MPAA's Media Defender sets up 'fake' site to catch pirates

[aabee]

Don't get caught up in the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) latest sting. Media Defender, a company which does the dirty work for the MPAA, has been caught setting up 'dummy' websites in an attempt to catch those who download copyrighted videos - entrapment comes to mind.

The site, MiiVi.com, complete with a user registration, forum, and "family filter", offers complete downloads of movies and "fast and easy video downloading all in one great site." But that's not all; MiiVi also offers client software to speed up the downloading process. The only catch is, after it's installed, it searches your computer for other copyrighted files and reports back.

ZeroPaid, acting on a tip from The Pirate Bay, found MiiVi to be registered to Media Defender using a whois search. Shortly after, the registrar information was changed, but the address still reflects Media Defender's address at 2461 Santa Monica Blvd., D-520 Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Not 10 hours after the site was found to be registered to Media Defender, the site went dead. There's no telling how long it was up; however, the domain was registered on February 8, 2007.

Perhaps Media Defender won't use its own name on the registrar the next time around, but it just goes to show the lengths at which the MPAA is willing to go, to fight piracy.

[DJLEE13]

Good Lookin Out. That information is very useful.

[McGee77]

Good thing I rarely download movies...

[blowfish]

good looking out. Is this really true? Freaking scary.

[Dalonehunter]

Damn, that's crazy. Then they get caught and shut down. Cool.

[kingthump]

Thanx for the warning...and although I never download movies, I'm sure they are still after those that download music also.

[moallem]

merci mon ami

[Shentally]

I only ever use trusted torrent sites and always check to see what tracker is being used. Although I will d/l a movie once in a while I usually only d/l TV shows from other countries.

[finger]

Theyre getting desperate. Isnt entrapment illegal ?

[Str8_freak]

Wow!!! i pretty much suspected that! thats probably y all those Watchmoviesonline site been poppin up lately!. Is anything safe anymore pm me that answer.