Media Defender e-mails reveal secret project

Found on Ars Technica on Sunday, 16 September 2007
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The e-mails reveal many aspects of MediaDefender's elaborate P2P disruption strategies, illuminate previously undisclosed details about the MiiVi scandal, and bring to light details regarding MediaDefender's collaboration with the New York Attorney General's office on a secret law enforcement project.

The MediaDefender e-mails leaked this weekend confirm beyond doubt that the company intentionally attempted to draw traffic to MiiVi while obscuring its own affiliation with the site. The e-mails also show that MediaDefender immediately began to recreate the site under a different name and corporate identity soon after the original plan was exposed.

In the collection of leaked e-mails, there are several discussions with representatives of the New York Attorney General's office, including intelligence analyst Bradley J. Bartram and senior special investigator Michael G. McCartney. MediaDefender is in the process of devising a system that will enable the Attorney General's office to remotely access MediaDefender's data about P2P users.

One of the most informative documents included in the leaked e-mails is a draft of MediaDefender's confidential contract with Universal Music Group. The contract reveals exact details of MediaDefender's pricing structure and services and provides insight into which P2P networks the company is targeting. MediaDefender charges $4,000 for one month of protection for an album, and $2,000 for one month of protection for a track.

A very interesting article, worth reading. I expect more juicy details summed up like this in the next few days (after all, not everybody has the time to read more than 6600 mails). All this bring some nice light on the inside practices and shows what those people really think. It's like they say: "He who laughs last, laughs loudest". Perhaps soon another "douche going to Harvard law has the time to 'analyze'" all this, right Randy?