Company CEO Jim Louderback says the FBI is investigating, and he is critical of MediaDefender's vigilante approach to fighting copyright piracy.

Thomas Claburn, Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

May 29, 2008

2 Min Read

Online media company Revision3 says that it is the victim of a cyberattack launched by MediaDefender, a company that fights illegal peer-to-peer distribution of media on behalf of major entertainment companies.

Revision3, the host of Internet shows such as Diggnation, was inaccessible over the weekend. Company CEO Jim Louderback blames the outage on a denial-of-service attack initiated by MediaDefender.

In a blog post, Louderback explains that with a bit of network sleuthing, his IT staff discovered the source of the attack.

"But instead of some shadowy underground criminal syndicate, the packets were coming from right in our home state of California," he wrote. "In fact, we traced the vast majority of those packets to a public company called ARTISTdirect. Once we were able to get their Internet provider on the line, they verified that yes, indeed, that Internet address belonged to a subsidiary of ARTISTdirect, called MediaDefender."

MediaDefender did not return a call seeking comment.

To verify his claim, Louderback has posted a link to a file containing packet trace data derived from Revision3's log files.

Revision3 uses BitTorrent, a popular peer-to-peer protocol, to efficiently distribute its content. MediaDefender, Louderback notes, gets paid to disrupt peer-to-peer networks by injecting fake media files.

Because BitTorrent is popular among copyright scofflaws -- that's BitTorrent the protocol, which is distinct from BitTorrent the company -- some ISPs throttle BitTorrent packets as a way to manage network traffic volume and, presumably, to curry favor with copyright owners.

MediaDefender executives "willingly admitted to abusing Revision3's network, over a period of months, by injecting a broad array of torrents into our tracking server," Louderback said.

Louderback offered this interpretation of the attack: "Media Defender was abusing one of Revision3's servers for their own purposes -- quite without our approval," he wrote. "When we closed off their backdoor access, MediaDefender's servers freaked out, and went into attack mode -- much like how a petulant toddler will throw an epic tantrum if you take away an ill-gotten Oreo."

While it may be that the attack was the result of unforeseen consequences arising from MediaDefender's unauthorized use of a security hole at Revision3, Louderback isn't ready to dismiss the incident. He says that the FBI is investigating, and he is critical of MediaDefender's vigilante approach to fighting copyright piracy.

"In my opinion, MediaDefender practices risky business, and needs to overhaul how it operates," Louderback wrote. "Because in this country, as far as I know, we're still innocent until proven guilty -- not drawn, quartered and executed simply because someone thinks you're an outlaw."

About the Author(s)

Thomas Claburn

Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

Thomas Claburn has been writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications such as New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and television, having earned a not particularly useful master's degree in film production. He wrote the original treatment for 3DO's Killing Time, a short story that appeared in On Spec, and the screenplay for an independent film called The Hanged Man, which he would later direct. He's the author of a science fiction novel, Reflecting Fires, and a sadly neglected blog, Lot 49. His iPhone game, Blocfall, is available through the iTunes App Store. His wife is a talented jazz singer; he does not sing, which is for the best.

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