MPAA targets more bittorrent sites

BUOYED BY its success in shutting the eDonkey2000 indexing server Razorback2, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is having a crack at closing other BitTorrent indexing sites.

Isohunt.com, BTHub.com, TorrentBox.com TorrentSpy, NiteShadow.com, BTHub.com TorrentBox.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net have been named in seven lawsuits were filed in Federal Court across the United States.

In a press release, John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA said that website operators who "abuse technology to facilitate infringements of copyrighted works by millions of people are not anonymous and can and will be stopped".

He said that disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution was "a significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet".

The press release seems to have gone out before the site owners got the cease and desist letter. Many of them say they are a little surprised as they comply with DMCA requests.

It is the first time that the DMCA has gone for indexing sites rather than trackers, and it is unclear what law they are going to try and charge them under. Theoretically the DMCA could also sue any search outfit which people use to find a torrent.

But that would mean its lawyers will eventually have to accuse MSN, Google and Yahoo of piracy, rather than just small sites with limited legal budgets.

More here. µ