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The controversy surrounding anti-piracy and legal firms making money from threatening people with copyright infringement lawsuits is about to get, well, more controversial.
Previously reported, these companies license content from copyright holders to use them as bait to lure in people and harvest their IP addresses. Then, they use this information and with further research, contact the users and threaten them with lawsuits if they do not pay a fee. The twist is that instead of using mainstream movies and TV downloads to lure people into the trap, these companies sometimes also use porn downloads, to add further embarrassment to the situation and force people to pay, even if they didn't actually download anything out of fear of having to explain why they downloaded "Debbie Does Dallas" in court.
Now, a series of leaked documents reveal the exact details of the operation, including classifying potential "victims" by financial status, picking the ones most likely to be able to pay. Those that chose to put up a fight, for example by hiring a lawyer, were carefully avoided by the firms in question, preferring to bully the ones that do not put up much of a defence.
It's an interesting read on how copyright laws that are totally biased towards one side (the copyright holders) is now being abused by anti-piracy firms to make big profits, it's ambulance chasing for the 21st century:
Previously reported, these companies license content from copyright holders to use them as bait to lure in people and harvest their IP addresses. Then, they use this information and with further research, contact the users and threaten them with lawsuits if they do not pay a fee. The twist is that instead of using mainstream movies and TV downloads to lure people into the trap, these companies sometimes also use porn downloads, to add further embarrassment to the situation and force people to pay, even if they didn't actually download anything out of fear of having to explain why they downloaded "Debbie Does Dallas" in court.
Now, a series of leaked documents reveal the exact details of the operation, including classifying potential "victims" by financial status, picking the ones most likely to be able to pay. Those that chose to put up a fight, for example by hiring a lawyer, were carefully avoided by the firms in question, preferring to bully the ones that do not put up much of a defence.
It's an interesting read on how copyright laws that are totally biased towards one side (the copyright holders) is now being abused by anti-piracy firms to make big profits, it's ambulance chasing for the 21st century:
