Anti-Piracy Gang Launches their own Video Download Site to Trap People
Written by Ernesto on July 04, 2007Media Defender, a notorious anti piracy gang working for the MPAA, RIAA and several independent media production companies, just launched their very own video upload service called “miivi.com”. The sole purpose of the site is to trap people into uploading copyrighted material, and bust them for doing so.
Media Defender is known for their shady tactics. Besides launching video upload services, they also trap people into downloading fake torrents so they can collect IP addresses, and send copyright infringement letters to ISPs.
Fortunately, most of the IPs of these fake BitTorrent trackers are already blocked by blocklist software like PeerGuardian. However, they still manage to collect the IP addresses of thousands of users who do fall for this trap.
And Now they try to do the same with their “fake” video download service. They have registered a new domain and launched a video upload / download site with a web 2.0-ish name: miivi.com. Miivi claims to offer hight speed downloads of blockbuster movies like “300” (don’t download), hereby luring people into downloading copyrighted content.
Apparently the cease and desist letters they send to P2P users and video sharing sites like YouTube and other are not enough. At the bottom of this article is a screenshot of the WHOIS info, it speaks for itself. No matter how wrong ‘piracy’ might seem to some people, this is NOT the way to fight it.
My suggestion is: upload and download as much legal content as you can, titled “THIS SITE IS A SCAM“, let’s see if their servers can handle the stress.
Update: Miivi is down now, seems like the plan worked….
Update: they changed their WHOIS info.
Previously: OiNK.me.uk is Dead, Long Live OiNK.cd
Next: The Pirate Bay Wants MediaDefender to Walk the Plank to Bankruptcy
50 Responses
Wow, what a bunch of asshats. That is really playing dirty.
Do you know if there are any BitTorrent trackers that are designed to trap people like this?
Did you really read the news ?
http://fenopy.com/fakefinder/fake.php?cmd=tracker
I just downloaded the software they have, after-all thats not illegal. However I love how they redirect to me to type in keywords, now I might of wanted to use this service for legal use, but with this it would download the illegal videos
“The MiiVi Downloading Queue Feature Auto Populates Your Queue
to gather your favorite vidoes automatically!”
Well, the site is already down. Not A long life for miivi.com
hmmm shouldn’t they be getting in trouble for hosting the content
But if they’re offering you downloadable content which they’re providing, doesn’t it make it legal?
Careful Randy Saaf of Mediadefender, you might have just created a legal bootleg of 300!
If it’s not the real 300, nothing is wrong.
Sneaky and underhanded. They work for the same people who have been stealing from film producers and artists for years. Why am I not surprised?
The website appears to already be down – it responds with a Bad Request error.
Heh, it looks like they already pulled it. Either that or the site got dugg into oblivion. :P
They were also using a .net of the same name previously.
An interesting note. a WHOIS query on the domain miivi.com no longer returns Media Defender. Now it returns “Miivi Inc.,” with “Chang, Jonathan” as the contact. The email addresses are @miivi.com.
Interestingly, the mailing address provided is 2461 santa monica blvd santa monica, California 90404. A quick check on this address traces it to a Popeye’s restaurant.
http://www.ilovesantamonica.com/Restaurants.htm
(use your browser’s Find Text function to locate the address)
pwned by digg.
“An interesting note. a WHOIS query on the domain miivi.com no longer returns Media Defender. Now it returns “Miivi Inc.,” with “Chang, Jonathan” as the contact. The email addresses are @miivi.com.”
Oh no! Using a false address is a violation of ICANN’s terms for registering a domain name. Well these are the same people who regularly break into consumers computers. They ignore that law. Why shouldn’t they ignore anything else.
For registering a false address report them to their ISP for this violation. The penalty is they forfeit the domain names immediately. They will be reauctioned. If any postal mail was sent in relaton to the false address, report them to U.S. Postal Inspectors who will prosecute them for mail fraud. Yes, they really do this!
Better check their other web site regsitration. Would be a shame if MediaDefender woke up with nothing more than a Myspace page.
