MediaDefender, Inc. (now Peer Media Technologies) was a company that fought copyright infringement that offered services designed to prevent alleged

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

using

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

distribution. They used unusual tactics such as flooding peer-to-peer networks with decoy files that tie up users' computers and bandwidth. MediaDefender was based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in the United States. As of March 2007, the company had approximately 60 employeesAnderson, Nate (March 18, 2007).
Peer-to-peer poisoners: A tour of MediaDefender
. Ars Technica. Retrieved on September 16, 2007. and used 2,000 servers hosted in California with contracts for 9

Gbit/s In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...

of bandwidth. These types of organizations are being hired to attempt to stymie peer-to-peer (P2P) traders through a variety of methods including posting fake files online and recording individuals who contribute copyrighted material, but also

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

to individuals using P2P networks. Clients include

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

, HBO, Paramount Pictures, and BMG. On August 1, 2005, the digital media entertainment company

ARTISTdirect ARTISTdirect is an American online digital media entertainment company. Overview Founded in 1994, it owns several websites, including artistdirect.com and artistdirectinterviews.com. These websites are a group of affiliate websites offering mul ...

announced that it had acquired MediaDefender for $42.5 million in cash. In May 2008, MediaDefender performed a distributed-denial-of-service attack on

Revision3 Revision3 was a San Francisco-based multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidiary of Discovery Digital Networks since 2012. The ...

, despite the fact that they were not hosting unauthorized materials. Jim Louderback, Revision3's CEO, charged that these attacks violated the Economic Espionage Act and the

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The law pro ...

. As of May 2008, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

was investigating the incident. In August 2009,

restructured MediaDefender and MediaSentry, creating Peer Media Technologies.

Miivi.com

In February 2007, MediaDefender launched a video sharing site called Miivi.com. On July 4, 2007, file-sharing news site

TorrentFreak __NOTOC__ TorrentFreak (TF) is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, as well as on copyright infringement and digital rights. The website was started in November 2005 by a Dutchma ...

alleged that Miivi.com was created to trap uploaders of copyrighted content.Anti-Piracy Gang Launches their own Video Download Site to Trap People
. July 4, 2007. TorrentFreak. Retrieved on September 17, 2007. The site's origins were discovered by a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

ger who looked up Miivi.com

domain registration Domain registration is the process of acquiring a domain name from a domain name registrar. History In 1993 the U.S. Department of Commerce, in conjunction with several public and private entities, created InterNIC to maintain a central databa ...

information. After the allegation was re-posted throughout the

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

, Miivi.com was shut down on July 4, 2007. In an interview with Ars Technica, chief executive Randy Saaf stated that "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".Cheng, Jacqui (July 6, 2007).
MediaDefender denies entrapment accusations with fake torrent site
. Ars Technica. Retrieved on September 16, 2007. MediaDefender blamed file-sharing groups such as

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute ma ...

for starting the story. Following MediaDefender's subsequent email leak, TorrentFreak alleged that MediaDefender's statement was revealed to be a deliberate falsehood.The Biggest Ever BitTorrent Leak: MediaDefender Internal Emails Go Public
. September 15, 2007. TorrentFreak. Retrieved on September 16, 2007. Saaf denied that MiiVi was "a devious product" and that the company aimed to entrap users, stating only that it was part of MediaDefender's "trade secrets." The

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

denied any involvement with MediaDefender. On September 14, 2007, internal emails from MediaDefender were leaked on to BitTorrent file sharing networks, which contradicted MediaDefender's claims of MiiVi being an "internal test site," revealing additional detailed

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

about the website and that the site was closed when the connection between it and MediaDefender became public knowledge. It was scheduled to be re-launched as www.viide.com, but has not yet been opened up to the public.

Leaked information

Beginning on September 14, 2007, MediaDefender experienced a security breach caused by a group of hackers led by high school student "Ethan". This group called themselves MediaDefender-Defenders. According to an SEC filing, this ultimately cost parent company

at least $825,000. The breach included emails, a phone conversation, and a number of internal anti-infringement tools, including some source code.

Leaked e-mails

On September 14, 2007, 6,621 of the company's internal

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

s were leaked, containing information contradicting previous statements and details of strategies intended to deceive copyright infringers. The emails link MediaDefender to projects that management previously denied involvement in. The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

and other media outlets suggest that the leak may confirm speculation that MiiVi.com was an anti-copyright infringement " honeypot" site.Veiga, Alex (September 18, 2007).
Hackers leak anti-piracy firm's e-mails
.

