Revision 3 (Rev3) is an online broadcasting service that distributes it's own in-house productions (stuff like Diggnation, Totally Rad Show, XLR8RTV, etc) entirely free and completely legal for our viewing pleasure. I see this form of online media as the next "television", along with a concept similar to Hulu.com's distribution. Jay Adelson, chairman of Rev3, has appeared in the 2008 edition of Time Magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People, mostly for his work on another popular web project, Digg.com.

Media Defender is an online industry service that is 'hired' by the MPAA / RIAA (recording and media industries), Sony, Universal Music, and other production companies, to distribute "fake files and launch denial of service attacks against distributors" in the peer-to-peer community. Denial of service (aka, DoS) attacks are illegal in the United States. If the internet was some town out in the Midwest, you could imagine that Media Defender would be the back-water sheriff that plays judge, jury, and executioner to its victims.

Rev3 was hit with a DoS attack by Media Defender over this past weekend, CEO of Rev3 (Jim Louderback) described the attack in full detail through the company blog; also, it appears that Rev3 is collaborating with the FBI in the aftermath of this event. This could be a huge blow to Media Defender, it's backing companies (MPAA / RIAA), and friends only if Revision 3 follows through and brings on down from the sky the massive hammer of do-all, end-all justice! Surprisingly, Rev3 appears to be taking less offense to the business that was lost, but more offense to the shady practice and what could've been a much more tragic and fatal result:

-"If it can happen to Revision3, it could happen to your business too. We’re simply in the business of delivering entertainment and information – that’s not life or death stuff. But what if MediaDefender discovers a tracker inside a hospital, fire department or 911 center? If it happened to us, it could happen to them too. In my opinion, Media Defender practices risky business, and needs to overhaul how it operates. Because in this country, as far as I know, we’re still innocent until proven guilty – not drawn, quartered and executed simply because someone thinks you’re an outlaw."

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This could be the start of the end for all the illegal practice that Media Defender has reportedly been committing, which is marked up as a win in my Industry vs. Consumers book.

Check out the post by Jim Louderback at Revision 3 that details the whole ordeal: http://revision3.com/blog/2008/05/29...pled-revision3