Feds shut down BitTorrent hub

Federal agents shut down a popular Web site Wednesday that had distributed copyrighted music and movies, including versions of the latest "Star Wars" movie.

Homeland security agents from several divisions 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.

Wednesday's action was part of an operation dubbed "D-elite," which targets administrators and people who provided content that was distributed through the EliteTorrents.org site.

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."

Investigators provided no details on the specific locations of the raids, but said that prosecutions would be coordinated with agencies in Arizona, California, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology allows people to download and upload files from each others' hard drives. But it requires links to be posted on a Web site, and typically utilizes a "tracker" software, located on a central Net-connected hub, that directs traffic between these computers.

It is these central hubs that have been the targets of movie studio lawsuits, as well as of today's federal actions. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security, acted on the search warrants Wednesday.

[Max_Risk]

Homeland Security???

Why did Homeland Security handel this? I am sure they are in charge of doing something else but I can't think of what it is right now....... Oh Yeah PROTECTING THE HOMELAND!

It was Homeland Security because...

just read the last paragraph. The FBI and Customs did the raid. It's
their job to to go after this theft. They are divisions of Homeland
Security.

[sanenazok]

Who else?

The warrants issued were for multiple states, who else is going to do this but the feds.

[katir1982]

i'm with you...

of course considering the most visable thing they've ever done is
kindergarten color chart for threat level that the military ditched
because of the stupidity in how they figure out what the current
threat is, they where probibly just a little bored.

[Raife]

Just, ask yourself...

What the hell does this have to do with "protecting America from terrorists"..?

It is more, and more, obvious everyday that the "security"-card, is nothing more than a PATHETIC-SHAM. This sort of thing PROVES the real reasons behind the most unprecedented destruction of CIVIL-LIBERTIES, and the most STAGGERING EXPANSION of "law-enforcement" power, in recent American history.

And, it is also pretty obvious, just who, the United States government now, obediently, serves.

And, it sure as hell, is NOT,

...The Citizens

...The Constitution

Or,

...The Nation.

Welcome, to the new United States...

Where the U.S. Constitution has been permanently suspended...

Where you will soon have to carry your national identity-papers at all times...

Where all of your communications are monitored by the government...

And, The government, solely, serves a small group of powerful property-owners.

Oddly reminiscent

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Cool down man

The FBI and Customs did the raid. They are divisions of Homeland
Security. Get a clue. All of these law enforcement agencies are put
under one roof so they can better cooperate to stop thieves like
these.

20 years ago it would have been the same cops from FBI and
Customs that would have done the raid.

Think before you go off on your rant.

[bobby_brady]

I heard different on Slyck.com

I heard a different story on Slyck.com

[sanenazok]

you mean read, and what

was different exactly?

[Juster444]

feds' publicity stunt

I don't condone illegal file swapping, but this seems to me to be more publicity stunt than serious effort to go after those who profit from the sale of pirated copies of movies. The Assistant Attorney General uses much language that gives the impression that the feds are really doing something "to stem the serious financial damage to the victims of this high-tech piracy".

Give me a break!! All that talk may sound good, but how many people who engage in file swapping are serious high-tech pirates who cause serious financial damage to movie companies?

Better to go after those who are pumping out illegal copies for sale. Those kind of bad guys have been getting their hands on illegal copies of movies long before file swapping or BitTorrent was around.

[sanenazok]

every action is meant to create publicity

every arrest, every trial, conviction and sentencing is designed to attract attention and cause people to think twice before doing something that's a crime.

The people arrested or at least the people for whom there's a warrant out serve as an example of what can happen if you start distributing works that are scheduled for commercial release.

If it wasn't for these people the laws would be meaningless and nobody would have to know them or worry.

[hadaso]

Shown before the film was made available?

