MediaDefender Secretly Sells Porn to P2P Users
Written by Ernesto on September 20, 2008MediaDefender is widely known for their anti-piracy operations, spoofing and decoying on file-sharing networks for the entertainment industry. The company is doing more than that though, as we recently found out that adult affiliate programs were a significant source of income for them too.
When we posted an article on the Miivi project, Mediadefender CEO Randy Saaf wrote to his colleagues: “This is really fucked.” His response became public after thousands of internal emails from the company leaked on BitTorrent last year.
The emails exposed some of the innermost secrets of the anti-piracy outfit, and now another one is about to be revealed. One of the things we’ve learned already is that polluting file-sharing networks is a profitable business. MediaDefender received $4,000 to protect a music album and $2,000 for a single track. Movies were even more expensive, as they got $3.6 million from a large studio to protect just 4 movies.
The money they got from the entertainment industry must not have been enough though. We recently discovered that Mediadefender had (or has) some interesting side projects – selling access to adult sites. It makes sense. What better way to make cash on the Internet than from porn, especially if you have the knowledge and equipment to spam file-sharing networks with files that redirect people to your site.
From the leaked internal emails we’ve now learned something that wasn’t covered before. MediaDefender was spamming Limewire and other file-sharing networks with thousands of porn related files, trying to convert P2P users into paying porn subscribers. Here’s a quote from one of the emails MediaDefender’s Ben Grodsky sent to some of his colleagues:
One of the theories I’ve had about why the LimeWire redirects sell so many porn subscriptions is because one basically can’t get porn on old versions of LimeWire because our popups and spoofs overwhelm the user.
In the same email, Adult Friend Finder was mentioned as one of the affiliate programs they were working with, and probably made a lot of cash from. This is confirmed by another email, where they discuss the conversion rates:
Adult Friend Finder converts 1 in 2000 on LimeWire. If we want more users, Dylan’s eDonkey messages would get us a lot of Europeans that are a little bit older crowd….
MediaDefender also used LimeWire to promote their infamous Miivi project. In one of the emails they discuss how they can drive more traffic to Miivi, and redirect Limewire users to searches on Miivi:
Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson ARE in the system. Some of these are on the PM2 Data Collection owner sending traffic to our porn site. Any ones sending traffic to our porn site (www.enterallsites.com), you can switch over to the MiiVi links that Colin indicated below.
What’s interesting about this last email is that they don’t only use Adult Friend Finder, but they have their very own porn site, enterallsites.com. Other emails show that this site was advertised by MediaDefender on Limewire and eDonkey too.
It looks like porn was big business for MediaDefender, and we’re curious whether their stock holders are aware of this, since it is never mentioned in any of their financial reports. Thus far, the adult revenue stream has never been mentioned. Nevertheless, traffic reports from Alexa and Compete show that the active advertising stopped directly after the emails leaked September last year.
We assume that MediaDefender stopped advertising their porn projects on LimeWire and other file-sharing networks after the emails leaked, in an attempt to avoid more bad press. They did the same with their Miivi advertising after that project was uncovered. Nevertheless, even without the porn connection being out in the open, their stock price dropped to less than $0.01.
It is worth mentioning that while MediaDefender was selling pron subscriptions to thousands of file-sharers, they were also working with the New York Attorney General to track down child porn downloaders. Nothing wrong with that of course, but we raised our eyebrows when one of MediaDefender’s employees found a suspicious file on The Pirate Bay, and said: “I’m trying to download it now from a dedicated server, but it isn’t finding any peers.”
Today, more than a year after the MediaDefender email leak, enterallsites.com is still up and running. Several other adult domains also owned by the company are still redirected to the site as well. With Piracy and Porn, it must be a great working for MediaDefender.
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54 Responses
Jeez what a trainwreck this company is
Assholes
These guys are utter fooking morons.
http://www.fetchmp3.com
J.
Ty America, where i live.
/me thinks it’s time to move.
wow, that is pretty damn funny. Good thing they are all burning in their own hell now :)
k, ty 4 da info!
Rock bottom!
lol mediaDefender is now like one of those evil cartoonish bad companies- all that’s missing is a bald fat boss with moustach and a monocle that constantly has a white fluffy cat in his hands.
They sound like cow boys.
This money is being used to pay prostitutes to suck on the private parts of some politicians, mainly to adapt some anti piracy shit.
Lower than a snakes belly….
Business is why commercial pornography is trash. When money enters into it, it becomes no more meaningful than prostitution. The same goes even if it is without sex – the whole copyrighted commercial culture is one big prostitution.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/
The Mediadefender crew have shown repeatedly that they are morally bankrupt, so for them to be in the pornography business should come as no surprise.
In its attack on P2P, the entertainment industry has been crying from the mountaintop that P2P networks are exposing children to pornography.
It’s ironic to learn that their own business colleagues are the culprits supplying the porn that they complain so much about.
As the gold medal for the most fucked up company goes to……
Are capitalism, isn’t it great? isn’t it all worth fighting for?
