technologies founded 2000 founder randy saaf defunct 2009 headquarters los angeles california united states key people randy saaf octavio herrera parent artistdirect august 2005 website www.mediadefender.com mediadefender inc. now peer media technologies was a company that fought copyright infringement 1 that offered services designed to prevent alleged copyright infringement using peer to peer distribution . they used unusual tactics such as flooding peer to peer networks with decoy files that tie up users computers and bandwidth . 2 mediadefender was based in los angeles california in the united states . as of march 2007 the company had approximately 60 employees 3 and used 2 000 servers hosted in california with contracts for 9 gbit s of bandwidth . 3 these types of organizations are being hired to attempt to stymie peer to peer p2p traders through a variety of methods including posting fake files online and recording individuals who contribute copyrighted material but also marketing to individuals using p2p networks . 4 clients include universal pictures 20th century fox virgin records hbo paramount pictures and bmg citation needed . on august 1 2005 the digital media entertainment company artistdirect announced that it had acquired mediadefender for 42.5 million in cash . in may 2008 mediadefender performed a distributed denial of service attack on revision3 despite the fact that they were not hosting unauthorized materials . jim louderback revision3 ceo charged that these attacks violated the economic espionage act and the computer fraud and abuse act . as of may 2008 the federal bureau of investigation was investigating the incident . 5 in august 2009 artistdirect restructured mediadefender and mediasentry creating peer media technologies . contents 1 miivi.com 2 leaked information 2.1 leaked e mails 2.2 leaked phone conversation 2.3 leaked source code 3 revision3 controversy 4 see also 5 references 6 external links miivi.com edit in february 2007 mediadefender launched a video sharing site called miivi.com . on july 4 2007 file sharing news site torrentfreak alleged that miivi.com was created to trap uploaders of copyrighted content . 6 7 the site s origins were discovered by a blogger who looked up miivi.com domain registration information . 8 after the allegation was re posted throughout the blogosphere miivi.com was shut down on july 4 2007 . 9 in an interview with ars technica chief executive randy saaf stated that mediadefender was working on an internal project that involved video and didn t realize that people would be trying to go to it and so we didn t password protect the site . 10 mediadefender blamed file sharing groups such as the pirate bay for starting the story . 10 following mediadefender s subsequent email leak torrentfreak alleged that mediadefender s statement was revealed to be a deliberate falsehood . 11 saaf denied that miivi was a devious product and that the company aimed to entrap users stating only that it was part of mediadefender s trade secrets . 12 the mpaa denied any involvement with mediadefender . 10 on september 14 2007 internal emails from mediadefender were leaked on to bittorrent file sharing networks which contradicted mediadefender s claims of miivi being an internal test site revealing additional detailed information about the website and that the site was closed when the connection between it and mediadefender became public knowledge . it was scheduled to be re launched as www.viide.com but has not yet been opened up to the public . 6 leaked information edit beginning on september 14 2007 mediadefender experienced a security breach caused by a group of hackers led by high school student ethan . this group called themselves mediadefender defenders . 13 according to an sec filing this ultimately cost parent company artistdirect at least 825 000 . 14 the breach included emails a phone conversation and a number of internal anti infringement tools including some source code . leaked e mails edit on september 14 2007 6 621 of the company s internal e mails were leaked containing information contradicting previous statements and details of strategies intended to deceive copyright infringers . the emails link mediadefender to projects that management previously denied involvement in . the associated press and other media outlets suggest that the leak may confirm speculation that miivi.com was an anti copyright infringement honeypot site . 15 16 one e mail suggests using the miivi client program to turn users pcs into drones for mediadefender s emule spoofing activities . the leaked e mails discuss responses to unexpected and negative press and expose upcoming projects problems in and around the office domino s pizza orders and other personal information about employees . beyond strategic information the leak also exposed login information for ftp and mysql servers making available a large library of mp3 files likely including artists represented by mediadefender s clients . the emails also revealed that mediadefender probably was negotiating with the new york attorney general s office to allow them access to information about users accessing pornographic material . 17 as of september 15 2007 there had been no official response from the company . 