Bram Cohen and the MPAA have a deal. All the copyrighted material from the “official” Bittorrent search engine will be removed. This is not really a shock for the bittorrent community since this torrent search site is a relatively new one, and the alternatives are far more popular.
However, it’s still a fact that the creator of the most popular filesharing network is working together with the MPAA. Ain’t that nice.
The press release
BITTORRENT AND MPAA JOIN FORCES
Companies Aim To Protect Film Copyrights
Los Angeles - - BitTorrent Founder and CEO Bram Cohen and Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman announced today that the motion picture industry and BitTorrent, Inc. are collaborating with the goal of inhibiting film piracy. Bram Cohen developed a revolutionary technology for websites to make large content files available on the Web and that technology is often used by others illegally to distribute movies and television shows. Today Cohen confirmed BitTorrent, Inc.’s commitment to removing links that direct users to copies of pirated content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine at BitTorrent.com. The announcement today is historic in that two major forces in the technology and film industries have agreed to work together and proactively identify ways to limit access to infringing material available via search engines like the one at BitTorrent.com and to promote constructive innovation in this area.
“BitTorrent is an extremely efficient publishing tool and search engine that allows creators and rights holders to make their content available on the Internet securely,” said Cohen. “BitTorrent, Inc. discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a license to do so. As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorized content from BitTorrent.com’s search engine.”
Cohen said BitTorrent.com will remove links that direct users to pirated content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine.
“We are glad that Bram Cohen and his company are working with us to limit access to infringing files on the BitTorrent.com website,” said Glickman. “They are leading the way for other companies by their example.”
Both Cohen and Glickman noted that this effort was an early experiment in using technology to assist in solving the problems of piracy. Over the last year, MPAA has brought lawsuits against several websites using the BitTorrent protocol for illegal distribution of movies. Since then, 90% of the sites sued have shut down. Today’s announcement reflects a joint commitment to work together to fight the continued illegal use of this innovative technology.
The motion picture industry and the MPAA have a multi-pronged approach to fighting piracy, which includes educating people about the consequences of piracy, taking action against Internet thieves, working with law enforcement authorities around the world to root out pirate operations and, working to ensure movies are available legally using advanced technology.
The MPAA estimates that the film industry lost approximately $3.5 billion to movie piracy in 2004, a total that does not include losses due to illegal on-line file swapping. According to a Smith Barney study, that number is expected to jump to $5.4 billion in 2005. By deeply cutting into revenues, movie piracy limits the choices for consumers at the box office. The average movie costs about $100 million to make and sixty percent of all movies never recoup their investment. Piracy in all forms hurts the hundreds of thousands of individuals, whose jobs depend on a vital movie industry, including sound and lighting technicians, carpenters, and theatre and video store employees.
