Guerrilla video under attack, MPAA rows after web pirates and “leeches”
By Alex Ben Block
HOLLYWOOD, CA. (Hollywood Today) 6/30/2007 – Even if the Motion Picture Association of America’s first of its kind law suits against Internet video on demand web sites YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com are upheld by the courts, it may be nearly impossible to hold back the flood of file sharing web sites which link to copyrighted content on hundreds of web sites, in the U.S. and off-shore. .
The movie industry’s novel legal attack on “guerrilla video” web sites that index programming and then link to video streams, video files and torrents but do not host copyrighted movies, TV shows or videos themselves is an attempt to use the threat of legal action against one of the thorniest issues of the digital age.
The MPAA, fearing that movies may be engulfed by free exchange or “leech” services that have nearly destroyed the music business, has filed suits before against file sharing services, but never against sites that only link to the content. Since these sites don’t fit the traditional definition of intellectual property pirates (who copy and re-sell content), the MPAA must prove that they primarily exist to encourage and facilitate copyright violations, which the sites adamantly deny.
“YouTVpc.com does not violate any copyright laws,” Billy Duran, co-founder of YouTVpc.com,said in a statement. “We take no responsibility for content uploaded by others to video hosts, or provided by video hosts.”
After months of discussion about what to do, the suits were filed Tuesday in Los Angeles on behalf of the major movie studios in U.S. District Court. The suits allege that almost all of the content that the sites index and link to is infringing on copyrights; and that the sites are liable for contributing to and actually induce copyright infringement.
Here is where it gets tricky. Under the Millennium Copyright Act and a 2005 ruling in the Grokster case, a business that encourages copyright infringement by advertising or promoting such activity may be found guilt of copyright inducement or infringement. Neither YouTVpc.com or PeekVid.com openly advertise that is their reason to exist, and both claim they will take down offending content when asked by copyright holders – which gives them immunity under existing law.
The sites point out that they do not re-produce content or host a version of the content on their servers. They only index the content on sites like YouTube, which offer millions of video, to make it easier for people to find what they want; and then link to the content, which is on the host server.
Elizabeth Kaltman, a spokesperson for the MPAA based in Los Angeles, swept aside such legal questions and told Hollywood Today that these sites are “blatantly contributing to copyright infringement.’
Kaltman added that these sites, according to the MPAA, “have no right to organized or provide access” to copyrighted movies or TV shows. “They facilitate piracy and infringing on copyrights. So that is why they are being pursued.”
While the guerilla video services only link to content, the MPAA will contend that much of what they link to is copyrighted material that is being hosted off-shore in places like France, the Bahamas, Sweden and China, where the laws on copyright and enforcement are often lax or non-existent. The MPAA suit also contends that they are illegal because they are making money off of copyrighted material by charging fees and soliciting donation, which are often collected in the U.S. by PayPal or another payment service.
“They are a one-stop shop for copyright infringement. These lawsuits should serve as a warning to other aspiring movie theft ‘entrepreneurs’ that they are not above the law and will face serious consequences for their activities. Profiting from the theft of other people’s creative works is illegal and must be stopped,” said John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA, in a press release announcing the suits.
The Wall St. Journal reported this past April that YouTVpc.com is run by Sam Martinez and Billy Duran from a suburb of Albuquerque, New Mexico on low end desk top computers. At that time, they said the service offered a broad menu of programming including episodes of NBC’s “Heroes,” ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and dozens of feature films.
“Whatever the legality,” reported the Wall St. Journal, “it’s tough to clamp down on sites that just about anyone can set up with links to video stored on computers around the world,” adding a quote from Martinez: “If one host gets shut down, there are three others that are going to pop up.”
The quality of the images shown isn’t always top notch (in part so the sites can keep costs down) but that has not stopped these sites from growing rapidly. Earlier this year the WSJ placed PeekVid.com as the 20th most popular web site offering multi media entertainment. One factor is that the sites don’t require any special software and offer instant access to content.
“YouTVpc and Peekvid rely on advertisers to maintain their illegal websites and they profit handsomely from a seemingly endless stream of third-party advertising pitches,” according to the MPAA. “Peekvid – whose servers are located in San Antonio, Texas – averages over 53,000 unique users per day who view over 184,000 pages of content. YouTVpc – whose servers are located in Scottsdale, Arizona – averages more than 6,000 unique daily visitors who view over 21,000 pages of content per day.”
The studios will also have to prove to the courts that the access to copyrighted material should require payment at a time much of what is on TV networks is available for free on those network’s sites as advertiser supported content.
This not the MPAA’s first attempt to shut down these guerilla video sites. At least twice in the past, the movie industry convinced the companies with the host servers that this was illegal and that they could be liable. In each case, the guerilla sites were able to convince their server hosts that they were not breaking any laws, or find other servers.
In other cases, the entire operation was moved overseas, where it may operate in various languages, all making it more difficult for the movie studios to police.
The MPAA puts worldwide piracy losses for 2005 at $18.2 billion, with over $7 billion as a result of online piracy, and another $11 billion from hard goods piracy, bootlegging and illegal copying.