Well Randy Saaf of Mediadefender. Soon you yourself may end up behind bars, but unlike Paris Hilton no one will care. Some of us may even laugh. You better bring your own soap, Randy, or start doing of those buttock exercises now.
Maybe we have to upload STEAL THIS FILM in as many variations as possible.
Which is worse. Pirates not paying for movies, or companies ripping off studios and giving them bad publisity?
haha, lol’ed! Site is down, dns records purged. seems as they stopped the project miivi immediatly
Why is no one saying the obvious???
There is a thing called ENTRAPMENT… And I’m pretty sure this is it…
“entrapment”
“the practice of causing someone to do something they would not usually do by tricking them”
So how could any of their claims be valid in a court of law?
I was curious about their new information. There are quite a few matches for 2461 Santa Monica Blvd. The first I stumbled across was Popeye’s Chicken, but I thought was worth noting, but I suspect it is this one:
Beverly Hills Mail Box
2461 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-286-0500
Their phone number, 310-954-3300, according to intelius is unassigned (which means it was activated recently or intelius is very slow updating). The most I could find out is the number is owned by MCI and is a land line.
@Jackson. They are only in violation if there isn’t a company called Miivi, Inc. Given how cheap company’s are to register, I wouldn’t put it past them to have created it. However, at this point, it is kind of like closing the door to the barn after all the horse got out and the rest of the barn burned down.
Still, does anyone know how to verify a company exists? I assume it would be like the California Business Registry (or some such).
@Garett, it’s worth checking out all the same. You never know where the trail might lead.
Also: Wonder how Warner Bros and the producers of the movie “300″ will feel on learning that Media Defender is giving away copies of their movie? Imagine files named “300 – The Complementary MediaDefender Version.DivX.avi” spreading all over the net. That’d make Warner Bros. really mad!
Yay! Great work by putting this site down! Once it’s online I’m going to upload lots of stuff, LOTS! :)
Now that they are using godaddy. Why dont we report them to godaddy for illegal activities!?!?!
are they stupid?
when will people learn, you can’t beat techies at their own game!
Sounds like entrapment! Getting you to commit a crime while not actually committing a crime. It would be a tough sell in court.
Court documents list Media Defender as an AGENT of the MPAA, so does their content mean that it is officially being released in this form to the public?
This is entrapment, BUT, since defending such a claim in court would cost tens of thousands, people will still settle out of court and plead guilty.
http://bulletin.hmc.edu/archives/2005/Summer05/randy_saaf98.html
@The Dude: “Now that they are using godaddy. Why dont we report them to godaddy for illegal activities!?!?!”
GoDaddy are very strict on correct ownership title, address, phone number and eMail. They will revoke an account instantly for any of these things being wrong. There are no second chances: They reauction the name. Go to the GoDaddy WHOIS website for the offending domain names. There is a link at the bottom to report them. Click on it, and watch Randy Saaf and his MediaDefender terrrists run for the hills.
@Just: “Court documents list Media Defender as an AGENT of the MPAA, so does their content mean that it is officially being released in this form to the public?”
Seems unlikely Warner Bros would authorize MediaDefender freely giving away copies of the movie 300. If they did authorize it, have they waived their copyright on 300? If so enjoy “300: The Free MediaDefender Edition”
@Drake that’s priceless!!!!! It’s a photo of Randy Saff of MediaDefender who registered the domain name before they changed it to an bogus alias:
http://bulletin.hmc.edu/archives/2005/Summer05/randy_saaf98.html
Better hope this little charade didn’t violate any felonies Andy. Mail Fraud? Piracy? (You did give away copies of Warner Bros movies without their permission!) You’ve certainly broke ICANN regulations. I hope they revoke your domains.
Don’t worry Andy. You might be a slight man with a weasley face, but in prison it is not your face they will be interested in.
How do you add Poaked’s bad tracker list to a IP filter?
@Crafty: “How do you add Poaked’s bad tracker list to a IP filter?”
