Mediadefender
Encyclopedia
MediaDefender, Inc. is a company that offers services designed to prevent alleged copyright infringement
using peer-to-peer
distribution. They are controversial because of their use of unusual tactics such as flooding peer-to-peer networks with decoy files that tie up users' computers and bandwidth. MediaDefender is based in Los Angeles
, California
in the United States
. As of March 2007, the company had approximately 60 employees and used 2,000 server
s hosted in California with contracts for 9 Gbit/s of bandwidth.
These types of organizations are being hired to attempt to stymie peer-to-peer (P2P) traders through a variety of methods including posting fake files online and recording individuals who contribute copyrighted material, but also marketing
to individuals using P2P networks. Clients include Universal Pictures
, 20th Century Fox
, Virgin Records
, HBO, Paramount Pictures
, and BMG
. On August 1, 2005, the digital media entertainment company ARTISTdirect
announced that it had acquired MediaDefender for $42.5 million in cash.
In May 2008, MediaDefender performed a distributed-denial-of-service
attack on Revision3, despite the fact that they were not hosting pirated materials. Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO charged that these attacks violated the Economic Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
. As of May 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
was investigating the incident.
In August 2009, ARTISTdirect
restructured MediaDefender and MediaSentry
, creating Peer Media Technologies
.
ger who looked up Miivi.com domain registration information.
After the allegation was re-posted throughout the blogosphere
, Miivi.com was shut down on July 4, 2007. In an interview with Ars Technica
, chief executive Randy Saaf
stated that "MediaDefender was working on an internal project that involved video and didn't realize that people would be trying to go to it and so we didn't password-protect the site". MediaDefender blamed file-sharing groups such as The Pirate Bay
for starting the story. Following MediaDefender's subsequent email leak, TorrentFreak alleged that MediaDefender's statement was revealed to be a deliberate falsehood. Saaf denied that MiiVi was "a devious product" and that the company aimed to entrap users, stating only that it was part of MediaDefender's "trade secrets."
The MPAA denied any involvement with MediaDefender. On September 14, 2007, internal emails from MediaDefender were leaked on to BitTorrent file sharing networks, which contradicted MediaDefender's claims of MiiVi being an "internal test site," revealing additional detailed information about the website and that the site was closed when the connection between it and MediaDefender became public knowledge. It was scheduled to be re-launched as www.viide.com, but has not yet been opened up to the public.
at least $825,000. The breach included emails, a phone conversation, and a number of internal anti-piracy tools, including some source code.
s were leaked, containing information contradicting previous statements and details of strategies intended to deceive copyright infringers. The emails link MediaDefender to projects that management previously denied involvement in. The Associated Press
and other media outlets suggest that the leak may confirm speculation that MiiVi.com was an anti-copyright infringement "honeypot
" site. One e-mail suggests using the MiiVi client program to turn users' PCs into drones for MediaDefender's eMule
spoofing activities. The leaked e-mails discuss responses to unexpected and negative press, and expose upcoming projects, problems in and around the office, Domino's pizza orders, and other personal information about employees. Beyond strategic information, the leak also exposed login information for FTP and MySQL
servers, making available a large library of MP3
files likely including artists represented by MediaDefender's clients. The emails also revealed that MediaDefender probably was negotiating with the New York Attorney General's office to allow them access to information about users accessing pornographic material. As of September 15, 2007, there had been no official response from the company. However, evidence exists that MediaDefender had been employing both legal and illegal actions to remove copies of the leaked emails from their respective hosting sites. In addition to the usual cease-and-desist letters
from their legal department, IP addresses that are owned by MediaDefender were found to have been used in denial-of-service attack
s against sites hosting the leaked emails.
The e-mails also revealed direction by MediaDefender founder Randy Saaf to have developer Ben Ebert attempt to eliminate the information about MiiVi from MediaDefender's Wikipedia
entry. Ebert responds in an email on the same day saying, "I will attempt to get all to miivi removed from wiki. I should easily be able to get It contested. We'll see if I can get rid of it."
office and MediaDefender as a torrent on The Pirate Bay
. MediaDefender-Defenders claims in information released with the phone conversation that they have infiltrated the "internals" of the company.
. A large chunk of MediaDefender's software was available by Bittorrent.
which distributes video content legally through various means, including the BitTorrent protocol. During the Memorial Day
weekend in 2008, Revision3 came under a Denial of Service attack originating from MediaDefender IP addresses. The attack left the company's service inaccessible until mid-Tuesday the following week. Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback
accused MediaDefender of injecting its decoy files
into Revision3's BitTorrent service through a vulnerability
, then automatically perpetrating the attack after Revision3 increased security.
