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Media Defender denies MiiVi accusations

8 July 2007 19:19 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 9 comments

A few days ago, we reported that the fake torrent site MiiVi was down after it was discovered it was a front for the MPAA to catch would-be pirates.

The agency behind the site, Media Defender however, is denying that the site was set up as an entrapment scheme like many are calling it. MediaDefender went on to say that the story was being blown out of proportion by pro-torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay and TorrentFreak as a way to remove credibility from the company and its software.

The site Zeropaid, working on a tip from TPB, originally found out and released the information that Media Defender was behind the site, citing a "whois" record that clearly showed the organization as being owners of the site.
After the article hit, the whois record changed and now shows anonymous Domains by Proxy information.

Media Defender's Randy Saaf responded to the claims. "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," Saaf said. "It was just an oversight from that perspective. This was not an entrapment site, and we were not working with the MPAA on it. In fact, the MPAA didn't even know about it."

So then why did the company take down all its whois information? Because they were afraid of "people sending us spam." You read that right, spam.

The MPAA agreed with Media Defender's story, and added "the MediaDefender story is false. We have no relationship with that company at all."

What is really going on? More updates as they become available.

Source:
Arstechnica

Permalink to this article

MediaDefender's illegal tactics take down legal video site (29 May 2008)

MediaDefender stock plummets over 60 percent (25 December 2007)

The Pirate Bay starts "miivi.org" tracker (30 September 2007)

Embarrassing MediaDefender emails distributed on Bittorent (17 September 2007)

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Discuss this article!
al_he_79 (Newbie) 8 July 2007 19:47
I smell, I smell.... [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8 July 2007 19:48
armorthis (Inactive) 8 July 2007 19:49
f-ck the f------ MPAA [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8 July 2007 19:49
SSSJDanny (Junior Member) 8 July 2007 19:53
Im sorry for asking here but, Is There a list of Torrent Sites that have been caught, like torrentSpy etc.? [ + quote]
webe123 (Inactive) 8 July 2007 23:35
I just think it was the Media defender's lawyers, that told them how much trouble they could get into. I do NOT believe the story about "forgetting" to password protect a site like that! Nor do I believe it was not an entrapment site. It clearly WAS an entrapment site...otherwise they would have never bothered with changing the whois information. They got caught, plain and simple in creating an entrapment site. Now mabye companies will THINK TWICE, before they ever try this again. [ + quote]
kyo28 (Junior Member) 9 July 2007 1:23
From a legal point of view I believe this really is entrapment. It's like going to a guy on the street, offering him some drugs and after he bites, you yell for the cops saying he's just bought drugs. [ + quote]
craftyzan (Member) 9 July 2007 3:46
Originally posted by SSSJDanny: Im sorry for asking here but, Is There a list of Torrent Sites that have been caught, like torrentSpy etc.? Good question...something useful for Noobs out in the Torrent woods for the first time. [ + quote]
tefarko (Junior Member) 9 July 2007 6:52
hmmm... did anyone get a copy of their "download client"?... it would be proof enough of their intentions... [ + quote]
georgeluv (Member) 10 July 2007 11:06
they wernt trying to entrap people, that wouldnt even work all they could do is sue for lost revenue they would make 10 bucks on every lawsuit. im not sure the lawsuit would even fly, the users would have to be proven to know what they were doing was illegal, some companys offer loads of movies and tv shows online for free the burdon isnt on the users to diferentiate the real from the fake it would be too hard for the average user, this is the same reason why no one gets sued for just downloading only uploading. most likly they were using it for marketing/anti-piracy data collection, you know, seeing how many people use these types of sites and what movies they select so they could better focus their anti priacy efforts. (pssst... use www.filmzzz.com) [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 16 July 2007 22:42
These guys were sneaky in doing this and should be terminated for invasion of privacy. [ + quote]