Report: "Hurt Locker" team about to blast tens of thousands of BitTorrent downloaders with lawsuit

[onehandle]

The Hollywood Reporter this week broke news that Voltage Pictures, which produced of the Academy Award-winning film The Hurt Locker, has teamed up with a law firm going by the alias

"The Copyright Group" to sue tens of thousands of BitTorrent users accused of illegally downloading the film. An earlier and related story from THR is here. Other Voltage Pictures releases will be included, including Personal Effects, starring Twitter darling Ashton Kutcher.

After filing the lawsuits, the plaintiffs must subpoena ISP records in an effort to match IP addresses with illicit behavior on BitTorrent. According to lawyers at Dunlap's firm, 75 percent of ISPs have cooperated fully. Those that have resisted are mostly doing so, they say, because of the amount of work involved in handing over thousands of names. But the clock may be ticking. For example, in the lawsuit over "Far Cry," Comcast has until next Wednesday to file motions to quash subpoenas. (Here's the stipulation by the parties.) By the end of next week, thousands of Comcast subscribers could be turned over.
Of the some 50,000 individuals who have been sued thus far, only three have tried to quash the subpoena. In one instance, a Georgia man tried to invoke the state's shield law protecting journalists from having to disclose their sources. The judge denied the motion. In another instance, a woman successfully got a court to throw out the subpoena because her IP address wasn't listed in the original complaint. Unfortunately for her, the complaint was then amended. After unmasking individuals who have illegally downloaded films, the U.S. Copyright Group then sends a settlement offer.

I guess ticket sales and Netflix rentals have been underwhelming, and the producers feel like suing fans is their best hope of turning a profit. No, I don't condone piracy, but this sort of massive attack on a potential audience base seems counterproductive in the long run.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/14/report-hurt-locker-t.html

[mdmc]

1. Wasn't worth stealing it to me..

[Oregone]

3. You don't know that until after you "steal" (copy the binary sequences without harming others) it.

Also lets you know if its worth paying for previous to your wallet getting lighter.

[mdmc]

4. Poor choice of words

I have no interest in seeing it.

I did pay to see "Whatever Works".

Further,
I paid to see, then own, the Simpsons movie..

Peace and low stress oregone..

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. This is fucking fascism

I had no intention of watching this shitty warmongering movie, but now I'm tempted to download it just to piss them off.

This "intellectual property" naziism must be fought on every fucking level.

You want to own a copy of a movie, by all means buy the fucking DVD.

But if you want to know if it's WORTH owning, you shouldn't have to buy it first.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. this shitty warmongering movie is rather antiwar

How would you suggest that the people who make movies, books, newspapers, magazines, recorded music, etc. get paid for what they do?

[Oregone]

7. Maybe its like a Rorschach, because I got the opposite

Personally, I like creators to get rewarded for their hard work. I wish an establish system existed that paid them fairly as is, without having various middle men scoop a ton off the top on the way to the end user. Its those fucks that many don't want to shell out for...


But from another perspective, most sane people would pocket a million dollars of unmarked money if they just happened upon it. Especially if they knew no one loss that money actually (for example, if it was covered by insurance...but in real life, its hard to draw a parallel to exactly how no real loss comes by copying binary sequences). I guess what I'm saying....everyone wants something for free. Most would take it if it didn't hurt others and they couldn't get caught. Funny thing is...people just don't all group music/movies into that mindset yet.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. I suggest they make quality products that people want to buy

The music industry hasn't declined in the last decade because of downloading. It's declined because 97% of what is released by the corporate labels since about 1997 has completely SUCKED ASS.

Same with movies. Only there you have the additionally ridiculous rituals of paying $10 to watch a movie once, accompanied by overpriced junkfood (most of it containing federally subsidized corn poison) that probably raises your "movie experience" to at least 15 bucks per person.

Don't even get me started on fucking concert ticket prices, where you're now paying $200 to see the same bands you saw for $20 in the 80's, in the same fucking venue.

As a rule, I don't download commercially available material, but if I did, I wouldn't feel the least amount of guilt with the money the corporate media steals from their customers every day.

[FormerDittoHead]

10. +1,000. Imagine THEM saying *WE* steal intellectual property...

A thousand movies come out every year, about 70% of them sequels, rip off of an older movie, foreign movie, TV show or just another movie that was big last year.

MAYBE THREE ARE TRULY ORIGINAL.

Go though blockbuster and look at just the cover art and see how much they copy off of one another.

Then they turn around and fucking accuse *US* of stealing intellectual property???

That they have today's law on it side (bought and paid for on both sides) doesn't distract me from the truth.

Their desire (the people in the industry) is not to control the illegal copying of their work - THEY WANT TO CONTROL THE MARKET.

If this movie didn't win an Oscar, these people wouldn't give a shit about people copying their widdle independent film. They'd probably be promoting the copying and sharing. Avatar's been out on the 'tubes' for over a month now. Where are the headlines about that?

[Warren Stupidity]

11. More like 600.

And as every studio in hollywood is all lawyered up, you cannot make a sequel of anything without paying the owners.

"If this movie didn't win an Oscar, these people wouldn't give a shit about people copying their widdle independent film. They'd probably be promoting the copying and sharing. Avatar's been out on the 'tubes' for over a month now. Where are the headlines about that?"

The owners of Avatar don't care much because they've grossed 2.7B so far. Hurt Locker was indeed a low budget independent film, a film that had no chance of huge box office revenue because of its disturbing story. An oscar nominated film precisely because it was original, well acted, well directed - and for that you think it is just fine that their 'widdle independent film' should be ripped off as much as possible.

So what is the incentive to make quality original films?

[katandmoon]

13. That sounds reasonable. I think your employer should make you work without pay for a year

to see if you are worth keeping on the job (or hiring). After you work for a year without costing your employer anything while your worth is evaluated first, then if they decide to keep you, you should start getting paid.

[tammywammy]

16. +1 n/t

[KharmaTrain]

5. This Worked Soooooo Well For The Recording Companies...

Not very good business practice to sue your customers. It's a whack-a-mole game that these corporations and their big time lawyers never can win...both in stopping people from downloading and the ugly PR when they end up suing some 14-year old. While they have the right to use and those who download do violate copyright law, the money wasted on laywers negates any gains the producers hope to make.

The movie industry needs to develop an online strategy for downloading movies...be it through ITunes or some other agent...even making a film available for cheap download before it hits the theaters. These days spending $10-20 to see a movie is a luxuary many will avoid but a $1.99 download is another story. The sooner Hollywood and the recording industry sees the Internet as a prime mover of their product, not suing users/customers, the sooner they'll start to recoup lost profits.

[PJPhreak]

9. WiFi hotspots,Proxies and so on,

so they do this by IP trace?

Gee MikeyD's has Free Broadband Wifi...

[Skip Intro]

12. I dunno. If I created something and people stole it instead of buying it, I'd be a little pissed.

just sayin...

[katandmoon]

14. Ditto -- except I'd be very pissed!

[Cetacea]

15. ...

[Divine Discontent]

17. wonder how many vets&active military they're going to harass?

[katandmoon]

18. As many as illegally downloaded their property

[Warren Stupidity]

19. No way! Our Heros are allowed to break any law they wish!

How dare you not knuckle under to the Bigger Nationalist Idiot Than You Challenge?