For sale: DVDR-CORE
If you’re in the market for a piece of genuine internet history, now’s your chance.
Five years ago the MPAA sued Alex Hanff, the man who later brought data pirate brought Phorm to its knees, for 150 million dollars for owning DVDR-CORE, the DVD bittorrent community.
It attracted more than million hits per day – and the attention of the MPAA.
The fact the Hollywood enforcer is a US outfit and Hanff was in the UK didn’t matter. It became the first BitTorrent site to be targeted by Hollywood outside the US of A.
Said The Register >>>
Alexander Hanff had no idea Hollywood was keeping such a close eye on him. Then, last Saturday morning, a movie studio functionary arrived at his door. Hanff, still in his dressing gown and not yet full of coffee, opened the door, only to be served with a lawsuit by Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios and Warner Bros.
You may have already guessed Hanff’s supposed transgression. The movie studios suspect him of running a BitTorrent hub and helping people download copyrighted films via P2P technology. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of American) has gone after numerous BitTorrent hubs on similar charges and managed to shut many of them down. The plot here is a familiar one.
There are, however, a couple of factors that make Hanff’s story unique. For one, the US studios served Hanff papers at his home – in England. Secondly, Hanff, 31, owns the DVDR-Core domain name and pays for its server, but he has never actually administered the site. That’s done by a group of online friends that Hanff has never met in person. Lastly, Hanff plans to fight the movie studios, making him a rarity among BitTorrent hub owners.
Now Alex is selling dvdr-core.org to help him raise funds to continue his privacy work.
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