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Copyright Lawsuit-O-Matic Hits U.S. Shores
ISPs fighting new movie industry user lawsuit push...

Techdirt directs our attention to the fact that a new company named the US Copyright Group has started representing a collection of independent filmmakers by launching an automated copyright infringement threat letter campaign. The campaign has kicked off by filing copyright infringement lawsuits in federal court against some 20,000 BitTorrent users, with another 30,000 forthcoming. As with a similar controversial campaign in the UK, the money-making effort involves sending users rapid-fire threat letters in the hopes they'll settle outright, but it raises a litany of questions (and Techdirt asks all of them) over whether this is a smart PR move, legal, the reliability of the IP-address evidence being used, etc.

ISPs have traditionally fought handing over usernames tied to an IP address unless they see a subpoena, and getting a subpoena can be a costly affair for the copyright holder. Hollywood Reporter notes that the effort is seeing blowback from ISPs, with the exception of one unnamed ISP that voluntarily turned over 71 customer names to the lawsuit machine:

quote:
When the U.S. Copyright Group filed its recent lawsuits and approached AT&T and other ISPs for account information, the lawyers say they were stunned at the reaction. "Their subpoena compliance group said, 'We thought we had shut this (approach) down with the MPAA before,'" says Dunlap. . . So far, the US Copyright Group says that one ISP has cooperated, handing over 71 names and addresses. These individuals will be sent settlement offers. Eight of those cases have already settled. The other less cooperative ISPs are in the midst of fighting in court or reaching out to their respective customers.

The difference between the MPAA's past approach and the new one being offered by the US Copyright Group could come down to numbers. Weaver says the MPAA took a less targeted approach going after a smaller sampling of infringers in a single suit for multiple films, to send a message that would hopefully resonate to a much larger crowd. In contrast, Dunlap and his partners are using the new monitoring technology to go after tens of thousands of infringers at a time on a contingency basis in hopes of coming up with the right cost-benefit incentive to pursue individual pirates.
Apparently, the US Copyright Group has reached out for MPAA support, but the MPAA wants to see if the company can get past the ISPs in court before getting too excited about this new "revenue stream."
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thegeek
Premium Member
join:2008-02-21
right here

thegeek

Premium Member

New Revenue Stream?

It's sad that copyright owners consider suing pirates as a revenue stream. I wish making content worth paying for and providing content in methods preferred by potential customers were higher priorities.
gorehound
join:2009-06-19
Portland, ME

1 recommendation

gorehound

Member

Re: New Revenue Stream?

the biggest pirates are the ones who progfit form it and we are the victims here.these big content owners have ripped us off and stole from us for years and did they get sued for it ???
no they get away with all the BS they do.
I feel no sympathy for their greedy practices.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: New Revenue Stream?

Ripped you off by selling you their content? I continually fail to understand this logic.

bob579
@rr.com

bob579

Anon

Re: New Revenue Stream?

When I first read his post I figured he was talking about NYC bootleggers, etc. I agree that those people should be punished. There is definitely a line between copying for personal use, and large scale copying for profit.
PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

PDXPLT to thegeek

Member

to thegeek
said by thegeek:

I wish making content worth paying for ...
Yea, well, there are enough people who think zero is the only price worth paying (some even on this thread), that this business model may work.

"Don't do the crime if you can't pay the fine"...

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

Re: New Revenue Stream?

said by PDXPLT:

"Don't do the crime if you can't pay the fine"...
If the U.S. Copyright Group were prosecuting crimes, that sentiment would be correct. However, only DAs and AGs (and their assistants) can prosecute crimes. This is about civil tort, and there are only damages to collect.
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora to thegeek

Premium Member

to thegeek
said by thegeek:

It's sad that copyright owners consider suing pirates as a revenue stream. I wish making content worth paying for and providing content in methods preferred by potential customers were higher priorities.
Holy BS. If you don't want to legally acquire content, because it's not worth paying for, then just avoid it.

Owners are entitled to collect profits from their work.
taurusgl
join:2007-07-30
Turlock, CA

taurusgl

Member

Copyright Bullies

Its almost like they are blaming others for their failing revenue streams instead of themselves. I don't condone piracy but acting like bullies wont fix the problem.

