Slacker Uprising BitTorrent Takedown Sent to DNS Provider
Written by enigmax on October 02, 2008After Michael Moore encouraged everyone to download his latest movie ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free and do what they like with it, lawyers working for him have sent a takedown requestto a DNS company, for a torrent of the movie to be removed from BTJunkie. The problem? Well, several as it so happens.
When Michael Moore released his latest movie, Slacker Uprising, he made it clear that not only would the movie be completely free, but he also wanted everyone to “email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone”. However, there was one rule – this generous offer from Moore would only apply to people living in the United States and Canada.
As we reported earlier, the decision to use BitTorrent for facilitating distribution of the movie made a bit of a mockery of the limitations of Moore’s offer, since using The Pirate Bay’s tracker sent the movie worldwide. So, even for a completely free movie, it seemed inevitable that the legal profession would get involved at some point, it was just a question of time.
It didn’t take long. In a letter dated September 25th, lawyers representing Westside Productions LLC, owner of the Slacker Uprising copyright sprang into action, demanding the removal of a torrent linking to the movie. However, they managed to make a novice error. Instead of contacting the host of the torrent site in question, the Swedish-hosted BTJunkie, they actually sent the US copyright takedown request (email & fedex) to their DNS provider, easyDNS.
easyDNS are based in Canada and, just like BTJunkie in Sweden, are not subject to the laws of the United States, although most lawyers don’t seem to understand this. Furthermore, since easyDNS aren’t even BTJunkie’s host, they are in no position to do anything about the torrent anyway.
Mark Jeftovic, a co-founder of easyDNS wrote: “But really, come on folks, please tell us that isn’t the basis for this take down request. Anybody with half a clue knows the net doesn’t work like that. In any case, I’ve sent them our standard ‘we’re not the web host, we’re just the lowly DNS service’, but I did point out this seeming contradiction in Michael Moore’s message vs his lawyer’s actions.”
Now that the lawyers managed to get a grasp of the role of a DNS server, they have withdrawn the complaint against easyDNS. They state that the problem is due to the fact that the infringing .torrent was hosted outside of the US and Canada, a situation which for some reason is unacceptable to their client and a ‘problem’ worth spending large sums of money on to remedy. Let’s be clear – no amount of money will solve this issue and it is absolutely absurd to even try.
“I’ve replied that they [the lawyers] should know it is highly impractical to attempt to impose geographical constraints on otherwise freely available files,” said Mark at easyDNS, “but I guess they want to give it a shot.”
Meanwhile, the admin of BTJunkie told us he has not yet received a takedown request.
Mo(o)re money down the drain….
Previously: EA Downplays Spore’s DRM Triggered Piracy Record
Next: “Saw” Director Recruits ‘Army’ to Post Fake Torrents
62 Responses
I bet they are doing this just to promote the movie…
Michael Moore may be saying the right things, but he is still an attention-hoe, ready to do anything for extra publicity.
This movie was so incredibly horrible that I wanted to send a takedown notice.
Could be Moore drama queenery.
“Lawyers” and “liars” – sounds quite similar.
waste of bandwidth . That movie was really crappy.Now wonder he made it free.
so apparently people in other countries arent worthy enough to have the movie?
Greed. Selfishness.
F*ck your greed.
Down with copyright, down with restrictions..
Hey everybody.. lets just hinder technology and not share.. just for a few extra bucks.
Presumably lawyers are too busy learning dead languages to worry about how the Internet works.
In anis eorum capita eorum sunt.
LOL
is all I have to say.
Dumbest movie ever made! Take down order well warranted!
Jiff
http://www.anonweb.eu.tc
I was going to say something about lawyers, but you guys beat me to it.
Man, NOTHING about this make even a bit of sense.
Michael Moore was a boner BEFORE all this. Now he’s a laughing-stock, too.
the film was utter tripe anyway. maybe spend less on retarded lawyers and more on making the product you are so keen to protect, worth watching in the first place!
“Dumbest movie ever made! Take down order well warranted!”
I know! Who the hell cares about voting.
