September 20, 2007
Serves 'em right
In the wake of the release of 700MB of internal emails, MediaDefender is attempting to pull another 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 and is sending out legal nastygrams, as well as launching a DDoS (down near the bottom).
As you might imagine, the torrent sites are not responding well. And now they've just gotten clever.
I think we might be seeing the utter implosion of MediaDefender as a going concern. If this is the kind of professionalism and competence companies can expect from them, I don't see why anyone would want to use their services. MediaSentry just got a boost.
One thing worth pointing out though: the lawyers here, though clearly tilting at windmills, aren't actually incompetent, despite the seeders' allegations to the contrary. This isn't a DMCA takedown notice, and such a thing would have been inappropriate. The charge isn't that the files are copyrighted, which would invoke the DMCA, it's that they're misappropriated trade secrets and other confidential information, for which there is a remedy under numerous tort theories, as indicated by the letter. The seeders are still probably correct that no US court has jurisdiction, but that doesn't prevent them from attempting to file suit in Norway or wherever.
This, however, does not mean that a court in Norway is likely to hear the case. There's an argument to be made that a US court, assuming it were able to acquire jurisdiction, would dismiss the case for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The relief sought would probably be injunctive, and you can't enjoin the internet. As courts don't like issuing futile orders, they might just throw out a suit which would require them to do so.