Can filesharing technology get a film that hasn't been released? NO! Only someone who has access to a copy (that is not yet on any file-sharing network when being copied for the first time) can have access. So actually, what is being done nowadays, is that those who don't want the film to get out don't guard it well enough, but instead of paying for the consequence of their lack of security, are having the government spend taxpayers' money to punish others who indirectly got the copy from an insider. The breach of security is always done in these cases by someone who has a contract with the copyright holder that did not allow the transfer of the copy.

[Loco_Man]

so, following that logic...

So, basically, if someone enters into my home, steals my stuff, then the police finds someone that has them, I should be the one punished for not securing my home enough?

[sanenazok]

that would work

if like 5-10 people worked on a film. The freaking cleaning lady could have taken it and given it to her teenage nephew to look at.

If failure to "secure" the film suddenly made it fair game for all infringement then companies would take "extraordinary" measures to secure all copies. They would do background checks on the people involved in it, and block those who would pose even a small risk. Afterall, if the film was ever leaked they would loose all rights to it, and as you can imagine it's worth more than you could imagine. Also, think of the security measures they would put in: complete monitoring of network traffic, pat-downs and x-rays coming in and out of the office.

People would be complaining how awful this is, and it would be. So instead the logical choice is to prosecute theft, even if it's an inside job.

Next time your money is stolen from your bank account by a dumped girlfriend/boyfriend I'm sure you wouldn't want the cops to tell you that you shouldn't have allowed him/her to look at your account number and other information while you were involved together during your multi-year relationship.

Please keep in mind that this is not a case against the technology involved here, it's just aginst the people who posted the movies. Given some time and an actual need for it, the movie studios could embrace this method for distributing paid and licensed content. For now cinemas and DVD's suffice.

Homeland Security...

One would think that catching binLaden or AlWrawi (sp).. would be the priority here...oops i forgot...dowloading files is a terrorist act...you do uderstand that these files could be used to destroy something....

meanwhile...back at the ranch...can somone explain how this falls under homeland security????

Read the Dudes posts

I suggest you read the 2 posts by Dr Dude, that he posted about 5 hours before yours, in which he explains for the 2 other people asking the same thing - "The FBI and Customs did the raid. They are divisions of Homeland Security.".

where's my tin foil?1

I don"t know if everybody know's this or not,but if you wrap your head in tin foil,it keeps the goverment from reading your thoughts!God, i hope no one asks my for my papers.

[Frihet]

Now we know

If this is true, we now know why we can't find Osama. Our anti-terrorist forces have been co-opted by the MPAA.

I'll be frank, I don't support unauthorized file sharing of copyrighted materials and I think police work is actually the right way to deal with the problem, not unconstitutional legislation, and certainly not a new GESTAPO (which this action, if true, shows the HSA may very well be). The message I get from this simply confirms what I've thought since the DMCA. That is, the government of the USA has been bought and paid for by multinational corporations and what I call the WIPO Mob. The public interest and the principles upon which the nation was founded have simply been SOLD out.

Maybe if Osama copied a CD our Homeland Security forces could find him?

Frihet
www.litenverden.org

[Efrow]

this is rich

"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..."

This, right after Star Wars set new box office records. Is this what my tax dollars are going towards?

[jamie.p.walsh]

A few things

1. So, let's say that 10,000 people stole this movie. Around $8 a pop, you lost $80,000 of the $300,000,000 it grossed THIS WEEKEND ALONE. Booo freakin Hooo.

2. I've seen this copy, the quality is homemade porn at best, the reason for seeing the movie is to appreciate the stunningness of it, so, you're not really losing it there.

3. I would suspect that 70-80% of those who downloaded it, SAW IT IN THEATERS ANYWAY!! You should be happy for the free promotion!!!

MPAA, if you want to beat this game, do what the RIAA has already learned to do. CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL!! If the threat is substantial enough that it can be done via currently free software, the offering that YOU could make in the market should be as good if not better.

I understand, the record industry has no "release cycle" so to speak where it is sent to theater, then to DVD, then to cable, then to broadcast and so on. But, if you look at what they are doing, I would be willing to bet they are seeing a turnaround in their revenues--which, we never seem to hear about, funny, there has to be SOME interest in one of the record companies finances and whether or not this new system is paying off for them). I digress.

