Posted on 05/29/2010 5:44:48 PM PDT by grand wazoo
Producers of Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker" have made good on a promise to file copyright lawsuits against people who have illegally downloaded the movie via file-sharing networks.
Voltage Pictures, an independent production company, filed a copyright complaint on Monday against 5,000 John Does in federal court in Washington, D.C. According to court records, next on the company's to-do list is to learn the names of the John and Jane Does from their Internet service providers.
Attorneys for Voltage wrote in the complaint that unless the court stops the people who pirate "The Hurt Locker," then Voltage will suffer "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money."
Voltage has asked the court to order anyone who downloaded the movie illegally to destroy all copies of "The Hurt Locker" on their computers and any other electronic device that they may have stored the film.
As for monetary damages, the movie's producers did not ask for a specific figure but want those found to have pilfered the movie to pay actual or statutory damages and cover the costs that went into filing the suits.
So, here we go again.
Some big hurt The "Hurt Locker" producers aren't the first to kick off this new round of suits against individuals. A company calling itself the U.S. Copyright Group seems to be spearheading these efforts and has filed lawsuits on behalf of 10 other movies, including "Far Cry" and "Call of the Wild 3D."
None of those flicks have come close to earning the notoriety of "Locker." The film won six Academy Awards this year, including one for "Best Picture." The movie was a disappointment at the box office, however, grossing only $16 million domestically. Nonetheless, a film with an Oscar pedigree could potentially whip up a lot of sympathy among independent filmmakers for the idea of taking a stand against file sharing.
"The plaintiff has identified each defendant by the IP address assigned to that defendant. The plaintiff believes that information obtained in discovery will lead to the identification of each of the defendant's true name." --Voltage Pictures in complaint
But the filing of a lawsuit does not a successful legal campaign make. Not when you're talking about the volume of file sharers Voltage has set its sights on.
This is well tread ground after all. The four top record companies attempted to use litigation as a deterrent for five years and were confronted by bad publicity, big legal costs, and this little nugget: the suits didn't slow illegal downloading.
And the labels are large corporations with lots of cash to fund antipiracy operations. Voltage is relatively small and isn't backed by the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade group representing the six largest film studios, including Disney, Sony Pictures, and Paramount Pictures. The MPAA employs staff to help prevent studio-backed films from leaking to the Web and track them down when they occur.
It appears the Copyright Group, which is private and has nothing to do with the government despite the official-sounding name, is offering smaller film companies a means to fight back against piracy.
Your IP address Whether Voltage can bankroll a legal campaign involving 5,000 people, or whether litigation can make up for lost profits remains to be seen. But two things are for certain: First, Nicolas Chartier, who co-founded Voltage, doesn't appear afraid of some bad publicity. On the contrary, he seems to welcome it. Not only did he get banned from the Academy Awards for lobbying judges to vote for his film, but he recently called those who disagree with his lawsuits "morons."
The second thing that "Locker" downloaders should know is that according to the filing, Voltage already has the Internet protocol addresses of the 5,000 John and Jane Does. There was some question whether companies such as Time Warner and Comcast would provide the information because the Copyright Group has filed so many requests for IP addresses; about 50,000 for a dozen or so films. The ISPs say they don't have the resources to chase down this many. Remember, in five years, the RIAA filed suit against less than 40,000 people.
"The plaintiff has identified each defendant by the IP address assigned to that defendant," Voltage's attorneys wrote. "The plaintiff believes that information obtained in discovery will lead to the identification of each of the defendant's true name."
This is why some trackers don’t allow mainstream films. I came across one that only accepts unsubtitled 1930s and 40s Soviet Union cinema. If you upload anything else, you get banned. :O)
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaaa. Wheeeezeeee. Cough. Hahahahahhahahahahahaha.
I've run networks for years, and getting an IP address back to my physical location or name would require MUCH more than a movie is worth.
I'm not advocating or approving stealing intellectual property. You want to watch a movie, buy it or rent it.
But the naiveté of that statement just made the old hacker in me laugh.
/johnny
It’s about time free movie downloaders get sued.
There’s a reason the rest of us watch through Netflix, Hulu, etc. It’s the legal, justifiable way to do so.
I’m on Hollywood’s side with this: even if it’s a Michael Moore crock-umentary that is being swiped.
....well, maybe I would make an exception there....
HMM this should be interesting to see how they are going to pull this off in the era of DHCP.
MY IP address changes almost daily, depending on if my computer has had an on/off cycle that day or not. Have seen it change multiple times in one hour before when I was having issues with my router - I had to keep releasing and renewing due to the router barfing.
It's not true, but would this be a valid defense?
That assumes that the studio (or the ISP) wants to know who *really* was controlling the computer at the time of the incident. (and that's impossible, short of fingerprint readers that lock you out unless you keep proving your identity every few minutes, and assuming that the computer is trusted.)
But the most likely scenario is that the ISP will just report the name of the person who pays the bill, and let the court sort the rest out.
on top of it, the movie sucked...
Who would be stupid enough to download a film?
I mean actually download a movie rather than watch it on some megavideo site.
There is a difference between someone streaming a film on some website and downloading it, this article does not make that distinction clear.
Studios missed the ballgame back when tv was starting out, now they are missing the game with the internet.
Just find a sweet spot like the 99 cent iTunes for movies, and people will be glad to pay for them. Just not twenty bucks for an internet movie.
5,000 “john does” are easily found in jail. Pay-up.
Can’t they track the location of those who downloaded them via torrents? Isn’t it technically possible?
All MAC addresses are traceable, until you change it.
I believe it is.
The existence of a router (secured or unsecured) make it impossible to track the download. Unless the download still exists on your hard drive.
Including when it’s done via torrents? What I’m aware is that the files are broken into myriad pieces, each downloaded from several others.
That part admittedly is above my understanding. I did not know the process. It would seem a central hub would have to gather it.
And at Comcast we only store 6 months of DHCP lease records. After that they get purged!
Thanks!
Any lawyers/computer geeks out there?
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