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Lawsuits Over File Sharing Have Dropped in Half in 2016

Lawsuits filed against filesharing users have dropped in half in 2016 as the copyright trolls behind many of the suits hit brick walls thanks to some dubious legal practices. According to a new report by Lex Machina, there were 249 file-sharing related lawsuits filed in the second quarter of 2016, compared to 517 cases filed during the same period the previous year. Really taking off in 2011, file sharing cases had begun to skyrocket over the last five years as companies tried to create a revenue stream out of threatening pirates with legal action.

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But as ISPs have stepped up, and Judges have responded poorly to some dubious legal practices on the part of the entertainment industry and its allies, things have started to go south for these legal efforts from the likes of Prenda, Rightscorp, and Malibu Media.

One Prenda law founder has been disbarred, and another faces allegations that could lead to the same fate. Malibu Media has slowed its filing of new cases after an internal dispute over money. Rightscorp has struggled as ISPs like RCN and Grand Communications fight back against what they call "extortion" of their users.

And with Cox Communications recently being held liable for user file sharing in a case that could threaten all ISPs' safe harbor protections under the DMCA, it seems likely that deep pocketed companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast could soon enter the fray.

"This suggests that file sharing litigation, which had represented the majority of copyright litigation from Q4 2014 through Q4 2015, may have been a short-lived trend," the report notes.

This all comes as the entertainment industry's once-feared "six strikes" enforcement initiative has started to lose steam, with the CCI (the Center for Copyright Information, tasked with overseeing the program) so far failing to dramatically expand the initiative as expected. That's in part because trying to punish pirates in the age of proxies and VPNs is a futile game of whac-a-mole, but also because the rise in good, cheap streaming options has -- as many people said all along (us included) -- has significantly helped defang the piracy bogeyman.


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SpottedCat
join:2004-06-27
Miami, FL

23 recommendations

SpottedCat

Member

I used to pirate Game of Thrones...

...because to watch it legally I would have had to pay over $100 a month for cable + HBO. Totally not worth it.

Then HBO Now came along, and I was able to pay $15 a month to watch GoT and other HBO shows. So I signed up and paid for the content.

IT'S THAT SIMPLE, MEDIA OWNERS. Make it affordable and convenient for us to watch your stuff legally and we will. Make it hard, and out comes the torrent client. I have no patience for greedy collusion.