Don’t Vote: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832128
Never trust a fat man to tell you how the health care industry should be run. On the same note, why not just ignore him altogether? Go back to Canada Mikey.
lol why are all you guys hating for now making it free in the EU, he made it free in Canada and U.S., what other f****ing company would do this? None, even if it is bad, i havent watched it yet but meh…
God I hope that fat slob dies soon. He is a worthless piece of human filth.
I haven’t seen the movie and don’t know what it’s about so i’ll be dl it.
btw; why are there so many bullshitting whinners here?
LOL Erik – welcome to the 15 year old angst that is torrent freak (well, lotsa people act like it anyhow ;) ) – rebels without a cause … barring wanting to pirate stuff. Meh, can’t say I’m much different.
I don’t know much about this situation beyond what this artice details but it occurs to me that Moore isn’t the one pushing this legal action, it’s the production company. Hey, like it or not, he comes from a free country and has the right to express his views as he feels.
As with everything else I watch I’ll not be paying for it :)
Michael moore did a speech about the leaked movie to torrent;
http://lix.in/-3632ad
Yeah i really want to vote for one of these complete idiots..
Il vote when theres a candidate that isnt a corrupt piece of shit..
untill then, il swirl around the toilet bowl some more.
Yeah, America’s economy is in a crisis.. and guess why? Because we voted in the faggots that did this.
Oh, the hypocrite Michael Moore. He deserves a public mockery.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/fs/
oh no the movie was not good
Why is he only sharing with the United States and Canada doesn’t www. stand for world wide web so why is he putting on the web if he don’t want to share with the world
So people in other countries aren’t worthy enough to have the movie? what a greedy Selfish bastard
@21
Agreed. I mean, who is he to decide who should see the movie or not? How terribly arrogant of him to assume that he should control which group of people get to see the movie, based on where they live.
watched the film yesterday, fell asleep about 10 minutes into it, Says it all really, no wonder it is free.
If every person ia the U.S.A voted, would it actually make a difference to the election outcome????????????????????????????
Doubt it.
Havent seen all his movies BUT..
Whats wrong with pointing out that people die from not having money for medical bills?
A barbaric system based on greed makes some people more worth saving then others, atleast i know i will get the same help as anyone else and i wont die from not being able to afford bills as there are none.
It was a good movie with a REALY good point in it, a needed movie.
Hope america fixes their system so everyone is equaly worth to save and treat.. anything else is inhumanity 1o1, something that should be fought against and just as bad as terrorism imo.
Cant even imagine being thrown on the street with my belly half stitched as they found out i didnt have insurance..
Sounds like a publicity stunt. No one could be this clueless.
What is your opinion of discussion boards? Perhaps we might be able to discuss things at http://tinyurl.com/3wfgrs and it remains the case that perhaps this discussion might last longer there. In any case, this kind of behavior warrants public ridicule – perhaps we might be able to think of some way to do it there?
Slacker Uprising best movie i have never seen.
Good for easyDNS not complying with the Westside Productions LLC lawyers.
http://friendshares.org/8
Here is some coverage.
http://www.fetchmp3.com/search.php?Term=michael+moore&searchbutton.x=0&searchbutton.y=0
Him getting after Bill O’reilly is pretty amusing as well.
J.
Michael moore did a speech about the leaked movie to torrent;
http://lix.in/-3632ad
Is he serious?
26 Oct 02, 2008 at 16:40 by annoyance
Slacker Uprising best movie i have never seen.
Me too!
Somewhen in the future… lawyers will attempt to impose geographical constraints because we don’t share files on only ONE planet but through the whole galaxis!
I’m reading The Pirate Bays tracker policy (http://thepiratebay.org/policy)
and I’m thinking if this behavior is considered a violation.
A brief summary of the film.
Mike goes to large stadium/auditorium in State X. People yell “YEAAAAAAH DOWN WITH BUSH” and “[insert political rhetoric here]“.
Rinse and repeat.
That. Is all that happens.
Michael Moore, you verbose vichyssoise of documentarian genius, you have bombed with this film.
http://i.lulz.at/n8Mx155.jpg :)
Grabbed the movie, something about 2004 bid to oust dubya and cohorts, never got to the end as it was yawn….
