The MPAA have taken over BitTorrent pirasite hub LokiTorrent; not only that, but they have captured all site logs, which they intend to use to prosecute users of the site, and quite possibly the US$40k LokiTorrent "fighting fund", contributed to by those opposing Big Copyright's heavy-handed tactics, which may now go directly to the MPAA's war chest to fund the raids and prosecutions. This means that anyone who visited the site can possibly expect to have their equipment seized in a SWAT-style dawn raid and be given the choice between a five-figure out-of-court settlement or a much more expensive lawsuit, with the prosecution funded by the money donated by those considerate EFF-supporter types. If you've visited this site, incinerate your hard disks immediately.

And, from this discussion, it appears that it may have been the site operator's plan all along to collect the "defense fund" for a plea bargain and sell out his subscribers (all conveniently identifiable by login information; no idea whether credit card information is included, though if donors' card/PayPal information can be connected to accounts, it could be nasty).

Posted by: steff | http://ofterdingenandkropotkin.blogspot.com/ | Fri Feb 11 22:41:50 2005

Yeah we'll see. Most countries still haven't criminalised leechers, but try to prosecute the uploaders where they can. What every leech can expect is a torrent (haha) of MPAA email spam to them, warning them, issuing phone notices etc. check out this for laughs though. It's Pirate Bay's response to "legal threats" http://www.piratebay.org/frame.html

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org/ | Sat Feb 12 01:42:23 2005

The thing about BitTorrent is that while you download, you typically upload twice as much to more recent leechers, which puts you in a grey area. And highly-paid lawyers thrive in grey areas.

Posted by: steff | http://ofterdingenandkropotkin.blogspot.com/ | Sat Feb 12 11:12:40 2005

Well no, that really depends on the way you adjust your client, and also on one's bw. Most dsl deals in OZ suck hard and offer 512/128 for high cost. And in fact on most monitored sites, RATIO is everyone's gripe, because too many ppl want to get away with less than 1:1. Don't know how many forums threads I've read on this now. True, when ul bw will start to match dl bw we see lge amounts uploaded, too.

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