MPAA targets TV download sites

Continuing its war on Internet file-swapping sites, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday 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 sites sued Thursday include ShunTV, Zonatracker, Btefnet, Scifi-Classics, CDDVDHeaven and Bragginrights.

TV Shows?

I can understand the MPAA not liking movies being shared, but TV shows? Why? What a joke.

[Raife]

Its all about CONTROL...

Yes, it really is about a PSYCHOTIC need for control, ...and, even the slightest chance for extracting revenue, ...their way, ...not, as determined by an open marketplace.

After all, we are talking about an industry which has fought for over twenty years, without pause, to eliminate the VCR. Then, they went after TIVO. Next, they actually declared that, not watching TV-commercials, was itself a crime.

And, while they may have been handed a slight setback by a recent Federal-Court decision, with regards to the BROADCAST-FLAG (whose sole purpose is to eliminate home-recording), the media-giants certainly havent backed away from their desire to force consumers to obey the media-industrys whims.

And, ANY consumer choice, or freedom, seriously threatens that desire.

Just my two-cents...

TV Shows?

I can understand the MPAA not liking movies being shared, but TV shows? Why? What a joke.

[Raife]

Its all about CONTROL...

Yes, it really is about a PSYCHOTIC need for control, ...and, even the slightest chance for extracting revenue, ...their way, ...not, as determined by an open marketplace.

After all, we are talking about an industry which has fought for over twenty years, without pause, to eliminate the VCR. Then, they went after TIVO. Next, they actually declared that, not watching TV-commercials, was itself a crime.

And, while they may have been handed a slight setback by a recent Federal-Court decision, with regards to the BROADCAST-FLAG (whose sole purpose is to eliminate home-recording), the media-giants certainly havent backed away from their desire to force consumers to obey the media-industrys whims.

And, ANY consumer choice, or freedom, seriously threatens that desire.

Just my two-cents...

[psytaebien]

this is stupid

What is the difference between this and TIVO the only Difference is that someone is doing the taping for you so you can watch the show you missed at a later date. OK MPAA LETS GO AFTER TIVO NEXT!!!! Why not its practiclly the same thing.

[mpop1]

they did

They did go after TiVo already (and lost but)

[psytaebien]

this is stupid

What is the difference between this and TIVO the only Difference is that someone is doing the taping for you so you can watch the show you missed at a later date. OK MPAA LETS GO AFTER TIVO NEXT!!!! Why not its practiclly the same thing.

[mpop1]

they did

They did go after TiVo already (and lost but)

CDDVDHeaven.

Hi all.
Well this is news to myself as the owner of CDDVDHeaven.
The site I run does nothing wrong as the laws stands at this time and no pirated material is avilable for download direct from the site.
The site dos no more wrong then say Yahoo or other search's a user can carry out.
Hell you can even download the same links via Yahoo.
As the lastest rounds with grockster have shown and the last court ruling that the client and trackers are not to be held liable for what it's users do with it.
The site was started by meself about 2yr's ago as a way to learn more about the internet side of things as in my normal work i only ever work with the hardware side of computing.
The site was started off in simple HTML and as i i gained more experance in php and sql the site grew to what it is now.
I use the site as a way to teach myself coding and other stuff and offer it to be used by the public.

Dave @ CDDVDHeaven.

CDDVDHeaven.

Hi all.
Well this is news to myself as the owner of CDDVDHeaven.
The site I run does nothing wrong as the laws stands at this time and no pirated material is avilable for download direct from the site.
The site dos no more wrong then say Yahoo or other search's a user can carry out.
Hell you can even download the same links via Yahoo.
As the lastest rounds with grockster have shown and the last court ruling that the client and trackers are not to be held liable for what it's users do with it.
The site was started by meself about 2yr's ago as a way to learn more about the internet side of things as in my normal work i only ever work with the hardware side of computing.
The site was started off in simple HTML and as i i gained more experance in php and sql the site grew to what it is now.
I use the site as a way to teach myself coding and other stuff and offer it to be used by the public.

Dave @ CDDVDHeaven.

[buddug55]

We have no TV access

I agree that this is stupid! Like us, most of the ppl downloading TV shows have no other access to television. Some live in countries that don't get the shows they want to watch. We live by a National Park about 12 miles from the nearest cable and can't afford to pay for it to be strung to our area and we can't afford to buy a satellite dish. We do regret that the shows we download have no commercials because I think they would be perfectly legal then. We have the commercial DVDs for the first four years of Smallville and plan on buying the fifth season also. But we don't want to have to wait a year to see them. My son thinks that if the networks put their shows on the internet a lot of ppl would watch them and the networks could get a lot more advertising revenue. Then it wouldn't be necessary for ppl to download the shows illegally.

[buddug55]

We have no TV access

I agree that this is stupid! Like us, most of the ppl downloading TV shows have no other access to television. Some live in countries that don't get the shows they want to watch. We live by a National Park about 12 miles from the nearest cable and can't afford to pay for it to be strung to our area and we can't afford to buy a satellite dish. We do regret that the shows we download have no commercials because I think they would be perfectly legal then. We have the commercial DVDs for the first four years of Smallville and plan on buying the fifth season also. But we don't want to have to wait a year to see them. My son thinks that if the networks put their shows on the internet a lot of ppl would watch them and the networks could get a lot more advertising revenue. Then it wouldn't be necessary for ppl to download the shows illegally.