11 however evidence exists that mediadefender had been employing both legal and illegal actions to remove copies of the leaked emails from their respective hosting sites . in addition to the usual cease and desist letters from their legal department ip addresses that are owned by mediadefender were found to have been used in denial of service attacks against sites hosting the leaked emails . 18 the e mails also revealed direction by mediadefender founder randy saaf to have developer ben ebert attempt to eliminate the information about miivi from mediadefender s wikipedia entry . 17 ebert responds in an email on the same day saying i will attempt to get all referenes sic to miivi removed from wiki . i should easily be able to get it contested . we ll see if i can get rid of it . 19 leaked phone conversation edit on september 16 2007 mediadefender defenders released a 25 minute excerpt of a phone conversation between the new york attorney general s office and mediadefender as a torrent on the pirate bay . mediadefender defenders claims in information released with the phone conversation that they have infiltrated the internals of the company . 20 leaked source code edit on september 20 2007 mediadefender defenders released the source code of trapperkeeper mediadefender s decoy systems on the pirate bay . 21 a large chunk of mediadefender s software was available by bittorrent . 22 revision3 controversy edit revision3 is an internet television network which distributes video content legally through various means including the bittorrent protocol . during the memorial day weekend in 2008 revision3 came under a denial of service attack originating from mediadefender ip addresses . the attack left the company s service inaccessible until mid tuesday the following week . revision3 ceo jim louderback accused mediadefender of injecting its decoy files into revision3 s bittorrent service through a vulnerability then automatically perpetrating the attack after revision3 increased security . 23 24 randy saaf defended mediadefender s actions by stating our systems were targeting a tracker not even knowing it was revision3 s tracker adding that the denial of service attack resulted when revision3 changed some configurations to their bittorrent tracker . 25 see also edit copyright social conflict cyberterrorism baytsp streisand effect torrent poisoning references edit http online.wsj.com article sb120001282486582581.html holahan catherine march 5 2007 . advertising to the file sharing crowd businessweek . retrieved on september 16 2007 . a b anderson nate march 18 2007 . peer to peer poisoners a tour of mediadefender . ars technica . retrieved on september 16 2007 . angwin julia mcbride sarah and smith ethan october 18 2006 . record labels turn piracy into a marketing opportunity . the wall street journal . retrieved on september 16 2007 . revision3 ceo blackout caused by mediadefender attack . arstechnica.com . retrieved 2008 05 30 . a b anti piracy gang launches their own video download site to trap people . july 4 2007 . torrentfreak . retrieved on september 17 2007 . mpaa dummy site snares pirates digitaltrends.com domain registration information miivi.com goes down a b c cheng jacqui july 6 2007 . mediadefender denies entrapment accusations with fake torrent site . ars technica . retrieved on september 16 2007 . a b the biggest ever bittorrent leak mediadefender internal emails go public . september 15 2007 . torrentfreak . retrieved on september 16 2007 . mcbride sarah september 17 2007 . antipiracy group suffers email leak . the wall street journal . retrieved on september 16 2007 . media defenders profile national business news print portfolio.com artistdirect inc form 10qsb received 11 14 2007 16 07 22 veiga alex september 18 2007 . hackers leak anti piracy firm s e mails . associated press . retrieved on september 19 2007 . carr jim september 18 2007 . stolen emails reveal anti copyright infringement company s honeypot strategy . sc magazine us . retrieved on september 19 2007 . a b leaked media defender e mails reveal secret government project p2p sites ridicule mediadefender takedown notices in wake of e mail leak arstechnica.com re miivi got dugg mediadefender phone call and gnutella tracking database leaked mediadefender anti piracy tools leaked mediadefender source code leaked to wibble inside the attack that crippled revision3 anti piracy misfire blamed for crash of popular online tv network mediadefender defends revision3 syn attack external links edit mediadefender s official website net2ez owned by media defender leaked media defender e mails reveal secret government project arstechnica mpaa caught uploading fake torrents torrentfreak ip addresses of fake torrents traced back to mediadefender anti piracy gang launches their own video download site to trap people torrentfreak the domain registration of a fake video upload download service called miivi has been traced to mediadefender . torrent freak article about the 9 14 2007 media defender internal email leak p2p sites ridicule mediadefender takedown notices in wake of e mail leak post of a list of leaked programs . torrentfreak s article on media defender problems retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mediadefender & oldid 704765180 categories copyright enforcement companiescybercrimetechnology companies of the united stateshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2009 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main 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