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Ashcroft Targets Illicit Distribution Of Movies, Music
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:26 -0400
___ Dave Farber +1 412 726 9889 ..... Forwarded Message ....... From: Barry Ritholtz <ritholtz () optonline net> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 07:45:38 -0400 Subj: Ashcroft Targets Illicit Distribution Of Movies, Music Hey Dave, I find it hard to believe that this has become a priority for the DoJ in these times -- but it apparently has. We may not have captured OBL, but at least we stopped these kids from swapping files of Usher and Britney Spears! Barry L. Ritholtz Market Strategist Maxim Group britholtz () maximgrp com (212) 895-3614 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Big Picture: A blog of capital markets, geopolitics, with a dash of film! http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/ Ashcroft Targets Illicit Distribution Of Movies, Music http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109345404554600906,00.html By MARK WIGFIELD and ETHAN SMITH Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL August 26, 2004; Page B6 Attorney General John Ashcroft announced what he called the first federal law-enforcement action targeting distribution of copyrighted materials over so-called peer-to-peer networks. Mr. Ashcroft said five homes and one Internet-services provider, or ISP, were raided in a probe of networks organized to distribute massive quantities of copyrighted movies, music, software, games and other materials over the Internet. No charges have been filed, and Mr. Ashcroft wouldn't reveal the name of the ISP while the investigation continues. He said the five networks had made 45 terabytes of materials available for distribution, or material the equivalent of more than four times the size of the print collection of the Library of Congress. The networks consisted of individuals who, as a condition of participation, were required to make available for download as much as 100 gigabytes of material, Mr. Ashcroft said. One gigabyte is about the amount of space required to store 250 songs on a computer hard drive. Peer-to-peer, or P2P, software enables Internet users to download materials from other individuals' computers connected to the Internet. Popular peer-to-peer platforms include Grokster and Kazaa. Mr. Ashcroft noted that there are legal uses of file-sharing programs. According to an affidavit by an FBI special agent filed in support of the search warrant executed yesterday morning, the people whose homes were searched were members of a 7,000-member operation called the Underground Network. The network ran using freely available software called Direct Connect. The investigation leading to the search began in March. The affidavit alleges that 200 to 300 users were typically active on the Underground Network at any given time, trading movies, music and software, including Bruce Springsteen's "Greatest Hits" album, and the films "Cold Mountain" and "The Road to Perdition." An e-mail to the Underground Network site wasn't answered. Mr. Ashcroft's announcement came on the same day the Recording Industry Association of America brought copyright-infringement lawsuits against 744 people using a variety of peer-to-peer platforms to share music. The music industry has attributed a sharp decline in sales to file-sharing, but said traffic on one of the largest systems is down as a result of the trade group's decision to sue downloaders. Separately, the Justice Department is preparing to announce the results of a nationwide campaign against the purveyors of fraudulent e-mail "spam" that involves more than 100 arrests, search warrants, subpoenas and other law-enforcement actions, industry and law-enforcement officials said. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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