US Copyright Group Catching Innocent Users?

[admin]

The controversial mass anti-piracy mailing by US Copyright Group is apparently catching innocent people, as well as those that did download movies illegally.

Users who are sure they did not download movies illegally are still being hit with demands of a payment of a "pre-trial settlement" fee in the region of $1500 to $2500. Those that don't pay up could possible face even higher legal bills from seeking legal advice, as well as the $150,000 amount in damages that the US Copyright Group is seeking.

For many, it will be easier to just pay the pre-trial settlement fee than to contest the allegations, even if they are absolutely sure they are 100% innocent.

Ars technica details the story of several users that either had no knowledge of downloading the movie that the US Copyright Group accuses them of downloading, or felt that it was due to a hacked connection, and the lack of information provided by the subpoena, as well as the limited time span available to seek legal advice.

In recent development, the judge handling the case may dismiss most of the cases as the EFF and ACLU argues that the 4577 defendants in the lawsuit should not be grouped together, and that each lawsuits should be severed to avoid creating "tremendous risk of creating unfairness and denying individual justice to the suit".

More:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/songs-of-innocence.ars

[doctorhardware]

If the demand letter was not sent as a registered letter with a return receipt. Then the attorneys sending out the letters have no proof that you have received the demand for money.

The same exact tactic's that directTV had used. It was a nice revenue stream while it lasted. But I see that MPAA will just seek out other people to send letters to keep the revenue stream going. That way they can cover revenue losses due to economy and to a much smaller extent the illegal movie downloads.

[usbox]

Is there any site for more information.

[admin]

This page has some resources for helping to defend yourself against the subpoenas:

https://www.eff.org/issues/file-sharing/subpoena-defense

[admin]

US Copyright Group may be monitoring as many as 300 film downloads for IP addresses, and even if they record only 500 IP addresses for each film, that's 150000 targets in their sights. Assuming that 50% of the people pay the minimum $1500 "pre-trial settlement" fee, that's $112.5 million:

http://torrentfreak.com/hundreds-more-bittorrent-lawsuits-in-the-making-100612/

[dr_ml422]

Like you've mentioned before the MPAA is not losing revenue as it's posting record sales at the box office etc... They are just not making what they would/planned liked.

There's a saying that supposedly they tell you in prison during or when you're about to leave. "You can commit any crime you want just don't get caught!"

While there's no doubt that many are innocent, there is definitely no doubt that many aren't. Complacency over the years has led to a casual attitude towards getting some music tracks etc... from the net w/out giving any thought whatsoever to the consequences. Now that the consequences are being enforced everybody's surprised.

Oh btw another saying is, "That everyone in prison is innocent!"

I warned a buddy about what's happening and he being one of those complacent hard headed people that think it can't happen to them etc... received a pretty clear message from MS.

Whoever wants to continue better start getting w/a forum or some other informational source on how not to get caught. Either that or good luck w/the fine or a lawyer. The money is one thing. The hassle is way more of a nuisance.

[admin]

But the question is how should one get punished for downloading a single movie illegally? $1500 to $2500 seems a bit high, and that's only the discounted "pre-trial settlement" fee - USCG threatens to claim damages in excess of $150,000. For a single movie download! But the real loss to studios, even considering the user downloading may have shared let's say 10 copies of the movie with other users (unlikely, since nobody has that high a share ratio), is only around what $300? And that's assuming the downloader and all those that he/she shared with were all going to buy the movie at the full retail price, if they did not have access to the pirated copy, which in most situations is simply not true. This is why firms like the USCG in the UK/Germany even made presentation to studios saying that it's far more profitable to go for pre-trial settlements than to actually sell movies, and so the idea behind all of this is not to stop piracy, but to make extra money that they are not normally entitled to.

Some of those that claim innocence could be because their connection was hacked. Yes, it is people's responsibility to secure their connections, but most Wi-Fi routers ship with security turned off, and older devices can only support the older WEP security, which isn't very secure at all. And a clever hacker will find a way in anyway. It's like if people's computers were infected with malware and these zombie computers are used to attack a bank's servers - should the people who have had their computers hacked be responsible for the attack, or the hacker that made all of this possible? It seems when it comes to movie downloads, firms like the USCG/movie studios aren't interested in going after the hackers at all, mainly because I think it's just too difficult and not very profitable.

But even if one innocent person is "fined" for this, then this is unacceptable. What's to stop firms like the USCG randomly sending out letters to people that had no connection to the download even by their own records - I bet the majority would still pay up, and that's why this whole thing is so unethical, because it can be corrupted so easily, and because going to court (where everything has to be then proved to the judge/jury) is not the intention of firms like the USCG, and that again is downright unethical, if not illegal (to threaten to sue in order to extract money without any real intentions to sue).

[dr_ml422]

I agree they are crooks all the way. No doubt. Though at this point w/all this going on and the news spreading quickly, which it is btw even to the average joe, one has to make a decision and either stop old white lie habits or do the research to get what they want w/out paying. Even myself in regards to other stuff out here am wreckless and have to be on point or pay the consequences.

For instance I went to My Digital Life today which isn't exactly a pure evil site, but there's lots of very good info along w/this subject matter. Basically I browsed their Windows Update Compatibility thread which is very helpful in that it'll post any issues. Now just for that I could possibly be sent a darn letter.

It's messed up all around. Something's going to give. Their best shot is hitting the streets and all the vendors selling Pirated stuff and taking it from there. Prolly be cheaper doing some old simple detective work. This is all a witch hunt anyway. Reminds me of The Crusades where they would kill you if they even thought you weren't Christian.

[rago88]

Tommorow is the 21st...
Date the DC Judge gave Copyright group to convince her about 5,000 John Doe lawsuits at a time..
Guess we'll see the results soon..