PeerGuardian and BlueTack.co.uk will add it eventually so you’ll get it there if not already. Would be better too if all public trackers uses the IP block lists too. Go to a public tracker and start downloading something. Within a few minutes AP2P companies will be banging away at your machine. How do they get your details so quickly? They must be getting them off the public trackers.
Um… not sure if this still the case since that website doesn’t seem to work at the moment. Possibly they’ve changed URLs?
this is too weird
anyone who downloaded the miivi app please send it to me so i can analyze it
if you have any screen grabs, send ‘em along too!
revcolt81@gmail.com
Greetings and salutations. Being a retired police officer trained as a paralegal, I can assure you that it is not indeed entrapment, unless you can prove in court that you would not normally have committed the crime were it not for the POLICE (Or their direct agent).
Since RIAA and those folks are relying on civil court by sueing
you instead of charging you with a crime, it would not mean a thing in court, in fact the court would not even allow such evidence since it is totally irrelevant in civil matters.
Civil court is totally different then anything you have seen on TV or anywhere else unless you have been there, then there is Administrative law where you have NO RIGHTS whatsoever this is the scary one and I can see where, should the Attorney General have his way, it could come to pass that all copywriter violations will be heard in Administrative court before an ALJ (Administrative Law Judge) and the folks charged will have no right to remain silent, or any other right for that matter since you don’t have any rights in administrative law.
At any rate glad to see this travesty of justice is down hope it is out for the long count
i cant believe so many people missed this
“they also trap people into downloading fake torrents ”
if its a fake torrent then youve done nothing wrong
example,
you download what you believe to be the new transformers movie, when played, only shows a blank picture that just grey, no sound no nothing.
this is a fake file, and since this is not the copyrighted material then downloading it wasent illegal since you dont have a copy of the actual copyrighted work. they have nothing on you, any cease and dissest letters can be viewed as harrassment.
these are easily fought in court, or simply and better still…ignored since no laws were broken
[quote comment="128136"]Why is no one saying the obvious???
There is a thing called ENTRAPMENT… And I’m pretty sure this is it…
“entrapment”
“the practice of causing someone to do something they would not usually do by tricking them”
So how could any of their claims be valid in a court of law?[/quote]
I was wondering when someone was going to notice that it was entrapment. It doesn’t matter what they do to stop piracy. If people want it they will find away to download it.
[quote]There is a thing called ENTRAPMENT… And I’m pretty sure this is it…
“entrapment”
“the practice of causing someone to do something they would not usually do by tricking them”
So how could any of their claims be valid in a court of law?[/quote]
What a load of crap entrapment like you quoted “doing something which they would not usually do”
but then why would they be doing it if they don’t usually do it?
It’s not like some innocent person will find the site and know where to get a copy of a pirated movie and then upload it on this site is it?
To be entrapment the jizz stains would have to supply the movie aswell or a means to get the movie!
F00k em anyway i’m waiting for the bastards to knock on my door so i can piss on their heads and if they’re there long enough and my aim is true then i’d take a dump on their heads also or even a dump and piss at the same time
skagman:
It’s entrapment because they are ENCOURAGING you to break a law, and behaving as if it’s ok to do so.
If you had no idea about copyright law or the legality of what you were doing when you visited this site, you would think ‘Oh! cool!’ because this website implies that it’s fine to do so and advertises as much, where the founders are setting you up for lawsuits for copyright infringement.
It’s the same as a police man encouraging you to steal something then when you do, they immediately arrest you for it. If it wasn’t being promoted or encouraged, it may never have happened.
“Legally speaking, entrapment occurs whenever a police officer or other government agent deceives an innocent person into committing a crime he or she had no prior intention of committing.”
Entrapment is done by law enforcement personnel or government agents not by record companies and their affiliates. Its fine if you want to continue to refer to this as entrapment, but don’t expect the defense to hold up in a court of law.
Randy Shaaf
heh, you were right all along…
Yipee ka yay MFCKR’s may u burn in Hell!
Im sure Skag knows what hes talkin bout
Isn’t that entrapment? And isn’t entrapment illegal?[quote comment="128136"]Why is no one saying the obvious???