You could probably even keep the same model but implemented a different way. Digital distribution to all theaters (encrypted, of course). Then have a model where you sell both DVDs and lower quality MPEG-4 downloads. Both encrypted, and a discounted price for downloads.

You must stop wasting our government resources guarding your industry and start taking responsibility for coming up with a better system yourself.

[sanenazok]

So what you suggest

is they do nothing when a movie currently playing in theaters is being traded online. If it was downloaded 10,000 in 3 or 4 days from just the sources that were shut down, if they wait but a few months it will be downloaded hundred of thousands of times, if not a million. It would cut into either movie or subsequent dvd sales.

Similarly if they didn't take action against this admitedly crappy copy then sooner or later there would be a much better camcorded copy that would actually be a good enough replacement for many people.

Anyways this is not an appropriate way to abuse other's rights.

[jamie.p.walsh]

Real ID side note

Ok, it is already illegal to drive without a license, you're carded for cigarettes and alcohol. All of which are backed by databases that prove whether or not the ID is valid or not, therefore, most ID theft is curbed. Adding layers of embedded security to your driver's ID is no less a risk of civil liberty infraction than the Real ID proposal. Each of those ID scanners, including the ones police use to check for your outstanding warrants, give someone the capability of tracking some aspects of your whereabouts and your preferences.

HOW IN THE WORLD IS THE REAL ID ISSUE ANY DIFFERENT???

Americans with nothing to hide should back this.

Faulty Logic

>HOW IN THE WORLD IS THE REAL ID ISSUE ANY
>DIFFERENT???
>
>Americans with nothing to hide should back this.

It isn't about hiding anything. It's about opening up a Pandora's box for abuse of power and the unintended consequences of otherwise good intentions.

Okay, so let all of us in your house and your car, let us install cameras in every room and in the car so that we can see you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. After all, Americans with nothing to hide should back this.

You obviously don't know what REAL-ID is. We will be able to compel you to have an RFID chip imbedded in your ID which you must carry with you at all times in your wallet. Every place you go will be known. Your employer will always know where you are. Your landlord will always know where you are. There's a huge difference between being carded for buying beer and having your boss be able to monitor what you do after hours. But that's okay because after all, Americans with nothing to hide should back this.

And if your wallet is stolen and then whoever stole it commits a crime that was "tracked" by the network and they don't catch the crook at the scene of the crime, good luck trying to prove it wasn't you. After all, REAL-ID shows you were there, and Americans should back this if you have nothing to hide.

REAL-ID may have good intentions, but you fail to address the unintended consequences.

[Darryl Snortberry]

Let's Get Rid Of The Bill Of Rights

Following your logic Americans have nothing to hide lets get rid of those pesky Bill Of Rights. That Freedom of Speech gets in the way of law enforcement and "fighting terrorism" That Right aganist unresonalble searches gets in the way of law enforcement and "fighting terrorism". Even better how about we go the Saudi Arabia route. Lets get rid of the three branches of government and consolidate them all under one branch. Who needs those pesky checks & balances to keep the government from overextending its power, besides those checks and balances get in the way of law enforcement and "fighting terrorism". The government is always right.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

well if you leave your keys

well if you leave your keys in your car and it gets stolen should the insurance company pay you? No. Why? Cause your an idiot you should know that people will steal cars and if you make your car easiest to steal then thats just idiotic. Submit movie for car. Besides the ep III made availible was a work print, not that great

[sanenazok]

but of course

the person who stole your car, if caught will still be arrested.

If having someone leak a copy of the movie means that you can't have the providers of the copy prosecuted then every media company would have extremely tight security and YOU would be complaing about how "unamerican" it is, etc.

