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Cracker for MPAA left out in the cold
THE COLD WAR between Hollywood studios and file sharers recently spun a tale of intrigue that reads like a John Le Carré spy story, as Wired tells it.
Having had his pitch for an online advertising campaign with Torrentspy founder Justin Bunnell fall through, marketeer Robert Anderson then approached the MPAA to build an anti-piracy marketing programme for the other side.
Since he knew all about Bittorrent and file sharing, he also offered to conduct a bit of industrial espionage against Torrentspy. He said, "It was an opportunity to make money, because I knew how these networks operated."
The 23 year-old marketing consultant turned cracker had hacked into Torrentspy's email system by guessing an administrative password. He inserted code to intercept and forward all of Torrentspy's emails to his Gmail account.
The MPAA, losing its long-running struggle against online file sharing that it calls "piracy", was more than willing to talk with Anderson. He said the MPAA told him, "We would need somebody like you. We would give you a nice paying job, a house, a car, anything you needed.... if you save Hollywood for us you can become rich and powerful."
So encouraged, Anderson stole dozens of Torrentspy emails containing banking, business and other information, including passwords and the source code for Torrentspy's backend software. The MPAA was very keen to get the software, Anderson said, because it wanted to set up a fake Bittorrent site to infiltrate and disrupt the online file sharing community.
MPAA executive Dean Garfield sent a contract to Anderson, offering to pay him $15,000 in exchange for confidential information about both Torrentspy and Piratebay, their owners and software. With a wink and a nod, the written contract specified that both parties were to keep the contract strictly confidential, but that all information was to be collected "through legal means ".
But documents filed in a subsequent lawsuit between Torrentspy and the MPAA allege that: "Dean Garfield expressly told the informant (Anderson), on behalf of the MPAA, regarding the information that he requested, 'We don't care how you get it.'"
Anderson signed the contract and sent all of the purloined emails and data to the MPAA.
Once it had the information he'd collected, the MPAA lost interest in Anderson. Although he'd thought he was entering into a long term business relationship, the MPAA's cracker found himself shut out in the cold.
About a year later, Anderson confessed to Torrentspy's Bunnell in an online chat, saying "I sold you out to the MPAA." Anderson later said, "I felt guilty [about] what happened and I kinda also thought at that point the MPAA wasn't going to do anything.".
The MPAA sued Torrentspy and Bunnell soon after, and Bunnell countersued the MPAA. Both lawsuits are still pending, winding their way through the US Federal court system. µ
L'INQ
Wired
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I think this is a fine example of what people can expect from the MPAA, the RIAA and Hollywood in general.
Backstabbing, cutthroat policies under a veneer of education and refinement.
What does that remind of already ?
Ah yes, the mafia.
Amusingly I think the MPAA are losing more money with these stupidity projects than through actual pirating. After all, most pirates would not buy something they could not get for free, they simply wouldn't.

As for backstabbing bastards like a person mentioned... when you stick a knife into someone's backside, always remember that no one will ever trust you again. 
If you consider that there is no honor amongst thieves...you should have thought it over a few times. Especially for a shitty 15k. Not like a person could have retired to some caribbean island with that.
The MPAA and the RIAA are the real pirates, they don't care how they get the info about users, they just want to clear their reputation. They are fighting a desperate fight, trying to control the internet and us. They even say: "When you are downloading mp3's, you're downloading COMMUNISM!" Come on, do you think that we are that stupid, naive?? Lower the prices, criminals!
How stupid was this guy to think that the MPAA would need him once they'd taken out a bunch of file sharers. The MPAA complains about "piracy" and money loss, but it doesn't really look like they have lost any money, what with the amount of money that gets made at the box office. Not to mention the exorbitant paychecks that movie stars already get for lame acting and bad storylines.