FLATLINE
join:2007-02-27
Buffalo, NY

1 recommendation

FLATLINE

Member

Re: Copyright Bullies

Im no pirate but the more I hear about these tactics the less movies and music CD's i buy. In fact its now down to ZERO. Look their revenue isnt seeing decreases due to piracy its because of things like the recession and gaming is now bigger than ever and taking more of our time than before. There are many other reasons buts its important to say again. Piracy is not the smoking gun behind their sinking profits.
gorehound
join:2009-06-19
Portland, ME

1 recommendation

gorehound

Member

Re: Copyright Bullies

I have been boycotting on a personal scale for over a year now.i do not buy any new corporate greedbag products and if I do want a movie/Cd i will find it used somewhere.
I am also down to buying NONE form any RIAA,MPAAA,etc artist/company
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25 to FLATLINE

Member

to FLATLINE
You say that and yet the movie industry had a record setting year in 2009.
talz13
join:2006-03-15
Avon, OH

1 recommendation

talz13

Member

Re: Copyright Bullies

said by Skippy25:

You say that and yet the movie industry had a record setting year in 2009.
So then what's their problem? I suppose they'll have to point at "lower than anticipated record profits" as the reason they're going after individual P2P users?

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to Skippy25

MVM

to Skippy25
From which I infer that the industry has some kind of, probably flawed, metric which tells them that they would have done even better without the P2P piracy.

Of course, they want a low-cost, low-barrier (WRT legal requirements) entry into the "lawsuite" arena, so they can make a quick additional buck, without a lot of the cost overhead, from legally extorting settlements from P2P users.

Anonomsm
@165.20.104.x

Anonomsm to Skippy25

Anon

to Skippy25
OMG! A record setting year?! My goodness, pirating is just destroying their profits.

FLATLINE
join:2007-02-27
Buffalo, NY

FLATLINE to Skippy25

Member

to Skippy25
Maybe thats true but I doubt it. The word is that many movie studios are scaling back on production of new movies and some are on the brink on bankruptcy just dieing for someone to either merge or takeover them.

Another problem with the Movie and music industries is that theres too much bloat. Too many hands grabbing cash and too many are just unnecessary these days. These industries havent learned to scale back like the rest of the world did years ago. They didnt learn how to operate more efficiently. They did nothing but business as usual. Oh Yeah and they obviously dropped the ball on leveraging new technologies to help them make this all happen. Not our problem. I say let them fight on with this Bull. Its not going to get them very far. Piracy is not their problem. The ones who realize that will survive. The ones that dont will die fighting a lie.
PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

PDXPLT to taurusgl

Member

to taurusgl
said by taurusgl:

I don't condone piracy but acting like bullies wont fix the problem.
Maybe. "Acting like bullies" saved the cable industry. Back around the early 1980's, stealing cable service was commonplace. Then the MSO's got very agressive in going after cable pirates, and it largely stopped. Technological advances, like switching to encrypted systems also helped - no longer could someone just climb up the utility pole and remove some trap filters. I suspect over time, techology advances will help here, too, at least for video. Audio piracy is so easy it may be a lost cause. The record industry is already saying that the cuurent all-time platinum sales records may never be broken.
Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA

1 recommendation

Sammer

Member

Re: Copyright Bullies

said by PDXPLT:

The record industry is already saying that the cuurent all-time platinum sales records may never be broken.
It sure won't with the crap the major record companies are putting out these days. They don't have to worry about me infringing such crap, I don't even want it for free.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

Anonymous_

Premium Member

direct download for the win

hahaha direct download Pirate remains unaffected

fonzbear2000
Premium Member
join:2005-08-09
Saint Paul, MN

fonzbear2000

Premium Member

Re: direct download for the win

said by Anonymous_:

hahaha direct download Pirate remains unaffected
What's direct download pirate?