[sanenazok]

one other thing

I called my insurance agent (Statefarm in the US) and they pay full insurance rate for cars stolen even if the key's left in the ignition. They do check for fraud though - a lot of checks. It may be different in other countries and other companies though. However, good insurance pays both the careful and the careless. You can bet that my rate would go through the roof if I made this mistake, but it looks like a lot of people do that. My agent told me that over half of stolen cars were unlocked when stolen and again about half had keys in them or somewhere on the car.

Maybe you were being sarcastic about insurance not paying up? I'm usually a plaintalker and all.

[Sam Papelbon]

slight difference

when you steal a car, you are denying the owner the use of that car. when you download a movie, you are not denying the owner the use of the movie.

not to mention the fact a dvd costs $15. and with the lack of extras, poor quality, and other imperfections, the value is probably closer to $3-5 for a downloaded movie.

to compare it to car theft would require some imagination. like going to a dealership and magically cloning one of the new cars on their lot, only with 100,000 miles and hail damage. then driving off in the crappy car, leaving the new car there.

also, i would never download a movie that i really wanted to see/own. i suspect this is similar for an overwhelming majority of downloaders out there. the movies they download are usually not good enough to warrant buying. or else they aren't out on dvd yet. if there was no such thing as piracy, the only ones who would benefit are blockbuster.

and ask yourself. how many of the people who downloaded episode 3 did NOT or will NOT eventually go see the movie in the theater? unless you've been brainwashed you're probably thinking of a very small number.

[George Cole]

not that great

http://www.analogstereo.com/acura_legend_owners_manual.htm

[Darryl Snortberry]

Let's Get Rid Of The Bill Of Rights

Following you logic Americans have nothing to hide lets get rid of those pesky Bill Of Rights. That Freedom of Speech gets in the way of law enforcement and "fighting terrorism" That Right aganist unresonalble searches gets in the way of law enforcement and "fighting terrorism". Even better how about we go the Saudi Arabia route. Lets get rid of the three branches of government and consolidate them all under one branch. Who needs those pesky checks & balances to keep the government from overextending its power, besides those checks and balances get in the way of law enforcement and "fighting terrorism". The government is always right.

Getting rid of the Bill of Rights

Unfortunately, they are working on it all in the name of protecting us from terrorist.

[mattmin]

I Couldn't Agree More

The Govt. is out of control. We have no more freedoms, we can't do anything without big brother butting in and if it was running smoothly just wait! the govt. WILL and HAS SCREWED IT UP!

Bravo! Great Point!

However I STILL agree that p2p and bit torrents ARE ILLEGAL and SHOULD BE BANNED!!!!

Matt Mattero Ministries

[drkersey]

Keep

living in your dream world.

What can we do?

This has gone far enough. I write my congressman like every week now. I vote on these issues. WHAT ELSE CAN I DO!?
Go to Washington? Picket? This matters to me, but I can't leave my job to take up Copyright and Freedom Causes! Guess there is a "threshold of commitment for me." What do YOU do to fight this ridiculous downward spiral of the US of A?
-e.Swede

You already know what has to be done....

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

~Thomas Jefferson --July 4, 1776

[sanenazok]

you didn't answer any of my questions

Yes by proxy - the MPAA asked the government to enforce its laws against someone.

I'm also willing to concede that the MPAA is not behind this at all. Then so goes your "department of hollywood security" type statements because then the government did it on its own because Congress required it to.

[sanenazok]

wl

wrong link

[Sentinel]

Breaking the record

Yeah, the poor victims, the movie makers. As if a few pirated copies of the movie had stopped it from breaking sales records everywhere.

Why would anyone pirate Star Wars II anyway? Could it be that they want inferior movie quality? Or could it be that they would rather sacrifice quality for a more quiet, relaxed movie watching experience? Could it be that they hate all the noise those Darth-Vader-mask-wearing-geeks make? Could it be that they hate when people appalud in the movies whenever something happens? Could be I don't know.

I propose this: release the DVD version at the same time as the theater version. That way, there will be no reason to pirate the movie (except for those hard-ups that don't even want to pay a few dollars for a movie ticket).

