[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Correction: MPAA already managed to shut down illici

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Mon, 10 Jun 2002 11:00:51 -0700
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Correction: MPAA already managed to shut down illicit movie
 	site
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

[While I was catching up on email, I inadvisedly sent out the previous
Politech message (http://www.politechbot.com/p-03635.html) without
checking for followup stories first. That led to a whole lot of
responses saying, nope, film88.com was already offline. --Declan]

---

From: "Albert Koellner" <crajk@cryogen.com>
Organization: -
To: declan@well.com
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 17:47:02 +0200
Subject: Re: FC: MPAA tries to shut down illicit movie site -- based
in Iran

On 10 Jun 2002 at 7:55, Declan McCullagh wrote:

 > [Next steps?

The movie's over for Film88.com
By Stefanie Olsen
Special to ZDNet News
June 6, 2002, 4:20 PM PT

Hollywood dodged a second bullet in a burgeoning battle
over online film distribution Thursday, quickly shutting
down an Iran-based Web site that had sold access to
copyrighted films over the Internet for $1 apiece.

Tehran-based Film88.com registered its Web site in April,
and the company had briefly operated a video-on-demand site
renting a long list of Hollywood hits such as "Star Wars"
for viewing on PCs. Though Film88.com was being operated
from a country with unfriendly U.S. relations, its content
ran from servers based in the Netherlands. The MPA, the
international arm of the Motion Picture Association of
America, worked with its Internet service provider in the
Netherlands to turn the site off. ISPs in the Netherlands
recognize international intellectual-property laws.
[...]
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-933598.html

---

From: hjmoyer@acsworld.net (Herbert Moyer)
To: <declan@well.com>
Subject: RE: MPAA tries to shut down illicit movie site -- based in
Iran Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 11:52:26 -0400

After reading this I went to the film88.com site and apparently they
decided to shut down service as the following message appears now:

=====================

Dear Valued Users and Geeks,

We wish to announce that due to the following factors, we shall cease
the operation of film88.com:-

1. There has been many technical complaints during our trial run. We
are satisfied with some technical results but feel that we have a duty
to find ways to resolve technical complaints before providing such
service. We shall be publishing our technical results soon and open
for public discussion for the benefit of everyone on our website.

2. We have made clear many times that we are not pirates. We have
proposed to major studios in Hollywood to pay 30% of our movie rental
price as copyright compensation. This represents a huge percentage
from our gross profit but we feel that a balance between innovation
and copyright compensation is important. However, Hollywood has
reacted negatively. We have to evaluate this issue. Perhaps we should
look for movies outside Hollywood but we hope that Hollywood will some
day offer such service. Perhaps we should wait for the development of
"Statutory Licence" for the movie industry similar to the Statutory
Licence for the music industry in US.

3. Some journalists have given us fair comments while others drag us
into politics. We have stated clearly that we are not involved in
politics (Iran or elsewhere). What happen to the fundamental concept
of Internet of being borderless and not knowing any nationality and
race? We are actually more keen in technical comments/reviews and to
resolve the copyright issue.

We have no plans at the moment but the innovation must go on.....

We wish to apologize to all users, Geeks, our service providers and
Hollywood, and hope that they will accept our apology for
inconvenience caused, if any.

We can be contacted at film88@hongkong.com.

Thank you.

Film88.com


==================== 




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