MPAA Takes University Toolkit Offline For GPL Violation

from the whoops dept

Tue, Dec 4th 2007 9:51am — Mike Masnick

Remember last week how the MPAA was pushing a ridiculous toolkit on universities that was officially supposed to help universities track network usage, but also had the side-effect of potentially exposing all sorts of private info? Well, some folks noticed that the toolkit was built on open source technologies, such as Ubuntu Linux, though the MPAA (irony alert) didn't appear to be abiding by the GPL license associated with the software. It didn't take long for an Ubuntu developer to send a takedown notice, forcing the university to remove the toolkit. The developer contacted the MPAA concerning the violations, and found that the group ignored him (shocking, I know, for a group that claims it's such a huge supporter of intellectual property rights). So, he was forced to go to the ISP hosting the content, which finally resulted in the MPAA pulling the software down. This isn't the first time, by the way, that the MPAA has decided that it was okay to ignore intellectual property rules when it suits the organization, but it does suggest that for all its talk of having a principled stand on the issue, it's all a bunch of hogwash.

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Filed Under: gpl, toolkit
Companies: mpaa

17 Comments

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TheDock22, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:13am

Hah!
Hurray for the Open Source community! The MPAA needs a serious reality check.
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I Hate Idiots, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:14am

MPAA Takes University Toolkit Offline For GPL Viol
M - Methodicaly
P - Proving
A - Associations are full of
A - A$$hats
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- josh, 4 Dec 2007 @ 2:00pm
  
  Re: MPAA Takes University Toolkit Offline For GPL
  I believe that last A is officially "A$$tunnels"
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Casper, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:16am

Duh
There is nothing about the MPAA/RIAA that has anything to do with preserving intellectual rights. They are profit driven organizations with the sole purpose of revenue.
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ehrichweiss, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:21am

well..
That just takes irony to a whole new level.
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Anonymous of Course, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:30am

Stooges and Goons
The MPAA/RIAA prove once more that they're
a shakedown organization. Their bullying
and extortion tactics knows no bounds.
Is it any wonder they ignored the GPL?

The really troubling part is the government
aiding them. Oh, wait... I guess that's
no surprise either. Just another means of
shearing the sheep.

The only difference between organized crime
and the government is that you get better odds
when betting on the illegal numbers games.
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- evan, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:58am
  
  Re: Stooges and Goons
  amen
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John M, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:31am

I'd just like to see lawsuits against these associations in hopes that maybe a little backlash would open their eyes a bit.
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bob, 4 Dec 2007 @ 10:40am

The interesting thing is that there are several Linux distributions that do what this toolkit was claiming to. The MPAA could have merely linked to any one of them. But then that would have made sense (and also would not have fed any information back to them).
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2007 @ 11:22am

when can we just make techdirt the justice dept on these types of issues?
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2007 @ 11:42am

...
fucking back stabers
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- spelling police, 4 Dec 2007 @ 4:21pm
  
  Re: ...
  why, yes, they are fucking back stabbers.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2007 @ 12:27pm

The ISP
It's interesting to note that rather than immediately taking the entire site down as ISPs usually do, the ISP in this case, ware.net, apparently contacted the MPAA and allowed them to remove just the infringing item instead. I thought ISPs were required to immediately remove infringing content. But if not, then why is that what they usually do? I admit that I am not familiar with all the details of the DMCA.
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ehrichweiss, 4 Dec 2007 @ 1:04pm

they need "damages"
Maybe it's time to take the same licensing that Phrack Magazine used to have(and maybe still does if it's still being published) where any private individual can read it for free but if you are using it for government/corporate objectives then there needs to be a license paid(I think it was $495 per issue or something to that effect). AFAIK there is nothing that prevents this type of license from being legally binding so twisting the stipulation to be "if you use it without honoring the license there is a $5,000,000 fee per copy" or the like could make for some interesting times in that regard.
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cb, 4 Dec 2007 @ 1:04pm

It's not hogwash, but bullshit.
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John, 5 Dec 2007 @ 4:06am

It's over...
Can't believe the MPAA/RIAA are still around. People are massively adopting private and encrypted filesharing apps that keep them miles away from the radar. There's plenty of free systems out there that are great for sharing huge files and specific folders on your diskdrive, an example being GigaTribe: http://www.gigatribe.com
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M.R. in L.A., 9 Dec 2007 @ 3:21am

The MPAA/RIAA doesn't really care if an artist/creator gets ripped-off. But they're really pissed off when someone other than themselves does it. "Dot rip-off the artist - that's our job!"
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