FC: Correction: MPAA already managed to shut down illicit movie site

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[While I was catching up on email, I inadvisedly sent out the previous 
Politech message (http://www.politechbot.com/p-03635.html) without checking 
for followup stories first. That led to a whole lot of responses saying, 
nope, film88.com was already offline. --Declan]

---

From: "Albert Koellner" <crajk () cryogen com>
Organization: -
To: declan () well com
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 17:47:02 +0200
Subject: Re: FC: MPAA tries to shut down illicit movie site -- based in Iran

On 10 Jun 2002 at 7:55, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> [Next steps?

The movie's over for Film88.com
By Stefanie Olsen
Special to ZDNet News
June 6, 2002, 4:20 PM PT

Hollywood dodged a second bullet in a burgeoning battle
over online film distribution Thursday, quickly shutting
down an Iran-based Web site that had sold access to
copyrighted films over the Internet for $1 apiece.

Tehran-based Film88.com registered its Web site in April,
and the company had briefly operated a video-on-demand site
renting a long list of Hollywood hits such as "Star Wars"
for viewing on PCs. Though Film88.com was being operated
from a country with unfriendly U.S. relations, its content
ran from servers based in the Netherlands. The MPA, the
international arm of the Motion Picture Association of
America, worked with its Internet service provider in the
Netherlands to turn the site off. ISPs in the Netherlands
recognize international intellectual-property laws.
[...]
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-933598.html

---

From: hjmoyer () acsworld net (Herbert Moyer)
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: MPAA tries to shut down illicit movie site -- based in Iran
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 11:52:26 -0400

After reading this I went to the film88.com site and apparently they decided
to shut down service as the following message appears now:

=====================

Dear Valued Users and Geeks,

We wish to announce that due to the following factors, we shall cease the
operation of film88.com:-

1. There has been many technical complaints during our trial run. We are
satisfied with some technical results but feel that we have a duty to find
ways to resolve technical complaints before providing such service. We shall
be publishing our technical results soon and open for public discussion for
the benefit of everyone on our website.

2. We have made clear many times that we are not pirates. We have proposed
to major studios in Hollywood to pay 30% of our movie rental price as
copyright compensation. This represents a huge percentage from our gross
profit but we feel that a balance between innovation and copyright
compensation is important. However, Hollywood has reacted negatively. We
have to evaluate this issue. Perhaps we should look for movies outside
Hollywood but we hope that Hollywood will some day offer such service.
Perhaps we should wait for the development of "Statutory Licence" for the
movie industry similar to the Statutory Licence for the music industry in
US.

3. Some journalists have given us fair comments while others drag us into
politics. We have stated clearly that we are not involved in politics (Iran
or elsewhere). What happen to the fundamental concept of Internet of being
borderless and not knowing any nationality and race? We are actually more
keen in technical comments/reviews and to resolve the copyright issue.

We have no plans at the moment but the innovation must go on.....

We wish to apologize to all users, Geeks, our service providers and
Hollywood, and hope that they will accept our apology for inconvenience
caused, if any.

We can be contacted at film88 () hongkong com.

Thank you.

Film88.com


==================== 




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