[IP] MPAA Press Release on EliteTorrents takedown
Next stop China djf
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 25, 2005 6:59:47 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] MPAA Press Release on EliteTorrents takedown
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<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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