MediaDefender is a company that offers services designed to prevent alleged copyright infringement using peer-to-peer distribution. They have been controversial because of their use of unusual tactics such as flooding peer-to-peer networks with decoy files that tie up users' computers and bandwidth. MediaDefender is based in Los Angeles, California in the United States, and its chief executive is Randy Saaf. As of March 2007, the company has approximately 60 employees,Anderson, Nate (March 18 2007). "Peer-to-peer poisoners: A tour of MediaDefender". Ars Technica. Retrieved on September 16 2007. and uses 2,000 servers hosted in California with contracts for 9 Gb/s of bandwidth.

These types of organizations are being hired to attempt to stymie peer-to-peer (P2P) traders through a variety of methods including posting fake files online, recording individuals who contribute copyrighted material, but also marketing to individuals using P2P networks. Clients include Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Virgin Records, HBO, Paramount Pictures, and BMG. On August 1, 2005, the digital media entertainment company ARTISTdirect announced that it had acquired MediaDefender for $42.5 million in cash.

In May 2008, MediaDefender performed a distributed-denial-of-service attack on Revision3. Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO charged that these attacks violated the Economic Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. As of May 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigations was investigating the incident.

Miivi.com

In February 2007, MediaDefender launched a video sharing site called Miivi.com. On July 4, 2007, file-sharing news site TorrentFreak alleged that Miivi.com was created to trap uploaders of copyrighted content."Anti-Piracy Gang Launches their own Video Download Site to Trap People". July 4 2007. TorrentFreak. Retrieved on September 17 2007. The site's origins were discovered by a blogger who looked up Miivi.com domain registration information.

After the allegation was re-posted throughout the blogosphere, Miivi.com was shut down on July 4, 2007. In an interview with Ars Technica, chief executive Randy Saaf stated that "MediaDefender was working on an internal project that involved video and didn't realize that people would be trying to go to it and so we didn't password-protect the site".Cheng, Jacqui (July 6 2007). "MediaDefender denies entrapment accusations with fake torrent site". Ars Technica. Retrieved on September 16 2007. MediaDefender blamed file-sharing groups such as The Pirate Bay for starting the story. Following MediaDefender's subsequent email leak, TorrentFreak alleged that MediaDefender's statement was revealed to be a deliberate falsehood."The Biggest Ever BitTorrent Leak: MediaDefender Internal Emails Go Public". September 15 2007. TorrentFreak. Retrieved on September 16 2007. Saaf denied that MiiVi was "a devious product" and that the company aimed to entrap users, stating only that it was part of MediaDefender's "trade secrets."