14 DAY TRIAL // BitTorrent sites on one side and the production companies and movie studios on the other have been arguing ever since the appearance of the BitTorrent download concept. In the latest stage of this battle, other six sites containing links to video materials that didn't comply with the copyright requirements have been the subject to legal actions.
Starting with December, MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has started to target sites that index movies. However, together with the spectacular increase of TV series downloads, the organization has also started to target this category.
Many Internet surfers from the United States who watch a certain series, cannot wait for its airplay in their homelands, and prefer to download the latest episodes only a few minutes after they have been airplayed in the United States, outsmarting in this way the whole system carefully devised by the producers, which target ratings, advertising contracts and a well defined cycling of these series.
According to the surveys, it turns out that in the last year, the downloading of TV shows has increased with approximately 150%, and 70% of these downloads have been carried out over the BitTorrent networks. The most active and in the same time the most anxious Internet surfers that want to watch American shows are the British, with 18% of the total BitTorrent users.
In March, when the Doctor Who series appeared on the BitTorrent system before even being airplayed, a new record was set. BitTorrent is MPAA's most dangerous adversary, and the two "titans" have also clashed in the past.
Still, suing the sites that contain links to TV series is a first. Until now, over 90% of the sites sued by the MPAA have been irrevocably closed, so we can only predict that same faith awaits the sites in question: Shuntv.net, Zonatracker.com, Btefnet.net, Scifi-classics.net, Cddvdheaven.co.uk, Bragginrights.biz.