TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Bored Pirate Bay Movie Uploader Fined $28,200
- Hurt Locker Makers Target Record Breaking 24,583 BitTorrent Users
- Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
| Bored Pirate Bay Movie Uploader Fined $28,200 Posted: 24 May 2011 03:29 AM PDT In February 2010, armed with a warrant and a representative from the court, anti-piracy group Antipiratgruppen (APG) carried out a raid on a house in Herning, Denmark. Their previous monitoring of The Pirate Bay had revealed that a user with a Danish IP-address had uploaded a DVD screener copy of the Anders Matthesen movie 'Black Balloon'. Through the courts APG forced ISP TDC to hand over the personal details connected to the IP address. This led them directly to the individual’s door. Maria Fredenslund, lawyer with Antipiratgruppen, played up the significance of the raid, claiming that they had uncovered “massive violations of copyright”, although the man – known on The Pirate Bay as Icenfire, appeared to have uploaded very few items. After taking out an injunction to stop Icenfire making any more releases, APG said they would review their evidence with a view to seeking compensation for their losses. They were going after Icenfire because he was an initial uploader, they insisted, but didn’t intend “to sue him to hell” because they were “nice people”. That case has now been heard by the District Court in Herning which has sentenced Icenfire, a man in his late 20′s, to pay 150,000 kroner ($28,200) in compensation and 40,000 kroner ($7,500) in legal costs. “It is a very important decision because it establishes that it is a serious violation of the law to be the first to make illegal material freely available to other users,” said Maria Fredenslund, lawyer with RetttighedsAlliancens (previously known as Antipiratgruppen). Fredenslund admitted, however, that Icenfire had no financial motives to his file-sharing and only uploaded the movie “for fun” to The Pirate Bay because “he had nothing to do”. The recent name change to RetttighedsAlliancens (Rightsholders Alliance) for APG is supposed to portray a new image for the group, and a shift in focus. “Our focus is to create space for new opportunities and new services, and therefore we think that the name Rightsholders Alliance reflects the work better,” Fredenslund recently told Comon.dk. “Furthermore, we have got some more members, and then there is no doubt that the future will about a great educational work, for example around the letter model.” The “letter model” is the act of sending letters to Internet subscribers after their account has been linked to copyright infringements on file-sharing networks in the hope they will change their ways. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hurt Locker Makers Target Record Breaking 24,583 BitTorrent Users Posted: 23 May 2011 08:22 AM PDT
The initial customers of the lawyers – who are also known as the U.S. Copyright Group – were relatively unknown indie film producers. But this changed when the makers of the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker (Voltage Pictures) joined up and sued 5,000 alleged file-sharers. Voltage Pictures always threatened that this figure was just the start, and it now turns out that they were speaking the truth. In their quest to recoup their claimed losses, the studio has now added nearly 20,000 new defendants to the lawsuit, bringing the total up to 24,583. This turns the Hurt Locker case into the largest BitTorrent lawsuit in history, breaking the two week old record set by The Expendables case earlier this month. In a status report obtained by TorrentFreak, Voltage Pictures lawyers give the U.S. District Court of Columbia an overview of the massive list of alleged BitTorrent downloaders they filed complaints against. This report reveals that most defendants are subscribers of Comcast (10,532), followed by Verizon (5,239), Charter (2,699) and Time Warner (1,750). The report also provides details on the agreements the lawyers have struck with various ISPs regarding the release of subscribers’ personal information. There is currently no agreement with Comcast, while Charter has promised to look up 150 IP-addresses a month and Verizon 100 a month for all ongoing BitTorrent lawsuits. The above indicates that it may take several years before some ISPs hand over the requested information. It would take Verizon more than a decade to look up all the personal details in the various BitTorrent lawsuits, which begs the question of how long an ISP is allowed to store such private details. The Hurt Locker case is currently being handled by former RIAA-lobbyist Judge Beryl Howell. She now has to decide if Voltage Pictures is allowed to proceed their legal endeavor and under what restrictions. During the course of the year many of the defendants in the Hurt Locker case who were already subpoenaed have claimed innocence. However, last week Judge Howell decided to dismiss all 119 motions to dismiss, quash, and for protective orders en masse, adding them to the pool of targets. Defendants whose ISPs give up their personal details are expected to receive a settlement offer from Voltage Pictures. The ultimate goal is not to take any of the individual cases to court, but to get alleged infringers to pay a substantial cash settlement to make legal action go away. The math shows that this scheme could turn out to be extremely profitable for the parties involved. If ‘only’ 10,000 of the alleged infringers eventually pay a $2,000 settlement this would bring in $20 million. In comparison, that’s more than the $17 million The Hurt Locker grossed at the U.S. box office. The Status ReportSource: Hurt Locker Makers Target Record Breaking 24,583 BitTorrent Users | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent Posted: 23 May 2011 07:03 AM PDT
Drive Angry is the most downloaded movie of the week. The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are DVDrips unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.
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March last year the law firm Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver imported the mass litigation "pay up or else" anti-piracy scheme to the United States. 
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