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: direct download for the win

Directly downloading from file hosting websites, which so far hasn't been an entertainment industry target.

thegeek
Premium Member
join:2008-02-21
right here

1 edit

thegeek to fonzbear2000

Premium Member

to fonzbear2000
Edit: Nevermind, Karl beat me to it.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

Anonymous_ to fonzbear2000

Premium Member

to fonzbear2000
said by fonzbear2000:

said by Anonymous_:

hahaha direct download Pirate remains unaffected
What's direct download pirate?
rapidshare,hotfile,megaupload etc.....
47717768 (banned)
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL

47717768 (banned)

Member

Re: direct download for the win

said by Anonymous_:

said by fonzbear2000:

said by Anonymous_:

hahaha direct download Pirate remains unaffected
What's direct download pirate?
rapidshare,hotfile,megaupload etc.....
Hell yea man

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList to Anonymous_

Premium Member

to Anonymous_
the newest method I have found that works quite well is looking at html source for video sharing sites and downloading the avi file in the source.

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec to Anonymous_

Premium Member

to Anonymous_
Are you sure about that?

»torrentfreak.com/rapidsh ··· -100323/

»torrentfreak.com/rapidsh ··· -100326/
47717768 (banned)
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL

47717768 (banned)

Member

Re: direct download for the win

Here is what rapidshare saying

During the last couple of days some e-mails created confusion, imputing illegal activities to the recipients and stating that RapidShare was collecting data against the Privacy Policy for legal purposes. The e-mails also advised the users to seek legal council. These emails are faked and did not originate from us. If you have received such a message, please contact our support, because your Premium Account might have been "phished". The fake e-mails are sent to keep you from contacting us.

In fact, nothing has changed at RapidShare over the last days. We are still not collecting any information about which user downloads which files. We are still successfully fighting in court against requests to open or scan our customers' files, be it by our staff or by use of content recognition technologies. We are still defending data privacy rights on the internet.

Of course, you still have to comply with our terms and conditions. If content owners bring to our attention that some of our customers have obviously distributed pirated copies of their content repeatedly or at a large scale, we reserve the right to close these accounts without previous notice.
nanoflower
join:2002-07-14
30876

nanoflower to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_
Actually, I've seen some reports of them going after Rapidshare.
I believe that was behind the reason Rapidshare was/is trying to work out a deal with the movie studios to legally provide some movies.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

2 edits

Anonymous_

Premium Member

Re: direct download for the win



they are already implemented changed to bypass such

by encrypting the files and file names + encrypting each part with strong encryption code also changing the file name

i.e.

day after tomorrow is changed to

big ice storm (2007).txt
or

big freeze storm (2007)part1.jpeg

you get the idea
47717768 (banned)
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL

47717768 (banned) to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_
said by Anonymous_:

hahaha direct download Pirate remains unaffected
I can't agree more i am doing it for years
47717768

1 recommendation

47717768 (banned) to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_
Or newsgroups is a 2nd chose of downloading pirate material

Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium Member
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX

Doctor Four

Premium Member

Re: direct download for the win

said by 47717768:

Or newsgroups is a 2nd chose of downloading pirate material
Even they are under attack, or rather one of most popular Usenet indexing sites, Newzbin is: »[Newsgroups] 20th Century Fox & Others v Newzbin

pokesph
It Is Almost Fast
Premium Member
join:2001-06-25
Sacramento, CA

2 edits

pokesph

Premium Member

Class act..

..this found on their site:
Keeping an eye on the interaction of law, media and IT, the US Copyright Group and SaveCinema.org are watching the news and legal precedent for you.
Telephone: +1 877 223 7212 FAX: +1 202 318 0242

To learn more about how we can help oyu and the decisions that affect file sharing, media and rights owners the world over, call us to discuss your issue.
nice proofreading you have there. Lets hope it extends into your 'lawsuits' so the lawyers can't beat you up on it.

This is just yet another attempt to extort money out of a generally unaware public. This kind of 'process' needs to be made illegal or, at the very least, HEAVILY regulated like bill collectors and the like.
quote:
A NO-COST / HIGH VOLUME APPROACH.

The US Copyright Group's NO-COST / HIGH VOLUME approach is unique in the industry and provides film owners protection through top law firms on a contingency or flat-fee recovery basis. The person who unlawfully downloads a movie cannot afford to pay a $10,000 settlement to avoid legal trouble. BUT, they can and will pay $500-$1,000 to avoid civil legal prosecution for copyright infringement. Multiply these settlement amounts by 10,000, 30,000 or 50,000 infringers, and we have created a tremendous solution to stop film piracy and recover the copyright owner’s losses.


