Court orders pirate site owner to pay Hollywood $17.2 million in damages

[Shawn Knight]

It’s more bad news for Dimitri Mader, owner of a poplar “warez” forum, as a court has ordered him to pay $12.8 million in damages to a collective of Hollywood studios. That’s on top of the $4.4 million award that’ll be split between two music groups and Microsoft.

Mader is the founder of Wawa-Mania, a forum with more than two million members that specializes in what Torrent Freak describes as a broad range of “pirate” content. The site was “outed” late last year in the RIAA’s list of more than 50 alleged pirate sites it provided to the US government.

The Association Against Audiovisual Piracy went after Mader in 2009 after identifying more than 3,600 movies illegally made available on Wawa-Mania. The case dragged on for several years until this past April when Mader was sentenced to a year in jail and fined 20,000 euros.

The latest damages come as a result of a civil suit filed by several plaintiffs, most of which are major Hollywood studios. Below is a list of each plaintiff and their associated financial awards:

€ 2,725,260 for Twentieth Century Fox Film ($3,015,813)
€ 1,998,849 for Disney Enterprises ($2,211,956)
€ 1,838,401 for Columbia Pictures ($2,034,402)
€ 1,796,027 for Universal City Studios ($1,987,510)
€ 1,618,388 for Paramount Pictures ($1,790,932)
€ 1,224,348 for Warner Bros. ($1,354,881)
€ 434,699 for Tristar Pictures ($481,044)
€ 2,691,670 for SACEM ($2,978,642)
€ 527,675 for SCPP ($583,933)
€ 684,067 for Microsoft ($756,998)
€ 67,395 for Marc Dorcel ($74,580)

Unless Mader has a massive stash of cash he’s holding on to, one has to think these awards are moral victories as best. Either way, it’s a win for Hollywood studios in the ongoing war against piracy.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61257-court-orders-pirate-site-owner-pay-hollywood-172.html

 

[psycros]

Oh look, another illegal judgement from a corrupt court. Meanwhile not a single US Justice Department official has stood trial for illegally selling thousands of firearms to Mexican drug lords. Meanwhile the Supreme Courts of America have recently issued yet ANOTHER ruling that directly contradicts the Constitution. Meanwhile the Obama administration refuses to enforce US immigration laws while suing the states that do. The law has no meaning anymore..and boy, are the powers-that-be ever going to reap the whirlwind.

 

[BlueDrake]

It's almost always just a moral victory, because these are not the ones making those sums of money. They will use it as a means to gloat about stopping piracy, but it never will logically shut down everything. Just because you stopped the middleman so to speak, doesn't mean the ones using said sites won't find other means.

I'm just tired of these excuses, yes it's a crime but it's also a crime to promote bad movies / shows. It robs us emotionally and mentally, of any logical capacity until we're all blithering *****s. :\

 

[mailpup]

I'm just tired of these excuses, yes it's a crime but it's also a crime to promote bad movies / shows. It robs us emotionally and mentally, of any logical capacity until we're all blithering *****s. :\

I'd just as soon not have someone else make this value judgement for me, thanks. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would like to decide for me what I should watch or not watch but I would like to decide for myself if I may be permitted so bold an action.

 

[stewi0001]

Justice for those who have money.... So much sadness for how pathetic we've become. If anything, all that money that they "won" should go to charities and not their own wallets.

 

[Guest]

It's been years since Hollywood has released anything I enjoyed. I don't even pirate their garbage movies. Not to mention theatres ruin the movie watching experience for me. I don't want to watch a movie with a hundred people kicking my seat, munching on junk food and slurping their drinks. I enjoy my privacy with my family. I would pirate movies if there were any that actually intrigued me.

The only thing I pirate are TV series or documentaries which are not available for (paid) streaming online.

 

[Guest]

Firstly the money is ludicrous tell them to F OFF.

Give monies to charities. Even charities need ripping apart these days. They have some ***** at the top who thinks cause they helps pass money on to charities they deserve a massive cut of the money. Then they get random "quotes" for prices, pay up, and those they pay skim a load of money off the top.

Everything is corrupt. And no one can stop it now. The disease that is humanity... has taken too much of a hold.

And FYI ...David Cameron is letting one of the IS terrorists live in a £1million flat in London. And he gets £50k a year. So if you think the US is corrupt... wow you have not met anyone from Parliment...