Yahoo and Google showed I was being too conservative” with regard to the Web search advertising those companies have popularized, says eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman.

He says eMarketer's new 2005 forecast assumes revenue from Web search advertising, also known as paid search, to grow 40% year-on-year to $5.4 billion. His previous forecast had been $4.7 billion.

Industry experts say the growth of high-speed Internet in the United States, now estimated to be used by over 50% of homes connected to the Web, will further boost the medium in years to come as marketers can deliver more sophisticated video or pay-per-view content.