New York - Hackers have posted on file-sharing networks and websites what appear to be thousands of corporate e-mails and recorded phone calls from MediaDefender, an anti-piracy firm hired by record labels and movie studios.

MediaDefender charges content owners fees for services such as seeding "spoof" files of their music and video content on file-sharing networks.

The hacker group, calling itself "Media Defender-Defenders," said by releasing the e-mails on networks including BitTorrent it "hope[s] to secure the privacy and personal integrity of al peer-to-peer users."

According to the e-mails, the company was also developing a fake file-sharing hub called MiiVii.com, which would have allowed downloads but reported users' IP addresses and activity back to the company; the correspondence also refers to a feature that could turn users' computers into zombie machines that seeded file-sharing networks with bogus files.

The Media Defender-Defenders also posted what appear to be e-mails and recorded phone calls between MediaDefender employees and the New York Attorney General's office, that detailed a plan to provide the Attorney General's office with remote access to MediaDefender's data on file-swappers.

Related Links:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118998414197229169.html

http://tinyurl.com/ywcwf2 (Ars Technica)

http://torrentfreak.com/mediadefender-emails-leaked-070915

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/stolen-mediadef.html

http://www.mediadefender.com