Randy Saaf defended MediaDefender's actions by stating "Our systems were targeting a tracker not even knowing it was Revision3's tracker", adding that the denial-of-service attack resulted when "Revision3 changed some configurations" to their bittorrent tracker.
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
using peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
distribution. They are controversial because of their use of unusual tactics such as flooding peer-to-peer networks with decoy files that tie up users' computers and bandwidth. MediaDefender is based in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As of March 2007, the company had approximately 60 employees and used 2,000 server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s hosted in California with contracts for 9 Gbit/s of bandwidth.
These types of organizations are being hired to attempt to stymie peer-to-peer (P2P) traders through a variety of methods including posting fake files online and recording individuals who contribute copyrighted material, but also marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
to individuals using P2P networks. Clients include Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, HBO, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, and BMG
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
. On August 1, 2005, the digital media entertainment company ARTISTdirect
ARTISTdirect
Founded in 1994, Artistdirect, Inc. is an online digital media entertainment company. It owns several websites including Artistdirect.com, UBL.com and the Artistdirect Network...
announced that it had acquired MediaDefender for $42.5 million in cash.
In May 2008, MediaDefender performed a distributed-denial-of-service
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
attack on Revision3, despite the fact that they were not hosting pirated materials. Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO charged that these attacks violated the Economic Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1986, intended to reduce cracking of computer systems and to address federal computer-related offenses...
. As of May 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
was investigating the incident.
In August 2009, ARTISTdirect
ARTISTdirect
Founded in 1994, Artistdirect, Inc. is an online digital media entertainment company. It owns several websites including Artistdirect.com, UBL.com and the Artistdirect Network...
restructured MediaDefender and MediaSentry
MediaSentry
MediaSentry was a United States company that provided services to the music recording, motion picture, television, and software industries for locating and identifying IP addresses that are engaged in the use of online networks to share material in a manner said organizations claim is in violation...
, creating Peer Media Technologies
Peer Media Technologies
Peer Media Technologies, Inc. is an Artistdirect subsidiary created in 2009 as a merger of MediaDefender and MediaSentry, after the reputations of the predecessor companies were sullied by the exposure of internal emails and the use of investigative tactics deemed illegal in several U.S...
.
Miivi.com
In February 2007, MediaDefender launched a video sharing site called Miivi.com. On July 4, 2007, file-sharing news site TorrentFreak alleged that Miivi.com was created to trap uploaders of copyrighted content. The site's origins were discovered by a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger who looked up Miivi.com domain registration information.
After the allegation was re-posted throughout the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
, Miivi.com was shut down on July 4, 2007. In an interview with Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
, chief executive Randy Saaf
Randy Saaf
Randy Saaf was the chief executive officer, and founder, of MediaDefender, Inc., which was purchased by ARTISTdirect, Inc. in 2005 for $42.5 million in cash....
stated that "MediaDefender was working on an internal project that involved video and didn't realize that people would be trying to go to it and so we didn't password-protect the site". MediaDefender blamed file-sharing groups such as The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
for starting the story. Following MediaDefender's subsequent email leak, TorrentFreak alleged that MediaDefender's statement was revealed to be a deliberate falsehood. Saaf denied that MiiVi was "a devious product" and that the company aimed to entrap users, stating only that it was part of MediaDefender's "trade secrets."
The MPAA denied any involvement with MediaDefender. On September 14, 2007, internal emails from MediaDefender were leaked on to BitTorrent file sharing networks, which contradicted MediaDefender's claims of MiiVi being an "internal test site," revealing additional detailed information about the website and that the site was closed when the connection between it and MediaDefender became public knowledge. It was scheduled to be re-launched as www.viide.com, but has not yet been opened up to the public.
Leaked information
Beginning on September 14, 2007, MediaDefender experienced a security breach caused by a group of hackers led by high school student "Ethan". This group called themselves MediaDefender-Defenders. According to an SEC filing, this ultimately cost parent company ARTISTdirectARTISTdirect
Founded in 1994, Artistdirect, Inc. is an online digital media entertainment company. It owns several websites including Artistdirect.com, UBL.com and the Artistdirect Network...
at least $825,000. The breach included emails, a phone conversation, and a number of internal anti-piracy tools, including some source code.
Leaked e-mails
On September 14, 2007, 6,621 of the company's internal e-mailE-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
s were leaked, containing information contradicting previous statements and details of strategies intended to deceive copyright infringers. The emails link MediaDefender to projects that management previously denied involvement in. The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
and other media outlets suggest that the leak may confirm speculation that MiiVi.com was an anti-copyright infringement "honeypot
Honeypot (computing)
In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect, or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems...
