To defend their state-granted monopoly, that is. MediaDefender, an outfit paid by the MPAA and RIAA to disrupt peer-to-peer sharing networks, is suspected of engaging in denial-of-service attacks against Revision3. The company uses BitTorrent technology to deliver its own digital files (much the same way Blizzard uses BitTorrent to deliver patches to millions of its users). In an account published in their blog, Revision3 followed the tracks that led all the way back to MediaDefender.
A bit of address translation, and we’d discovered our nemesis. But
instead of some shadowy underground criminal syndicate, the packets
were coming from right in our home state of California. In fact, we
traced the vast majority of those packets to a public company called Artistdirect
(ARTD.OB). 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 Artist Direct, called MediaDefender.
In its quest to track down content pirates, MediaDefender felt entitled to abuse another company's private property for their own profit all without Revision3's authorization. When Revision3 took steps to block MediaDefender's unauthorized use of Revision3's resources, MediaDefender's own servers brought down Revision3's entire internet infrastructure via a denial-of-service attack. Whether it was intentional or through pure negligence, it is clear that there must be legal consequences for MediaDefender's illegal actions.