http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385852,00.asp 24,000 BitTorrent Users Sued For Allegedly Pirating 'The Hurt Locker' They've already snagged an Oscar. Now Voltage Pictures, makers of the 2010 Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, have another milestone in their crosshairs: the biggest file-sharing lawsuit of all time. Voltage Pictures is trying to recoup money it says it lost from BitTorrent users that allegedly downloaded the award-winning film illegally. The suit was originally filed against about 5,000 IP addresses, but TorrentFreak is reporting that 20,000 additional users have now been added to the lawsuit, bringing the total number of defendants to a whopping 24,583. According to legal documents obtained by TorrentFreak, IP addresses from 10,532 Comcast subscribers, 5,239 Verizon users, 2,699 IPs on Charter, and 1,750 with Time Warner comprise the huge group of defendants. After the initial filing, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, attorneys for Voltage Pictures, requested access to personal information tied to each IP address in question. Time Warner balked, saying that doing so would be too time consuming and would take away from other, more pressing legal issues. Time Warner seems to be singing the same tune this time around, once again refusing to provide data for its customers that have been implicated. But subscribers with other providers aren't as lucky. TorrentFreak says while there is no agreement with Comcast regarding subscribers' personal data, "Charter has promised to look up 150 IP addresses a month and Verizon 100 a month for all ongoing BitTorrent lawsuits." This will no doubt be a very lengthy process, and it might never go to trial. It's expected that Voltage Pictures will offer to settle, seeking large cash payments from the alleged movie piraters. But so far, each defendant that has been subpoenaed has claimed innocence. Previously, the largest file-sharing lawsuit was filed against 23,000 BitTorrent users for allegedly pilfering 2010's "The Expendables."
Same thing has happened to me twice. One was for me downloading Spartacus, the other my girlfriend downloaded a couple of movies sure had on did to play on her phone on our trip. So sudden link has made me re activate my internet twice now.
So, it's all one big publicity scare. The US Copyright Group did this for the sole purpose of making headlines so that the public will think that they're cracking down on piracy. They filed it in a DC court, when they knew perfectly well that the pirates existing not only in DC, but all around the nation. They knew that they truly needed to either file the suit in federal court (which would take forever), or to file it in multiple courts across the nation (which would also take forever and require a LOT of legal resources for representation). So, if they knew all this, then why did they file it in the DC court? Answer: for the sole purpose of making a headline that says they've got the biggest piracy lawsuit in history. And that's why the DC judge is grumpy about it (I don't blame him). Neato! That encourages me, even more, to pirate movies to my heart's content.
Yuuuuuuuuuuup. After reading the last decision regarding piracy cases and the judge ruling the inability to identify a true "John Doe" by IP address, this ruling continues to put nails in the coffin that is head hunting torrent users by IP address. They're going to have to find new ways....and I'm sure they will. Some sort of cross database with companies to monitor who's using the most bandwidth and consistently exceeding their caps, then trying to zoom in on those guys and cross reference IP batches during certain periods....sounds like a hell of a lot of hassle, but I don't doubt at some point they'll do it.
did a quick google search and there are like 6 of these already? dang! never ceases to amaze how easily p*rn can produce sequel after sequel and yet no one ever complains how they never live up to the original