We’ll sell our own granny, just so we can afford to buy someone else’s…
Anyways to point, this just takes the p***. I can’t believe how desperate a company can act to make a quick buck. God bless the guy who hacked their email systems and helped prove to the world how crumy this guys are.
lol comment number 8.
If there were an “Assholes of the Internet” award, MediaDefender would take first place.
In their own pathetic version of “2 girls 1 cup” there’ve been pissing in the punch bowl and then passing it off as expensive Kombucha, while making money on both ends.
The radio jockeys from LoveLine in LA also peddle their porn. Check out a show one of these days and listen to the amount Redtube suggestions from their dirty mouths. And the Ad Council sponsors those jokes. Think of the children.
Hey guys, you’re being too harsh. I’m into hard-to-find specialty porn; the only thing that gets me off is watching anti-piracy companies getting %&*$ up the ass by their own stupidity. MediaDefender is really the leader in providing such rare porn.
I’m really looking forward to their next movie, it’s supposed to be about corporate bankruptcy. It gets me hot just thinking about it.
bs!
,
Oh noes, they have a legal porn site? The bastards? Seriously, this isn’t news.
Hilarious. These guys are jokes. Great article, Ernesto.
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“We assume that MediaDefender stopped advertising their porn projects on LimeWire and other file-sharing networks after the emails leaked, in an attempt to avoid more bad press.”
Or because they weren’t reporting the income to the IRS.
“Oh noes, they have a legal porn site? The bastards? Seriously, this isn’t news.”
A so called ethical company, backed by multi-billion dollar companies, to spam p2p users for porn. Sounds like news to me.
Legal or not legal, they did not include it on their reports – so they can be sued for tax evasion.
Oh my gosh…..
So what. gotta go where the money is and there is still money in porn I guess. I am surprised because there is so much FREE stuff now days.
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
life’s too short for softcore
filthyrichmond.blogspot.com
That a bunch of LOSERS are all these assholes from ‘media defender’
This is great. I’m gonna need a whole lot of popcorn.
The corporate corruption of the “good” guys on the one hand, coupled with their moralistic campaigns against us average Joes, just makes me want to download more. And I will.
I like how you said the word “pron” in the one of the last paragraphs. That was awesome.
This is really pathetic.
Sue them for tax evasion, drag their asses more into the soil.
NastyBedazzler wrote:
“I like how you said the word “pron” in the one of the last paragraphs. That was awesome.”
Me 2! That’s a code-word for pronunciation practice in the English as a Second Language Industry.
[Class Scene]
OK, Class. Let’s Practice. Listen and Repeat. Por. No. Gra. Phy. 4 syllables. Everyone, together. Por. No. Gra. Phy. Repeat. LOUDER! Turn off your bloody mobile phone, Jorge. Por…
Seriously check your spelling. Its not good to have a article with misspellings, you loose credibility.
Thanks for this article… if anyone ever finds themselves in court defending themselves against unsubstanciated filesharing accusations, they have everything they need to make a great legal defence right here in your archives.
Long live torrentfreak :-D
Chuts, Madarchods, Bhosads
what else would you expect? every company is just in it for themselves.
http://www.everythingsucky.com/
what’s wrong with pr0n made by adults for adults?
Hollywood is the home of the USA pr0n industry
nobody here is acting prudish and
… claiming a false moral high ground, are they?
“Seriously check your spelling. Its not good to have a article with misspellings, you loose credibility.”
Brilliant.
You have a go at the article yet you make four or five mistakes in two sentences.
As for media defender, this is a great news for anyone who is sued based on their evidence. The defendant can show the judge they are P2P spammers and tax avoiders and the evidence will probably be thrown out.
“”Seriously check your spelling. Its not good to have a article with misspellings, you loose credibility.”"
Its lose, not loose you retard. If you’re going to be a grammar nazi, at least learn how to spell yourself.
@37 ^^
Who cares?
Who cares.
torrentfr3ak only wants to have visitors about this stolen w0rdpress source code.
controversial
p2p users dont buy porn. they just get it.
You never stop the progress of human greed and moral bakrupty!
I am happy that the curent entairtainment industry will die soon. Soon Univers-Sale Britney Slute and others Madona craps will be just few bad memories.
I only pray for the day I come across Randy Saaf on the street. I think Octavio could use a tuneup too.
@44 +1
You are wrong, enterallsites.com doesn’t belong to Mediadefender, it belongs to RK Netmedia, an adult sponsor, Mediadefender just promote this site to get a comission for the adult sponsor, as any other adult site does.
enterallsites.com is a promo from nastydollars.com, NOT from Mediadefender
So now we get to see what happens, in that old cliche; “burning both ends of the wick”. When they meet in the middle, will it fizzle, or explode? brb, let me get the popcorn, there’s gonna be a good show here…
@46 “”torrentfr3ak only wants to have visitors about this stolen w0rdpress source code.”"
Stolen? You’re more of a retard than the douchebag that couldn’t spell lose.
http://wordpress.org/about/gpl/
enterallsites is just an affiliate page for nastydollars
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