FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

FC: MPAA tries to shut down illicit movie site -- based in Iran

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 07:55:59 -0700 To: politech@politechbot.com From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: MPAA tries to shut down illicit movie site -- based in Iran Send reply to: declan@well.com

[Next steps? MPAA files for injunction against dot-com registry Network Solutions, trying to get film88.com deleted. Or MPAA applies pressure, legal or extralegal, to the backbone providers carrying traffic to film88.com, asking them to blackhole that range of IP addresses. Or MPAA seeks help from Congress in requiring domain name registrars to delete names that have piracy as their "primary purpose." --Declan]

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From: "Paul Music" <pmusic@cox.net> To: "DeClan" <declan@well.com> Subject: Internet site beams U.S. movies, from Iran! Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 03:33:04 -0500

ESCAPE FROM HOLLYWOOD Internet site beams U.S. movies from Iran Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, June 6, 2002

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/06/BU154153.DTL

An Internet company that lets viewers watch pirated hits like "Harry Potter" and "The Mummy Returns" for $1.50 or less has set up shop in a place that might be out of the film industry's long reach -- Iran.

Film88.com, the apparent sequel to a similar Web venture called Movie88.com that was quickly shut down by Taiwanese authorities in February, is the latest example of Hollywood's increasing problems with online movie piracy.

Representatives of the Motion Picture Association said the international trade group is pursuing several legal avenues to pull the plug on Film88.com.

But legal and technology experts said Hollywood will be hard-pressed to reel in a Web site based in a country that is not a party to international copyright treaties and that has not had diplomatic ties to the United States since 1979. In fact, tensions surged again early this year when President Bush lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil."

"It will make it pretty near impossible," said Whitney Broussard, a copyright law attorney with Selverne, Mandelbaum & Mintz LLP of New York.

According to a note posted on the Web site, Film88.com is "operated by Broadband Universal Corp. Ltd. under the laws and jurisdiction of Iran, with our servers in Iran."

Film88.com streams full-length feature films via the Internet to a viewer's computer. The service requires a high-speed Web connection and RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer multimedia playback program.

Although it's technically possible to save a streamed video, the process is difficult. And a note on Film88.com's site reads, "No downloading. Downloading will only create piracy. This is not our intention."

On Wednesday, the site featured "The Mummy Returns" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" as free samples.

[...]

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