[jumpoffacliff]

break the law, pay the price

the sooner the message gets sent, the better. ignorance is not a
defense.

[Raife]

Boy, You really dont get it, ...do you?

>> "...the sooner the message gets sent, the better. ignorance is not a defense."

That is EXACTLY what EVERY TYRANT, who has ever usurped legitimate-authority, has said.

People are very understandably protesting the unjustifiable enactment of ridiculously-extreme protections, and authority, being given to a powerful-few, ...at the unwarranted expense of the general-citizenry.

In a broader sense...

People are fed-up with this nonsense. "Copyright" was NEVER supposed to give ANYONE this much POWER. And, it was NOT supposed to last forever (as it now effectively does).

"Copyright", is a PRIVILEGE granted "...for a limited time", for the BENEFIT of society.

However, now it has become a WEAPON (being used by powerful special-interests) to forcibly-extract money, and power, from the very people it was originally created to serve.

[George Cole]

message gets sent

http://www.analogstereo.com/acura_cl_owners_manual.htm

[nonaste]

balderdash

I can see it now. Some guy sitting in some cell in a state pen asked by some murderer, "What are you in for Buddy?" The reply? "I got busted for downloading a crappy copy of a crappy movie" How does this serve our country, our citizenry our image, and our economy by filling prisons with non-violent thieves (and I might add, pot smokers)? It doesn't. It serves the highly profitable prison industry and it costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollers. Oh by the way have we caught Osama yet? No? Why? Because the weight of the government is being used to protect the security of the MPAA.

[sanenazok]

different dept

counterterrorism is different from the cyberlaw division of feds just like your police department is different from the fire department, so no these prosecutions aren't taking people away from finding terrorists.

Also offenders in these cases are not the downloaders, it's the people who are providing the files.

Should we also not put in prison people who sell pirated DVD's on a masive scale. That's also non-violent theft. What about those white collar crimes that wipe out people's retirement savings accounts? That's totally non-violent.

If white collar didn't get prosecuted then the criminal justice system would be even MORE biased against the poor. Instead you get the same punishment whether you use a broadband connection to violate ip rights or the back of a 84 pickup.

[pcLoadLetter]

Haven't you heard?

Our country is owned and operated by the corporations.

We haven't caught Bin Laden, becasue we are too busy invading other countries, that are rich with oil, that had nothing to do with 9/11 and has never been a threat to the US.

Doesn't it warm the heart knowing that so many americans and innocent Iraqis have died so buddies of Bush can make more money?

[mustangj36]

Somethung very important has been forgotten here.

The copy of Star Wars that was first put out onto the net was very obviously a work print of the film. This could only have come from directly inside George Lucas' company.
Lucas has historicly had extremely strong security in his organization so you have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Did someone, somehow in the editing room sneak out the print and put it on the net? Not very likely. As I said, Lucas' security is better than the CIA's. He's better at protecting his wallet than Bill Gates. No. To me, the most likely scenario is that Lucas himself, or someone he ordered to, released the film onto the net. The only question is why? He's not going to lose any profits because SR fans are more fanatical than iPod groupies and will pay to go see the film, probably over and over again, and will still buy it when it comes out on DVD. This is a win win situation for Hollywood. The biggest movie of the year has been pirated and, in their righteous indignation, they have the federal government striking back on their behalf.
This is just the beginning of the MPAA's assault on the people's digital rights. Their ultimate goal? That we don't have any such rights and that they will control how, where and when we get to use the content we pay for.
By the way, how hard do you think they're looking for the person who "stole" that work print?

[sanenazok]

they are

there are many ways for someone to take a work print. All it takes is a DVD disk or medium amount of bandwidth, and blamo it's out there. No amount of security will ever preven this from happening.

If they were to find who uploaded it the person would be fired and possibily otherwise punished. The warrants for people who are copying these works are for a completely separate issue - they're distributing these online knowing that this is being shown in theaters for money.

[George Cole]

protecting his wallet

http://www.analogstereo.com/acura_tsx_owners_manual.htm