I saw this film last week. It only needs to be 15 minutes long. After that my attention wandered. I liked other Moore films. A patriot does tell you when something is wrong, that’s what mike does. This time it’s just a little too long…
this movie mostly seemed to consist of moore telling the world how great he is and it sucked bigger than his ass is fat.. normally I appreciate his work but this just lacked completely.
The only good part of it was Eddy Vedder signing a tune.
This film had a budget of $2,000,000.. unbelievable.
well said.
Moore’s movie “Sicko” made me realize just how our medical system works. And, how it is flawed. I wish we didn’t have to worry about medical bills. But, we can’t seem to figure that one out. So, I’ll probably just move out of the country until we do.
Did anyone expect anything different from this guy? Seriously, even at the ridiculously low price of “FREE” it’s not worth my bandwidth.
He’s a canker sore on society and he uses his influence to mislead the masses for personal gain. That makes him lower than low. Then do something like this? Seems par for the course if you ask me.
ban that Michael Moore he’s a two-faced hypocritical money grubbing whore lying to the common man he so called represents.
Listen to all the neo-con-cock gobblers squawk. That’s _always_ good for a laugh. =]
Personally, I’ve enjoyed Moore’s work up to now. This, however, deserves to stay in the US & Canada – it blew my Granny’s goat…
I wonder why he chose to release it only in the U.S. and Canada only. Perhaps he thinks that the rest of the world will think the movie is stupid, or something.
who gives a f*** about copyright
the lawyers are clueless
Next time they should directly sue AVI file format inventors
Michael Moore is an hopeless idiot, who only manages to portray his country in a worse light than the rest of the world already sees it in. Why anyone would want to see his propagandized, drama-filled garbage is beyond me.
Moore is probably worse than the very people he condemns. The fat, greedy son of a bitch could probably feed two or three starving children in Africa with the amount of food he wastes appeasing his gluttony.
Most probably he was lying. His real aim might be luring people to download it so that he can extort them from court.
michael moore you fat idiot pig stick with doiing your fake ass documentaries
I think Moore baited a hook.
It’s clear that Mr. Moore has no clue about the internet, and clearly made a big mistake in the chosen distribution method. But to then spend money on laywers, who are basically out for their own good, must be a continuation of his ignorance.
It’s a shame really, I would have thought his many friends would have told him to stop wasting money by now. Surely he is having second thoughts? A wobble, perhaps.
If not, I suppose I will have to lower his general rank of intelligence in my General Rank of Intelligence of Celebrities and Famous People System.
What pathetic loosers !!!
Michael moore is a pet of the elite BANKSTERS-he lives in a multimillion dollar apt in ny,his job is to spread disinfo,and to follow the rockefellers directions by various proxies.
his goal is to profit in the NWO,at your enslavement.
disinfo=95% true, 5% false.
dont listen or watch his junk,or do u like the way things are going now?
expect caps and censered internet,and also NO INTERNET!!(for the avg joe)
I recon all of the negative responses in this blog are from lazy younger US people who did not bother to vote and have a feeling of guilt as well they should. Well you got Bush back, another Vietnam and his millionaire & billionaire banking buddies totally screwing your economy up and the tax payers inevitably footing the bill. He retires a rich man. Unfortunately, other countries economies suffer because Bush allowed this to happen. The election is around the corner. Get off you lazy apathetic backsides and vote. Otherwise shut up. No vote no voice!
Wouldn’t it be simpler if they released it under a creative commons license. It at least all share the ability to copy a movie freely!
The documentary sucks big time. It even has an appearance by Roseanne Barr in it. :(
What the point in having this movie now,bush is in office and look at the state of it.
I laugh at all these stupid people having a go at Micheal Moore he is a legit film maker, I see alot of you have been mislead by the U.S. Government and believing them, so all I can say is
GO ON LOVING BUSH AND DESTROY THE WORLD
USA LICKS BALLS
SUCKS ON DONKEY COCK
The truth is when this kind of shit hits digg the number of people downloading it will shoot up, out of morbid curiosity. If this is as shit as you all seem to be saying maybe that's his point.
I like Michael Moore but only in very small doses.
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