BigBrainBoy

The Press Conference is Real

Nothing major was announced (although we are impressed that Hollywood bureaucrats actually trekked all the way to the AFI campus). The main gist of the conference was:

Cohen said BitTorrent.com will remove links that direct users to pirated content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine.

Yes, that’s all it was. They are going to remove illegal links from their search engine. You can all go home now, no revolutionary new technology is being released. Nothing to see here.

The rest of the press release is available after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 22, 2005

BITTORRENT AND MPAA JOIN FORCES

Companies Aim To Protect Film Copyrights

Los Angeles - - BitTorrent Founder and CEO Bram Cohen and Motion Picture
Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman announced
today that the motion picture industry and BitTorrent, Inc. are
collaborating with the goal of inhibiting film piracy. Bram Cohen developed
a revolutionary technology for websites to make large content files
available on the Web and that technology is often used by others illegally
to distribute movies and television shows. Today Cohen confirmed
BitTorrent, Inc.’s commitment to removing links that direct users to copies
of pirated content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine at
BitTorrent.com. The announcement today is historic in that two major forces
in the technology and film industries have agreed to work together and
proactively identify ways to limit access to infringing material available
via search engines like the one at BitTorrent.com and to promote
constructive innovation in this area.

“BitTorrent is an extremely efficient publishing tool and search engine that
allows creators and rights holders to make their content available on the
Internet securely,” said Cohen. “BitTorrent, Inc. discourages the use of
its technology for distributing films without a license to do so. As such,
we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorized content
from BitTorrent.com’s search engine.”

Cohen said BitTorrent.com will remove links that direct users to pirated
content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine.

“We are glad that Bram Cohen and his company are working with us to limit
access to infringing files on the BitTorrent.com website,” said Glickman.
“They are leading the way for other companies by their example.”

Both Cohen and Glickman noted that this effort was an early experiment in
using technology to assist in solving the problems of piracy. Over the last
year, MPAA has brought lawsuits against several websites using the
BitTorrent protocol for illegal distribution of movies. Since then, 90% of
the sites sued have shut down. Today’s announcement reflects a joint
commitment to work together to fight the continued illegal use of this
innovative technology.

The motion picture industry and the MPAA have a multi-pronged approach to
fighting piracy, which includes educating people about the consequences of
piracy, taking action against Internet thieves, working with law enforcement
authorities around the world to root out pirate operations and, working to
ensure movies are available legally using advanced technology.

The MPAA estimates that the film industry lost approximately $3.5 billion to
movie piracy in 2004, a total that does not include losses due to illegal
on-line file swapping. According to a Smith Barney study, that number is
expected to jump to $5.4 billion in 2005. By deeply cutting into revenues,
movie piracy limits the choices for consumers at the box office. The
average movie costs about $100 million to make and sixty percent of all
movies never recoup their investment. Piracy in all forms hurts the
hundreds of thousands of individuals, whose jobs depend on a vital movie
industry, including sound and lighting technicians, carpenters, and theatre
and video store employees.

About BitTorrent

BitTorrent enables rapid, economical and secure distribution of large files
on the Web. By reducing costs associated with digital distribution, the
company’s cooperative distribution technology lets organizations efficiently
distribute a vast range of digital content. Privately held BitTorrent Inc.
was founded in September 2004 by Bram Cohen, Ashwin Navin and Ross Cohen,
and is based in San Francisco. For more information, visit the company’s
website at http://www.bittorrent.com

About the MPAA

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) serves as the voice and
advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television
industries from its offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Its members
include: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Inc.; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios, LLP; and Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc.

# # #

For more information, please contact:

BitTorrent: The Blue Shirt Group
June Parina
(415) 217-4968

Greg Jones
(415) 217-4964

MPAA Los Angeles

Kori Bernards or Michelle Greeno

(818) 995-6600

MPAA Washington, D.C.

John Feehery or Gayle Osterberg

(202) 293-1966

Posted by Ori on 11/22 at 04:56 PM