Copyright Law

?Hurt Lock? Producer Sues 5,000 BitTorrent Users

By Jared Moya

Formally files suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against thousands of file-sharers to be named after their respective ISPs hand over their identities for illegally distributing copies of the Academy Award-winning movie online.

Well, it’s official. The producer of the Academy Award-winning movie “The Hurt Locker” has set his targets on at least 5,000 BitTorrent users he accuses of illegally distributing copies of the movie online.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and represents a dramatic escalation from rhetoric to action in the producer’s fight against illegal file-sharers.

Since each person connected to a swarm is an uploader as well as a downloader of pieces of the movie, his attorneys, working for the US Copyright Group, argue that each is therefore guilty of illegally transferring copyrighted material, even if it is mere piece or two.

“A Defendant’s distribution of even one unlawful copy of a motion picture can result in the nearly instantaneous worldwide distribution of that single copy to a limitless number of people,” reads the lawsuit. “The Plaintiff new seeks redress for this rampant infringement of their exclusive rights.”

And although the identities of the suspected file-sharers is yet to be known, they expect their ISPs to hand over the data at a later date and for which they will subsequently  amend the lawsuit.

“The true name of the Defendants are unknown at this time,” reads the lawsuit. “Each defendant is known to the Plaintiff only by the IP address assigned to that Defendant by his or her ISP on the date and at the time at which the infringing activity of each defendant was observed.”

It’s unclear why type of out-of-court settlement he’s looking for, but if earlier efforts by the US Copyright Group are any indication $1500 will be the minimum.

Earlier this month it was made clear that “The Hurt Locker” producer had enlisted the help of the US Copyright Group to go after ?tens of thousands? of BitTorrent users who illegally shared copies of the movie online, so the 5,000 targeted in this suit could be just the opening salvo in a protracted effort.

The US Copyright Group is also embroiled in plans to sue some 50,000 people accused of illegally distributing one of the independent movies ?Steam Experiment,? ?Far Cry,? ?Uncross the Stars,? ?Gray Man,? or ?Call of the Wild 3D.?

So far those efforts have been stalled to a degree by ISPs like Time Warner which claims it can process no more than 28 IP addresses p/mo because of preexisting average lookup requests of 567 p/mo, virtually all coming from law enforcement.

If the US Copyright Group expects to successfully resolve matters with the 5,000 named in this latest lawsuit it had better hope that ISPs are more willing to turn over their identities. Otherwise, at a rate of 28 p/mo, it may be at least a decade or more before it’s able to name a defendant.

For those that have already been accused or fear they may in the future, stay tuned to the Electronic Frontier Foundation as it looks for attorneys willing to assist people in fighting this mass BitTorrent lawsuit.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).