••••••••

OldschoolDSL
Premium Member
join:2006-02-23
Indian Orchard, MA

1 edit

OldschoolDSL

Premium Member

IP target

The problem about this and it has happen in the past.... X company learns that IP xxx.x.xx.x is downloading or uploading "YZ" .... The IP is either a dynamic IP (always changing) or is some how shared, but not monitored independently or correctly (be it shared or dynamic). As no one wants to be the target of a law suite, the last man/women holding the bag is asked to pay the dues.

I do not support piracy, but I also do not support random number generated law suites either.

••••••••••••••

Time
Premium Member
join:2003-07-05
Irvine, CA

Time

Premium Member

"Unnamed ISP"

It's probably Cox, they seem to bend over for that specific industry.

IT Guy
Ow, My Balls
Premium Member
join:2004-07-29
Las Cruces, NM

IT Guy

Premium Member

Re: "Unnamed ISP"

Undoubtedly...
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Static IP addresses

I want to ask some stupid questions. Why don't ISPs automatically set up static IP addresses for the customers? Why does it cost $10-$20 to get a static IP address? If everyone with an internet access device tried to get on the internet at the same time, would that cause some type of IP address shortage?

••••••

Camaro
Question everything
Premium Member
join:2008-04-05
Westfield, MA

Camaro

Premium Member

I just want to know

How the hell does a "automated" letter campaign work? do they have a botnet harvesting supposed copyright infringing ip add. this has one big mess written all over it.
axiomatic
join:2006-08-23
Tomball, TX

1 recommendation

axiomatic

Member

Re: I just want to know

Agreed, who wants to trust a bot to check "the reliability of the IP-address evidence being used".

There are just too many easy ways to spoof and IP address or even a MAC address for this to be reliable. Especially with free wi-fi everywhere, regardless of what security the WAP is using.

There are going to be loads of people busted who didn't do the crime or even if they did the evidence will be so shaky that there will be mistakes.

Hundreds of percents of fail.
TheGuvnor9
join:2006-06-23
Beverly Hills, CA

TheGuvnor9

Member

Seems to me that the best way....

To make this end is to stop downloading media that is copyrighted and intended to generate revenue.

It's a chicken before the egg type of argument, really.

All you pirates out there, keep propagating the issue please!

I believe in a clemency for these evil pirates..as long as they publish their names for all the world to see. I actually started creating the list at the bottom of this post.

#1 TheGuvnor9
#2
#3
#4...
33358088 (banned)
join:2008-09-23

1 recommendation

33358088 (banned)

Member

Re: Seems to me that the best way....

said by TheGuvnor9:

To make this end is to stop downloading media that is copyrighted and intended to generate revenue.

It's a chicken before the egg type of argument, really.

All you pirates out there, keep propagating the issue please!

I believe in a clemency for these evil pirates..as long as they publish their names for all the world to see. I actually started creating the list at the bottom of this post.

#1 TheGuvnor9
#2
#3
#4...
and your the girly boy right
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

Mr Matt

Member

Will the US Copyright Group compensate those wrongly accused

How will the US Copyright Group compensate those broadband customers wrongly accused and forced to retail the services of an Attorney to defend them?
PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

PDXPLT

Member

Re: Will the US Copyright Group compensate those wrongly accused

It's called a counter-suit.
33358088 (banned)
join:2008-09-23

33358088 (banned)

Member

short answer ...there aren't ny wrong lawsuits LOL

how can they make mistakes they are highly educated lawyers after all.

Lawyers never make bad laws do they?
Lawyers are such useful idiots.... er jerks ...er people.

Again i wanred you all and you sluffed off other countries getting smacked in the butt buy stupid , NOW ITS YOUR TURN USA

and when the dust settles either we have hollywood as it was and it then goes broke. OR we have a type of revolution that sees all this FRAKING stupid crap get freed up and terms for copyrights returned to MUCH MORE SANE LEVELS

As i jest the only profession in the usa by 2050 will be lawyer
all you do is litigate and whine about everyone else.
all you do is take take take.

