Thread: Hurt Locker's Producers File Copyright Complaint Against 5,000 Downloaders

Taking a leaf out of the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) book, the producers of the Hurt Locker on Monday instituted legal proceedings against people who illegally downloaded the critically acclaimed film from the internet.

Voltage Pictures, the production company responsible for the film, fired the first salvo in the form of a copyright infringement complaint against 5,000 people. The scope of the complaint might even be expanded to accommodate more downloaders later on.

“The true names of Defendants are unknown to the Plaintiff at this time. Each Defendant is known to the Plaintiff only by the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address assigned to the Defendant by his or her Internet Service Provider on the date and at the time which the infringing activity of each Defendant was observed,” reads the complaint.

Voltage Pictures told the court that it will amend the complaint to reflect the true names of the defendants as and when it is able to identify them. And yes, the complaint also mentions the Hurt Lockers's amazing feat of six Oscar victories (probably in a bid to make a strong first impression).
The production company believes it is entitled to recover from the downloaders actual or statutory damages, costs of filing the suit and attorney fees. It is also seeking “injunctive relief” in the matter, asking the court to prohibit illegal downloaders from further downloading, pirating or hosting/storing unauthorized versions of its films.

Although RIAA has abandoned the mass lawsuit strategy, the contagion seems to be sweeping the film industry, with a consortium of film studios called the US Copyright Group filing a similar complaint against 20,000 downloaders in March.

Its so hard to convict someone for piracy with just an IP address. Theres no way this production company is going to spend the time and money to go to court. I think that by going after a massive ammount of people, they will be able to scare a few with threats into paying them a settlement

Originally Posted by Kicker

Its so hard to convict someone for piracy with just an IP address.

Is it really? That's a one up i never knew.

Originally Posted by Kicker

Its so hard to convict someone for piracy with just an IP address. Theres no way this production company is going to spend the time and money to go to court. I think that by going after a massive ammount of people, they will be able to scare a few with threats into paying them a settlement

Hard? I don't believe so. I posted this because I found it to be an interesting article. I would lean more towards being rather expensive than hard seeing as how in the lawsuit -

The production company believes it is entitled to recover from the downloaders actual or statutory damages, costs of filing the suit and attorney fees.

Nonetheless I was a bit surpirse that it was a production company and not the MPAA.