Honeypots and Piracy

In the chapter “Six Faces of Piracy” by Ramon Lobato, Lobato discusses digital piracy within the context of theft, free enterprise, free speech, authorship, resistance and access. Aside from the section on theft, his portrayal takes on a largely neutral and sometimes positive form, leading the reader to believe he is likely not opposed to piracy, or at least does not actively advocate against it. Since the MPAA propagates a one-sided, completely negative view of piracy and is almost equally opposed by  pro-piracy advocates, Lobato’s expansion of piracy from its two dimensional playing field is refreshing. However, even though his commentary on the societal implications of piracy within a subtly technologically oppressed regime is insightful, people still tend to focus almost exclusively on piracy as theft. In fact, some people will go to great lengths to reinforce this concept, as one company has revealed.

            Recently, the owner of the file-sharing site UploaderTalk.com revealed that the site was a honeypot designed to accumulate information about users and the file and web hosts. It has since been purchased by the anti-piracy company Nuke Piracy, and the owner claims to be working for the company now.  The owner, WDF, seems quite proud of his operation, declaring “I collected info on file hosts, web hosts, websites. I suckered shitloads of you”. WDF used to be a moderator of another file-sharing site, WJunction, where members could make money from uploading content. It is unclear if members could do the same at UploaderTalk, but based on the small member population (around a thousand) it seems unlikely. WDF has not yet announced what will be done with the information gathered during the sites one-year run, but it is likely not going to be good for its members. It seems obvious that WDF and Nuke Piracy take the viewpoint of piracy as theft, however, in congratulating themselves they have conveniently avoided the fact that UploaderTalk encouraged piracy.

UploaderTalk would've been a Facilitator

            Until it was announced that UploaderTalk had been a honeytrap, it had been a file-sharing website where members could upload and download largely pirated content. According to WDF, this certainly constitutes theft and is therefore wrong. However, he does not take into account that he is the one who made it all possible; he created the site, therefore he enabled all the activities that occurred under its domain. Doesn't this make him guilty as well? He went to great lengths to set up an operation that would “catch” distributors of pirated content, but in the process he ensured that content would be accessible to more people. The MPAA makes the issue of piracy seem like “good guy” versus “bad guy”, with them and their anti-piracy counterparts playing the roles of “good guys” in their attempt to expunge piracy from the face of the Earth. However, as WDF has proved, it is rarely that simple. As Lobato pointed out, the financial losses to the media industry due to piracy, while often exaggerated, remain substantial. Isn’t there a better way for anti-piracy groups to go about their mission without deceiving and entrapping users who are completely unaware of their ulterior motives? Two wrongs don’t make a right, and here it looks like no one comes out on top.