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Internet MPAA Accused of Hiring Hacker
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - May 26, 2006 5:17 AM

17 comment(s) - last by BladeVenom.. on May 27 at 11:31 PM

Suit filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California accuses MPAA of hiring less than legal consultants

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), along with the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), have stepped up their attacks against illegal file sharing in the US. One of the web sites being sued by the MPAA, TorrentSpy, has now filed a countersuit because it claims the MPAA hired a hacker to spy on the internal operations of the web site. Valence Media, the company that operates TorrentSpy, claims that the MPAA offered a hacker $15,000 to gather information on the company.

The hacker reportedly stole a spreadsheet that contains income and expenses for dates ranging from January to June 2005. The hacker turned over information that shows the relationship that he had between the MPAA after being told to gather incriminating information against Valence Media.

Representatives from the MPAA deny the accusations pitted against them by TorrentSpy. The trade group also says this is just a "desperate attempt" at covering the overall idea that the site allegedly facilitates piracy. Some analysts believe if the case does go to court, this example of industrial espionage via paid hacker will be one of the most high-profile tech-related lawsuits in years.

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Who could have imagined it?

By phisrow on 5/26/2006 5:34:17 AM , Rating: 5

I always thought that the MPAA were such nice, quiet, boys. Who could have imagined that they would do such a thing. </sarcasm>

RE: Who could have imagined it?

By Viditor on 5/26/2006 5:48:06 AM , Rating: 2

If proved, this would be criminal charges as well...

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RE: Who could have imagined it?

By Chillin1248 on 5/26/2006 5:48:48 AM , Rating: 4

Would this not disqualify the evidence collected against Torrentspy as well?

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RE: Who could have imagined it?

By ThisSpaceForRent on 5/26/2006 8:30:25 AM , Rating: 2

I believe it would. I was told about a patent infringemnet case involving Motorola, and a competing company. Basically a design for a Motorola phone was stolen, and a Motorola employee noticed the offending design at a test lab, and he, um, borrowed the phone to take back with him. Long story short, since Motorola stole the phone, their case was thrown out.

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RE: Who could have imagined it?

By geeg on 5/26/2006 10:35:35 AM , Rating: 2

Imagine, poor grandma/grandpa defendants had paid the hacker fees..

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RE: Who could have imagined it?

By Samus on 5/27/2006 9:01:26 AM , Rating: 2

Absolutely, if the evidence was collected illegally, the jury can't take it into consideration (and neither can the judge is its a trial by judge) because it shouldn't exist.

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