Movie studios join attack on Pirate Bay
updated 01:30 pm EDT, Thu May 8, 2008
Film studios v. Pirate Bay
Movie studios are the latest group to launch a legal assault on Swedish BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, filings indicate. The Motion Picture Association, an international extension of the MPAA, has filed a 93kr million ($15.4 million) lawsuit against Pirate Bay, which it accuses of hosting illegal torrent trackers for movies such as The Pink Panther and Syriana, as well as 13 episodes of the TV show Prison Break. Damages are said to amount to between 222 and 261kr ($37 and $43) per movie, and 415kr ($68) for each Prison Break episode.
The MPA's lawfirm, MAQS, says that the damages are based on the lack of copy protection on the files, and their release before legal downloads or DVDs were available. The firm has also incorporated interest, which may continue to grow before a settlement or verdict is rendered.
Pirate Bay is also facing legal action from record labels, among them EMI, Sony BMG and Universal. The site's owners have generally been dismissive of charges however, as it has increasingly shifted hosting to "safe harbor" countries, and in any case it only provides tracking files rather than the pirated material itself.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
Loopholes, loopholes...
The site's name eliminates any doubt. The owners of the site generate revenue (and profit) through the sale of advertising, by offering access to content that does not belong to them. Providing torrent trackers for download, as opposed to hosting the files themselves, will only make for a lot of lawyers arguing over semantics. If Napster was shut down for only providing registration services for users who were exchanging their files on their own, nothing is different here.
Moving to jurisdictions where law couldn't touch them could potentially prolong their lives (I hear demonoid is back online). Eventually, the powerful lobbies of MPAA/RIAA will eventually get their way.
In developed world, many people really want to pay for a simple download (such as iTunes). In the developing world, however, all the Pirate Bays and Demonoids of the world are preparing new armies of audience, ready to be promoted into paying customers. Didn't Microsoft say they don't mind pirated Windows in the 3rd world, as long as they eventually "get them" a few years later?