•••••••
Bahnzo
join:2002-08-09
Loveland, CO

Bahnzo

Member

Some things I've never understood....

1. How are these groups proving that an IP was sharing a file?

2. Since you have to share the file to harvest the IP's of the other users downloading and sharing, doesn't that create some sort of legal snafu? I mean if you yourself are sharing copyrighted material to catch others who do, isn't that entrapment?

I got a letter a couple years ago from my ISP accusing me of sharing copyrighted material. The date and time provided by the IP harvesting company showed a time when I wasn't even at home for a period of two weeks (and it wasn't someone stealing my wi-fi, I had everything turned off) and when I asked my ISP about this and demanded what proof they had to accuse me of this, the person on the phone just stammered and made excuses.

This kind of bullshit starts with the ISP's and their willingness to be errand boys for these companies. It's good to see most ISP's are demanding court orders before they give out information, but there are plenty that just don't care or bother to really understand what is happening.

••••
33358088 (banned)
join:2008-09-23

33358088 (banned)

Member

outside my network

you see an ip, inside internetal ips are for each box
if i do not keep logs on my router
YOUCANT Legally say 100% it was me or the guy over there or up to 255 possiblities per hub

YUP reasonable doubt righ there and all it takes is to show a jury this simple shit in about 5 minutes

ANYONE YOU HEAR
and then there is wireless......and its all hackable and dont give me the shit that it isnt ive been testing stuff and wireless hack tools its scary how easy shit can be

like i said once long ago dont tell anyone just keep a virus that will wack the clock on the box too.

there by me saying this am i inciting infringement LOL

or am i learning a lawyer and court what should not be evidence

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

Re: outside my network

said by 33358088:

YUP reasonable doubt righ there and all it takes is to show a jury this simple shit in about 5 minutes
Reasonable doubt does not come into play in civil suits. Rather, it is a matter of "preponderance of evidence".

Mr_Derp
join:2004-11-10
Plainfield, ON

Mr_Derp to 33358088

Member

to 33358088
It's scary to easily hack things but you can't figure out how to do single link MLPPP?
You're so full of it Scott.

Why haven't you ditched TSI yet like you promised to the other day? Oh wait, you had no intention to and wanted attention...

kados
Hail Odin
Premium Member
join:2003-03-14
Watertown, SD

kados

Premium Member

bla bla bla

All these companies keep trying to stop p2p sharing. They will never stop piracy....ever.

I've been pirating since the commodore-64 days, we used to have "copy" parties, we'd all get together and share all the games we had.....and this was in the '80s.

That kept going untill bbs systems got popular, then you'd dial out with the 1200 baud modem and hook up to a bbs and get games from there...

etc..etc..etc...

There is one simple way to get around this.....the linksys isp. I bet 95% of everyone who pirates has an open wifi connection they can hop onto....hell, I have 8 that I can connect to and get 5+ mb connections with.

Just sending letters is not going to stop shit.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

hypocricy

Raise ticket prices at the movies.. THEN ramp up a lawsuit campaign on the other side for those who say SCREW YOU, I'm not paying higher ticket prices, I'd rather download! One can foresee how well this might go over in the courts when fewer people can actually afford the legal option.

TweedleDum
10,000 Days
join:2005-11-02
Omaha, NE

TweedleDum

Member

Pirates most valuable customers???

source might not be the greatest, but »torrentfreak.com/pirates ··· -100122/

Apparently pirates buy the most, and i can say this is true for me, i downloaded a few seasons of bones, liked it so much that i went out and bought all the seasons, this is the same for my music, and movies.

appmudpie
@153.31.113.x

appmudpie

Anon

FREE WIFI

If they are tracking IP addresses, then they will be sending a settlement letter to all the "Open" WIFI network hosts-McDonalds, public libraries, etc. Any half-witted road warrior will use an external wifi adapter on an open network.

zen1
@optonline.net

zen1

Anon

Mediasentry with a new name?

yeah that's all we need.. they have done so many illegal things and pulled IPs out of a hat so many times it's amazing!!.. just look on Google for "mediasentry"..