. Retrieved on September 19, 2007.Carr, Jim (September 18, 2007).
Stolen emails reveal anti-copyright infringement company's 'honeypot' strategy
". ''SC Magazine US''. Retrieved on September 19, 2007. One e-mail suggests using the MiiVi client program to turn users' PCs into drones for MediaDefender's

eMule eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. The distinguishing features of eMule are ...

spoofing activities. The leaked e-mails discuss responses to unexpected and negative press, and expose upcoming projects, problems in and around the office,

Domino's Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...

pizza orders, and other personal information about employees. Beyond strategic information, the leak also exposed login information for

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...

and

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...

servers, making available a large library of

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

files likely including artists represented by MediaDefender's clients. The emails also revealed that MediaDefender probably was negotiating with the New York Attorney General's office to allow them access to information about users accessing pornographic material. As of September 15, 2007, there had been no official response from the company. However, evidence exists that MediaDefender had been employing both legal and illegal actions to remove copies of the leaked emails from their respective hosting sites. In addition to the usual cease-and-desist letters from their legal department, IP addresses that are owned by MediaDefender were found to have been used in

denial-of-service attack In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host conn ...

s against sites hosting the leaked emails. The e-mails also revealed direction by MediaDefender founder Randy Saaf to have developer Ben Ebert attempt to eliminate the information about MiiVi from MediaDefender's

English Wikipedia The English Wikipedia is, along with the Simple English Wikipedia, one of two English-language editions of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was founded on January 15, 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition, and, as of , has the most arti ...

entry.Leaked Media Defender e-mails reveal secret government project
/ref> Ebert responds in an email on the same day saying, "I will attempt to get all to miivi removed from wiki. I should easily be able to get It contested. We'll see if I can get rid of it."

Leaked phone conversation

On September 16, 2007, MediaDefender-Defenders released a 25-minute excerpt of a phone conversation between the New York Attorney General's office and MediaDefender as a

torrent Torrent or torrents may refer to: * A fast flowing stream Animals * Torrent duck, a species of the family Anatidae * Torrent fish * Torrent frog, various unrelated frogs * Torrent robin, a bird species * Torrent salamander, a family of s ...

on The Pirate Bay. MediaDefender-Defenders claims in information released with the phone conversation that they have infiltrated the "internals" of the company.

Leaked source code

On September 20, 2007, MediaDefender-Defenders released the source code of TrapperKeeper, MediaDefender's decoy systems on The Pirate Bay. A large chunk of MediaDefender's

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

was available by Bittorrent.

Revision3 controversy

is an Internet television network which distributes video content legally through various means, including the BitTorrent protocol. During the

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

weekend in 2008, Revision3 came under a

Denial of Service In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connec ...

attack originating from MediaDefender IP addresses. The attack left the company's service inaccessible until mid-Tuesday the following week. Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback accused MediaDefender of injecting its decoy files into Revision3's BitTorrent service through a

vulnerability Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally." A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...

, then automatically perpetrating the attack after Revision3 increased security. Randy Saaf defended MediaDefender's actions by stating "Our systems were targeting a tracker not even knowing it was Revision3's tracker", adding that the denial-of-service attack resulted when "Revision3 changed some configurations" to their bittorrent tracker.MediaDefender Defends Revision3 SYN Attack
/ref>

References

External links

MediaDefender's Official Website

Net2EZ owned by Media Defender

- Arstechnica
"MPAA Caught Uploading Fake Torrents"
— ''TorrentFreak'' (IP addresses of fake torrents traced back to MediaDefender)
"Anti-Piracy Gang Launches their own Video Download Site to Trap People"
— ''TorrentFreak'' (The domain registration of a fake video upload/download service called ''miivi'' has been traced to MediaDefender.)
Torrent Freak article about the 9/14/2007 Media Defender internal email leak

* ttp://torrentfreak.com/mediadefender-anti-piracy-tools-leaked-070920/ Post of a list of leaked Programs.
Torrentfreak's article on Media defender problems
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mediadefender Copyright enforcement companies Cybercrime Defunct technology companies of the United States