Wow. Just wow. The MPAA now claims it doesn’t need evidence to convict alleged pirates.

Believe it or not, that’s not the most ridiculous part. Check out MPAA lawyer Marie van Uitert’s explanation:

It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement.

Yes, you read that right. The MPAA claims it doesn’t need to prove infringement because proof is just too much work.

My jaw’s still on the floor. Nevermind that van Uitert needs to be disbarred for proposing that convictions don’t require evidence. We know the MPAA holds itself above the laws on fair use and cybercrime — but even I never thought they held themselves above proof.

If you need any more proof that the MPAA’s “antipiracy” attack dogs hurt innocent people, look no further than this. Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback reports that a denial of service attack — a cybercrime — that took down his business for two days was committed by none other than Media Defender, an MPAA “antipiracy” watchdog.

Revision3 produces online video shows, their most famous being Diggnation. They publish their content — quite legally — via BitTorrent. Apparently, Media Defender’s systems are programmed to put fake trackers on BitTorrent servers, and attack those servers if caught. That’s exactly what happened to Revision3. Read more