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BitTorrent Inc. the parent company behind the Utorrent peer to peer sharing software and more media focused ventures like the BitTorrent bundle, has always maintained that it does not endorse piracy or the use of its programs for such sharing. The RIAA is now calling on it to make good on that claim and to figure out a method to effectively counter the transference of copyright protected content using Utorrent.
According to a letter sent to BitTorrent Inc. and republished by TorrentFreak, the RIAA claims that as much as 75 per cent of the United States' 1.6 million torrent based instances of piracy during 2014 could be attributed to Utorrent. BitTorrent Inc. is even more responsible, it claims, because it helped develop a a distributed hash table in the late '00s, which allowed people to continue sharing content even if a tracker goes down.
Pointing out that BitTorrent Inc. has positioned itself away from the pirates that use its service, the RIAA's executive VP of anti-piracy efforts, Brad Buckles, asks the company to got further and take a stand against it.
“We urge BitTorrent Inc. to live up to [its] words and take meaningful steps to deter this widespread infringement occurring using its own products and services,” he said.
He then went on to offer to share data on suspected copyright infringers with BitTorrent Inc., if that would help it crack down on the pirates using its tools and services. It doesn't go so far as to suggest it block pirated content from being shared, something that nobody has managed to do successful against torrent users.
BitTorrent Inc. has yet to respond, but it is in a difficult position. Any attempts to appease the RIAA could see a migration from its torrent software, whereas if it sides purely with its users, it may have the RIAA to deal with in court.
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KitGuru Says: What kind of tack do you think the Utorrent maker should take in this instance?
How is bittorrent even going to do anything against piracy? The service is out there, they don’t centrally control it, and there’s absolutely nothing to stop other people from firing up alternatives.
This is nonsense.
This is like taking a car manufacturer to court because a vehicle they produced was used in a crime. They need to do more to make sure that their cars can’t be used in criminal activities.
WELL if 75% of the cars made by the company is linked with crime, it would probably also get dragged to court a lot.
If the RIAA is smart they would have developed a top notch bittorrent client themselves (prior to this) under a secret identity and wait until it has enough of a user base following the (possible) downfall of utorrent. Boom, right into the trap.
That’s actually a different claim.
Here’s the real equivalent: imagine that 75% of all of a particular type of crime were done in a particular car. Let’s say 75% of bank and store robberies were done with Ford Transit vans. That’s actually sort of plausible. Would you hold the car manufacturer responsible?
well, you know my thoughts on this.
That would be quite amusing… might make law enforcement too easy though if all criminals favoured the same vehicle.
Can’t really blame the company for creating a car that is good for getaways, has a nice roomy boot and easily cleanable interior.
Ford does have a chequered pass…
That still wouldn’t really do anything, if you look at it.
– They already scrape IPs from torrents.
– They, and their copyright troll buddies, already send out legal notices to these IPs (read: The people who are at the IP, obviously) to try and scare people into paying them “fair compensation” – the people who are downloading, not even necessarily the ones uploading, going to movie theatres and recording cam caps, cracking the games, ripping the blu ray disks, etc.
– (try to) Take advantage of antiquated copyright laws that have existed and remain unchanged since before any of this technology did.
– Send millions and millions of DMCA notices
– The list goes on.
If they were smart they would quit trying to change the environment they’re living in and start trying to make it work for them, instead of all this constant nonsense. But they won’t, their mindset is antiquated. Same thing with the government and all it’s *attempt to spy on everyone* BS laws they keep trying to pass.
They need to get their head out of their ass and realize they aren’t going to win this. Piracy being wrong or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s happening, period, wrong, fair, or otherwise.
What was that quote? “We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.”