News US Copyright Group sues 50,000 individual BitTorrent users

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/03/31/new.method.could.spell.bad.news.for.movie.pirates/

DC-based US Copyright Group, has filed more than 20,000 individual lawsuits against Internet users who download movie torrents. According to a Thursday report, the group was created on behalf of independent film produces and has rallied the support of the Independent Film & Television Alliance. Another mass lawsuit aimed at 30,000 other downloaders is due soon as well, and the two could set a precedent that could hugely deter BitTorrent movie downloads in the US.

The lawsuits discovered by THR are largely made possible by a technology from Germany's Guardaley IT that can monitor movie downloads on torrents in real time. The program captures IP addresses based on the time stamp that a download has occurred and ensures that it is copyrighted content that is being downloaded rather than a trailer or just a similarly named film.

Lawyers with the US Copyright Group tried to get the MPAA onboard along with other big studios, but these parties wanted to see that ISPs would cooperate in this effort first.

The US Copyright Group's approach is different and could therefore be more effective than past efforts to curb illegal downloads via lawsuits, such as the MPAA's attempt to sue a smaller number of infringers for multiple films.

The US Copyright Group has had one Internet service provider (ISP) cooperate, resulting in 71 names and addresses of alleged downloaders being sent. Eight of these have settled, and all received settlement offers. Other, unnamed ISPs are either in court fighting this order or informing their customers of this lawsuit.

Many ISPs have often been reluctant to voluntarily identify customers as they often cite concerns about safe harbor, which exonerates them when someone is caught in illegal activities on the network. Agreeing to help these searches implicitly puts some of the legal burden on the provider, which many are keen to avoid as it can be difficult or impossible to completely halt piracy.

 

[Ghostrider]

Kill All Lawyers.
Shakespeare was right.

 

[Urwumpe]

A very German company...following the standards of many German scammers.

GuardaLey International
5 Jupiter House
Calleva Park
Aldermaston, Reading, Berkshire
RG7 8NN, UK

From: http://www.guardaley.com

They are also lying already on their website... Their contact information is absolutely violating German telecommunication laws, since they don't mention the responsible court for them, also they don't have the tax registration number on it, only the number in the company registry.

Just like many scammers in Germany, which abuse the EU law that permits registering a non-personal company (a company that does not need to include the name of the owner) in any country you like, as long as you have at least a mail box there. And for registering a LLC, you need just 2 Euro AFAIR. For having the equivalent GmbH in Germany, you need to get together 25,000€ as equity.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Minding a counter-claim?

 

[Urwumpe]

Minding a counter-claim?

Only if they sue me, which would be interesting since I don't download movies at all. (My update to ADSL1500 happened last thursday). Also, it would be interesting to see if they operated a "Honeypot", or just leeched. The IP address alone is no reliable evidence in Germany, you need to have more than this... out of the very simple reason that such evidence can be easily faked.

 

[TSPenguin]

The story on TorrentFreak.

 

[Shadow Addict]

So this doesn't have any immediate implications for music torrenters?

 

[Urwumpe]

So this doesn't have any immediate implications for music torrenters?

No. You are still only hunted by others.

(Who uses bittorrent for doing illegal stuff is stupid. I know no other file sharing protocol that is so verbose on your identity.)

 

[TSPenguin]

Bittorrent has the hit and run approach as opposed to eDonkey, where your share media is always public. With bittorrent, you are only identifiable as long as you sit on that torrent. And of course you are not sharing with everyone what other torrents you are on at any given time.
Nevertheless, P2P for piracy is always "stupid" as long as you do it with your own IP.

 

[Urwumpe]

With bittorrent, you are only identifiable as long as you sit on that torrent.

You download it or you are currently downloading. Most other protocols don't permit uploading while downloading, while bit torrent does just that. Which is why it is perfectly fine for legal stuff.

 

[ar81]

Welcome to the age of monopoly of ideas...

Is it time to defend our rights?
It seems that copyright, a legal framework developed over 300 years to ensure a balance between the interests of the wider community and those of the creative artist has become so tipped towards those of the "rights holder" that few of us can go through a day without breaking the law in one way or another.

Innocents accused of net piracy
Some 20 net users have come forward claiming they have been wrongly accused of illegally sharing video games.

 

[Ark]

That is pretty outrageous, makes the MPAA's strongarm tactics look playful by comparison.

I'm sure each lawsuit will exceed the price of the movie at least a thousand fold, for all the pain and suffering the rich movie producers had to suffer.

 

[Keatah]

Seems this is (currently) limited to folks that have helped distribute something called "hurt locker", i guess that is a mainstream movie of a sorts.. in most cases bit-torrent makes you u'l when you are d'ling. So if you downloaded that, you probably uploaded, and that is where they're gonna get you.

I'm sure there will be others.

 

[Ark]

It was made by a pretty small studio, received a limited theater run, and only made about 16 mil at the box office. Conservatively, with 50,000 lawsuits, even at $500-$1000 settlement numbers they will probably sue their way into far more money than the damn movie made.

 

[Shadow Addict]

It was made by a pretty small studio, received a limited theater run, and only made about 16 mil at the box office. Conservatively, with 50,000 lawsuits, even at $500-$1000 settlement numbers they will probably sue their way into far more money than the damn movie made.

It did also win, like, four Oscars. I gotta imagine some people will be inspired to buy the DVD of 2010's Best Picture.

 

[Ark]

It did also win, like, four Oscars. I gotta imagine some people will be inspired to buy the DVD of 2010's Best Picture.

It's not like they spent that much money to make it anyway. They got massive amounts of media attention and swept the awards, that should be enough for anyone. The only reason it was so widely pirated is because some idiot leaked the screener and their theater runs were so limited that it was more convenient for people to just download it.

 

[ar81]

Seems this is (currently) limited to folks that have helped distribute something called "hurt locker", i guess that is a mainstream movie of a sorts.. in most cases bit-torrent makes you u'l when you are d'ling. So if you downloaded that, you probably uploaded, and that is where they're gonna get you.

I'm sure there will be others.

I RENTED the movie and in my opinion it is just an average TV show. This is what happens when people likes to download garbage... They should like Orbiter instead.

 

[AirSimming]

I wonder why so many people still use torrent. It has become really a back number. For movies, especially Blu-Rays, Rapidshare and others are much more useful (and above all safer).

 

[TSPenguin]

I wonder why so many people still use torrent. It has become really a back number. For movies, especially Blu-Rays, Rapidshare and others are much more useful (and above all safer).

For the same reason not everyone is using usenet since 1980.
It is not entirely free. On top of that, the basic idea of sharing with others and contributing back to the swarm appeals to a lot of people.
Before I buy a rapidshare (or any other so called cyberlocker) account, I'd much rather invest in a usenet account or a VPN.

 

[AirSimming]

For the same reason not everyone is using usenet since 1980.
It is not entirely free. On top of that, the basic idea of sharing with others and contributing back to the swarm appeals to a lot of people.
Before I buy a rapidshare (or any other so called cyberlocker) account, I'd much rather invest in a usenet account or a VPN.

I don't think that I would go away from Rapidshare anytime soon. It's cheap, you don't need a subscription, and for now I found anything I was looking for, no matter what it was. Be it just a documentary I missed to watch on TV. Meanwhile there are so many one-click-hoster. The differences are going to shrink more and more. I think the minority these days is using Usenet (at least from what I know of several forums and my circle of friends).