MPAA using Ubuntu to Bust Movie Pirates: Fair or Not?

[newbie2]

Matt Hartley :

There are two things that bother me about this article. The first is pirating any copyrighted content. The second is using the tools designed to make computing affordable for all to catch people breaking the law. At the same time, the MPAA, the group that has utilized this Xubuntu to catch movie pirates, has made their stance clear: they are in no way violating anyone's privacy rights. I will do one better - if you do not use a Firewall and a VPN on what is largely considered a non-private network (coffee shop or college campus, for instance), you are basically inviting anyone to examine your network traffic closely.
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2749&Itemid=0

[WorldTripping]

This University Toolkit (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=630695&highlight=university+toolkit) was taken down some time ago.

[newbie2]

This University Toolkit (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=630695&highlight=university+toolkit) was taken down some time ago.

The Toolkit is temporarily unavailable, but please check back soon for the latest version (http://universitytoolkit.org/).
:rolleyes:

[~LoKe]

Cool.

If you're using the Universities Internet connection, you're making them liable for any illegal activities. While I don't support this kind of monitoring in general, I can see their reasoning behind it and it makes sense.

The fact that they're using an Ubuntu variant means absolutely nothing to me.

[DigitalDuality]

d

[mozetti]

Up front, let me say that I don't agree with the tactics the MPAA and RIAA have used, and generally believe they're harming themselves more in the long run by using the cease/desist/sue method.

To be fair, the MPAA wasn't directly monitoring anyone's traffic. They created the toolkit so network admins that wanted to look for users sharing files using bittorrent on their network could do so.

Secondly, this quote doesn't make any sense to me:
The second is using the tools designed to make computing affordable for all to catch people breaking the law.

"Tools designed to make computer affordable to all" and "Catching people breaking the law" aren't mutually exclusive concepts. Would he take it as an affront if the local police made a toolkit for network admins to find users launching DDOS botnet attacks or downloading/sharing kiddie porn on their network?

[macogw]

Don't you just love the part where the MPAA violated copyright law to enforce copyright law?

[DigitalDuality]

d

[saulgoode]

Don't you just love the part where the MPAA violated copyright law to enforce copyright law?

Agreed! (http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/gpl-killed-the-mpaa-star)