There is a thing called ENTRAPMENT… And I’m pretty sure this is it…
“entrapment”
“the practice of causing someone to do something they would not usually do by tricking them”
So how could any of their claims be valid in a court of law?[/quote]
Exactly! It’s like when cops dress up as prostitutes, then walk up to someone and offer them sex. When the person says yes, they bust them (which is illegal). It is the same thing here. If you were randomly offered a free 300 download at high speed, why wouldn’t you take it?
[quote comment="129698"]i cant believe so many people missed this
“they also trap people into downloading fake torrents ”
if its a fake torrent then youve done nothing wrong
example,
you download what you believe to be the new transformers movie, when played, only shows a blank picture that just grey, no sound no nothing.
this is a fake file, and since this is not the copyrighted material then downloading it wasent illegal since you dont have a copy of the actual copyrighted work. they have nothing on you, any cease and dissest letters can be viewed as harrassment.
these are easily fought in court, or simply and better still…ignored since no laws were broken[/quote]
Bad logic. If you download a file you THINK is say, 300, and it turns out that it isn’t, technically, you still went through the process of downloading 300. The thought that you can’t be charged for illegal downloading simply because it wasn’t the actual 300 is silly.
By the way, nice name. I’m a Castlevania man myself.
I could be wrong, but isn’t entrapment itself illegal?
bbbbbnbn
ضشصثيصضث
Don’t bother with 2461 Santa Monica Blvd., that address encompasses several businesses. There is a Popeyes, Quiznos, and most notably “AIM Mail Center No. 4″. It is basically just a PO Box for their legit and (alleged) illegit names.
In case you’d like to have written correspondence with MediaDefender’s CEO Randy Saaf, or its President Octavio Hererra, you’re more likely to reach them at MediaDefender’s registered executive office:
1601 Cloverfield Blvd, Ste. 400 South, Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 956-3300
That also happens to be the registered address of MediaDefender’s parent company, ArtistDirect, Inc.
While you’re writing, maybe you’d like to drop a line to AD’s CEO Jonathan Diamond, or Corporate Controller Rene Rousselet?
I would not be suprised if WHOIS started showing sites in the names of their consulting affiliates and/or shareholding companies (if that’s even possible), like WNT Consulting Group LLC, WNT07 Holdings LLC, etc…
Alucard wrote:
i cant believe so many people missed this
“they also trap people into downloading fake torrents ”
if its a fake torrent then youve done nothing wrong
example,
you download what you believe to be the new transformers movie, when played, only shows a blank picture that just grey, no sound no nothing.
this is a fake file, and since this is not the copyrighted material then downloading it wasent illegal since you dont have a copy of the actual copyrighted work. they have nothing on you, any cease and dissest letters can be viewed as harrassment.
these are easily fought in court, or simply and better still…ignored since no laws were broken
Bad logic. If you download a file you THINK is say, 300, and it turns out that it isn’t, technically, you still went through the process of downloading 300. The thought that you can’t be charged for illegal downloading simply because it wasn’t the actual 300 is silly.
By the way, nice name. I’m a Castlevania man myself.
Your logic is incredibly flawed.
It doesn’t matter what someone says you think you were doing. I can offer to buy “pot” off someone and they sell me oregano. If a cop comes along to arrest me for buying pot, it won’t hold up since an illegal sale never happened. You need the evidence which would be the copy of 300 downloaded and on your computer. Since it isn’t there and was never downloaded then it means nothing. I might have a shareware bowling game on my computer titled “300″. Considering your logic, I could be arrested for having that?
Try again sparky.
As far as checking the State of California Business Search, (official Corp & LLC registrar for the State of CA) look here — http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/list.html
As of 4/11/08 nothing with Miivi in it is listed as a Corp or LLC.
Tisk, tisk — they couldn’t even afford the $85 to file an LLC in California.
okay, first comment / posting of this story said " they are uploading 300, but they are realy nothing or just rubbish once we download them and open" NOT REALLY the movie 300!!!!! so them ripping studios off is out guys sorry….
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