You know I had to actually see the words I just wrote to see the irony behind it. Now, I will not say ALL hackers are pirates, but I will say that a substantial amount are… Anyway it’s beside the point.

The MPAA hired Robert Anderson to help them bring down piracy. Now firstly, I will say, having worked in the DVD industry before, it is quite obvious the devastating effect that piracy has had on movies. They have lost a lot of money with the coming of the internet age. (however I still strongly believe that cable TV has also made a substantial impact on it, more specifically from my personal experience, but I would also believe that it would be a considerable factor in the rest of the world). Now to see the extent as to which these people have gone. They had a “hired gun” go in and compromise the security of another company in order to bring them down. Now the MPAA is denying all liability, as of course they would. I’m sure they have the contracts to prove it too. According to the article he was paid a lot of money, and promised that, “…if you can save Hollywood for us you can become rich and powerful.” Now that to me is an offer you just can’t refuse.

I’d highly recommend reading the full article on wired as it is pretty good. It goes on to talk about how he compromised the security of torrentspy, and his plans of how to bring them down.

No comments