MPAA Press Release on EliteTorrents takedown

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Next stop  China  djf

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: May 25, 2005 6:59:47 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] MPAA Press Release on EliteTorrents takedown
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


<http://mpaa.org/MPAAPress/2005/2005_05_25b.doc>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:            Wednesday, May 25, 2005

ILLEGAL BITTORRENT SITE THAT CARRIED STAR WARS IS SHUT DOWN

Feds Squash Elite Torrents’ Illegal On-Line Movie Swapping Operation

Los Angeles - - The U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security  
today announced that they have shut down one of the world’s largest  
BitTorrent websites, Elite Torrents.  Carrying out what is known as  
Operation D-Elite, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and  
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed search warrants  
against prominent members in Elite Torrents’ membership.  Elite  
Torrents was one of the first peer to peer networks to post an  
illegal copy of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith before  
the movie officially opened in theaters last Thursday.

“Today’s actions are bad news for Internet movie thieves and good  
news for preserving the magic of the movies,” said Motion Picture  
Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) President and CEO Dan Glickman.   
“Shutting down illegal file swapping networks like Elite Torrents is  
an essential part of our fight to stop movie thieves from stealing  
copyrighted materials.  We hope and fully expect that people will  
spend this Memorial Day weekend sharing the motion picture experience  
with their families and not stealing movies from the Internet.”

Elite Torrents received 8.5 million hits a day and was frequented by  
over 100,000 users daily.  The site posted several thousand movie  
titles including House of Wax, Kingdom of Heaven, Unleashed, Monster- 
in-Law, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Kicking and  
Screaming.  It also carried many television shows including the full  
seasons of “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost”.  Operation D-Elite is  
being conducted jointly by ICE and the FBI as part of the Computer  
and Technology Crime High Tech Response Team ("CATCH") which is a San  
Diego task force of specially trained prosecutors and law enforcement  
officers who focus on high-tech crime.  Federal and state member  
agencies of CATCH include ICE, the FBI, the Department of Justice,  
the San Diego District Attorney's Office, San Diego Police  
Department, the San Diego Sheriff's Department, and San Diego County  
Probation.  The Operation was coordinated and will be prosecuted by  
the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property  
Section, with the assistance and support of Computer Hacking and  
Intellectual Property (CHIP) coordinators in San Diego and U.S.  
Attorneys' Offices in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania,  
Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice  
and current Senior Vice President for Worldwide Anti-Piracy at MPAA  
John Malcolm said "I applaud the work of ICE, the FBI, CATCH and the  
San Diego Computer and Technology Crime High Tech Response Team for  
close coordination on Operation D-Elite.  Their hard work in pursuit  
of these movie thieves will help preserve jobs in the entertainment  
industry and protect the quality of movies for everyone.  Protecting  
the movies means protecting American ideas."

The MPAA has been successful in bringing down more than 90% of the  
BitTorrent type sites it has filed lawsuits against.  Earlier this  
year, LokiTorrent was put out of the business of facilitating illegal  
movie swapping.   In early May, the MPAA brought lawsuits against six  
new sites focused largely on facilitating the illegal swapping of  
television shows.  Four of those six sites have already shut down,  
including the very popular  HYPERLINK "http://www.shuntv.net/"; http:// 
www.shuntv.net/ and   HYPERLINK "http://www.btefnet.net/"; http:// 
www.btefnet.net/.  The MPAA will continue its efforts to work with  
governments and law enforcement officials to shut down BitTorrent  
sites across the world from Sacramento to Stockholm.

Glickman said that the MPAA estimates that the film industry lost  
approximately $3.5 billion to movie piracy in 2004, a total that does  
not include losses due to illegal file sharing online. According to a  
Smith Barney study, that number is expected to jump to $5.4 billion  
in 2005.  By deeply cutting into revenues, movie piracy limits the  
choices for consumers at the box office.  Sixty percent of all movies  
never recoup their production and marketing costs which average well  
over $100 million.  Piracy also hurts the hundreds of thousands of  
individuals, whose jobs depend on a vital movie industry, including  
sound and lighting technicians, carpenters, and theatre and video  
store employees.

About the MPAA:
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) serves as the  
voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and  
television industries from its offices in Los Angeles and Washington,  
D.C. These members include: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution; Metro- 
Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures  
Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal  
Studios from Universal City Studios; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

# # #


For more information:
MPAA Los Angeles
Kori Bernards
Anne Caliguiri
(818) 995-6600

MPAA Washington, DC
John Feehery
Gayle Osterberg
(202) 293-1966
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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