" site. One e-mail suggests using the MiiVi client program to turn users' PCs into drones for MediaDefender's eMule
EMule
eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network...
spoofing activities. The leaked e-mails discuss responses to unexpected and negative press, and expose upcoming projects, problems in and around the office, Domino's pizza orders, and other personal information about employees. Beyond strategic information, the leak also exposed login information for FTP and MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
servers, making available a large library of MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
files likely including artists represented by MediaDefender's clients. The emails also revealed that MediaDefender probably was negotiating with the New York Attorney General's office to allow them access to information about users accessing pornographic material. As of September 15, 2007, there had been no official response from the company. However, evidence exists that MediaDefender had been employing both legal and illegal actions to remove copies of the leaked emails from their respective hosting sites. In addition to the usual cease-and-desist letters
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
from their legal department, IP addresses that are owned by MediaDefender were found to have been used in denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s against sites hosting the leaked emails.
The e-mails also revealed direction by MediaDefender founder Randy Saaf to have developer Ben Ebert attempt to eliminate the information about MiiVi from MediaDefender's Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
entry. Ebert responds in an email on the same day saying, "I will attempt to get all to miivi removed from wiki. I should easily be able to get It contested. We'll see if I can get rid of it."
Leaked phone conversation
On September 16, 2007, MediaDefender-Defenders released a 25 minute excerpt of a phone conversation between the New York Attorney General'sNew York State Attorney General
The New York State Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of New York. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government of New York.The current Attorney General is Eric Schneiderman...
office and MediaDefender as a torrent on The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
. MediaDefender-Defenders claims in information released with the phone conversation that they have infiltrated the "internals" of the company.
Leaked source code
On September 20, 2007, MediaDefender-Defenders released the source code of TrapperKeeper, MediaDefender's decoy systems on The Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
. A large chunk of MediaDefender's software was available by Bittorrent.
Revision3 controversy
Revision3 is an Internet television networkInternet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
which distributes video content legally through various means, including the BitTorrent protocol. During the Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
weekend in 2008, Revision3 came under a Denial of Service attack originating from MediaDefender IP addresses. The attack left the company's service inaccessible until mid-Tuesday the following week. Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback
Jim Louderback
James 'Jim' Louderback is the CEO of Revision3. He has had numerous jobs in media companies involved in technology, most notably with TechTV and editor-in-chief of PC Magazine...
accused MediaDefender of injecting its decoy files
Spoofing (anti-piracy measure)
Spoofing, or decoying, is the practice of inundating online networks with bogus or incomplete files of the same name in an effort to reduce copyright infringement on peer-to-peer file sharing networks....
into Revision3's BitTorrent service through a vulnerability
Vulnerability (computing)
In computer security, a vulnerability is a weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system's information assurance.Vulnerability is the intersection of three elements: a system susceptibility or flaw, attacker access to the flaw, and attacker capability to exploit the flaw...
, then automatically perpetrating the attack after Revision3 increased security.
Randy Saaf defended MediaDefender's actions by stating "Our systems were targeting a tracker not even knowing it was Revision3's tracker", adding that the denial-of-service attack resulted when "Revision3 changed some configurations" to their bittorrent tracker.
See also
- Copyright social conflict
- Cyberterrorism
- BayTSPBayTSPIrdeto Intelligence is a copyright enforcement company based in Los Gatos, California. Irdeto Intelligence was formed by CEO Mark M. Ishikawa and offers defensive services to owners of intellectual property concerned about potential unauthorized distribution through the Internet...
- MediaSentryMediaSentryMediaSentry was a United States company that provided services to the music recording, motion picture, television, and software industries for locating and identifying IP addresses that are engaged in the use of online networks to share material in a manner said organizations claim is in violation...
- Streisand effectStreisand effectThe Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
- Torrent poisoningTorrent poisoningTorrent poisoning is the act of intentionally sharing corrupt data or data with misleading file names using the BitTorrent protocol. This practice of uploading fake torrents is sometimes carried out by anti-piracy organisations as an attempt to prevent the peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted...
External links
- MediaDefender's Official Website
- Net2EZ owned by Media Defender
- "Leaked Media Defender e-mails reveal secret government project" - Arstechnica
- "MPAA Caught Uploading Fake Torrents" — TorrentFreak (IP addresses of fake torrents traced back to MediaDefender)
- "Anti-Piracy Gang Launches their own Video Download Site to Trap People" — TorrentFreak (The domain registration of a fake video upload/download service called miivi has been traced to MediaDefender.)
- Torrent Freak article about the 9/14/2007 Media Defender internal email leak
- P2P sites ridicule MediaDefender takedown notices in wake of e-mail leak
- Post of a list of leaked Programs.
- Torrentfreak's article on Media defender problems