Los Angeles - The FBI is reportedly investigating MediaDefender, an anti-piracy firm often hired by record labels and movie studios, after the company allegedly initiated a denial of service attack last weekend against Revision3, a legitimate online TV network. In a blog post, Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback recounted the events, noting that the attack focused on the server the company uses to seed content on the BitTorrent file-sharing network -- which also happens to be used for illegal file-sharing.

The actions by MediaDefender took down Revision3's video and advertising, and even internal e-mail servers into Tuesday.

"Media Defender was abusing one of Revision3's servers for their own purposes -- quite without our approval," writes Louderback.

"When we closed off their backdoor access, MediaDefender's servers freaked out, and went into attack mode -- much like how a petulant toddler will throw an epic tantrum if you take away an ill-gotten Oreo.

"Was it malicious? Intentional? Negligent? Spoofed? I can't say," Louderback continued.

"But what I do know is that the FBI is looking into the matter -- and it's far more serious than toddlers squabbling over broken toys and lost cookies."

Related Links:
http://revision3.com/blog/2008/05/29/inside-the-attack-that-crippled-revision3

http://torrentfreak.com/revision3-sends-fbi-after-mediadefender-080529/

http://snipurl.com/2bmr2 (WSJ)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9952934-7.html

http://www.mediadefender.com