Rich Fiscus
17 Sep 2007 6:40
MediaDefender, the company caught offering virus laden movie downloads, presumably on behalf of their client MPAA, has been embarrassed again when internal emails detailing the company's operations became available via Bittorent after an employee apparently forwarded them to his Gmail account. The worst part for the company, not to mention the MPAA, is that the emails directly contradict company statements about their ill-advised, and ill-fated MiiVi site, which was taken down after reports of its MediaDefender/MPAA affiliation.
In a text file distributed with the download, a group calling themselves MediaDefender-Defenders claims responsibility for releasing the emails, saying "we hope this is enough to create a viable defense to the tactics used by these companies."
When the story originally broke, MediaDefender's position was that the site was created purely for internal company use and that any distribution of viruses to Bittorent users' computers was unintentional, a story very few people believed. With the release of these emails all doubt about their dishonesty has been removed. They clearly show that not only was MediaDefender intentionally offering their torrents to the public, but they were also looking for ways to promote the site while hiding its affiliation with the company.
Apparently MediaDefender employees didn't learn their lesson after the MiiVi debacle either. The emails include discussion about what would be required to re-launch the site with ties to MediaDefender once again hidden. Another email indicated that the re-launch was underway under the domain name www.viide.com, which was described at that time as being completely locked down while the "look and feel" was being revamped. One developer remarked "I'm not sure if you guys are planning on going live with the Viide domain name... but in case you are... you might want to remove all references of Miivi on the homepage of viide.com before it gets Googled or someone public comes across it."
MediaDefender employees aren't the only ones who will likely have to answer questions about the emails either. Emails to and from representatives of the New York Attorney General's office are included indicating a plan to share P2P data with the agency, and indicating that the high ranking officials were involved. Given that the MediaDefender's operation of BitTorrent sites is at best ethically questionable, and at worst illegal, it will be interesting to see what New York officials have to say about it.
The emails show an incredible amount of arrogance about the emergence of stories on sites like Afterdawn, with one saying "So far the story has only been on techie, geek web sites where everybody already hates us. If the story stays on these sites, we should let it die." A response to that email stated "Truth is I don't give a crap about most of this shit."
Source: Ars Technica