Over 23,000 people targeted for downloading 'The Expendables'

[Matthew DeCarlo]

The US Copyright Group is after the blood of more than 23,000 people accused of illegally downloading the 2010 action film "The Expendables." A federal judge has authorized subpoenas forcing internet service providers to reveal the accountholders behind 23,322 IP addresses (PDF) caught downloading and sharing the movie -- that's up from 6,500 when the law firm initially filed the case in February.

Subpoenas are expected to be issued this week to basically every major US ISP, including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, Optimum Online, Qwest, Time Warner, SBC, Sprint, Verizon and others. The accused should receive letters demanding a settlement fee shortly thereafter. It's unclear how much the Copyright Group will demand, but previous cases have requested up to $3,000.

This marks the largest BitTorrent downloading case in US history, with the second-largest case involving 15,551 filesharers for downloading pornographic films, but subpoenas haven't been approved in that case. The US Copyright Group has inspired other lawyers to use the same scare tactics and more than 140,000 BitTorrent users now being targeted in similar John Doe suits across the country.

This news comes only days after another US judge declined a subpoena request in a similar case (VPR Internationale v. Does 1-1017) involving a Canadian adult film company. Judge Harold Baker ruled that an IP address is not equivalent to a person, saying the infringer might be the accused subscriber, someone in the subscriber's household, a visitor, a neighbor, or even someone parked on the street.

On the other side of the pond, European regulators are considering implementing a Europe-wide firewall to censor "inappropriate" websites, including those involving the illegal download of copyrighted material. Meanwhile, UK ISP TalkTalk unveiled a new system today that will act similarly with the ability to block malware as well as restrict access to BitTorrent and other filesharing sites.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/43714-over-23000-people-targeted-for-downloading-the-expendables.html

 

[oldikes]

wasent there an article a few days ago noting that you cannot convict a person using their IP address, as an ip =/= a perseon?

 

[ramonsterns]

*Applies blue paint on face*
A-hem...

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

 

[Cota]

ikesmasher said:
wasent there an article a few days ago noting that you cannot convict a person using their IP address, as an ip =/= a perseon?

Yeah but who cares about law, its the american way

 

[yRaz]

Cota said:

ikesmasher said:
wasent there an article a few days ago noting that you cannot convict a person using their IP address, as an ip =/= a perseon?

Yeah but who cares about law, its the american way

+1

 

[Guest]

Corporate interests will eventually force regulation and laws on the Internet.

 

[treetops]

Reading the whole article before commenting is a good thing. Yeah that judge did hit the nail on the head. I don't have a pass code on my wireless router because every time theres a power outage I have to go to each machine connected to it and reenter in the pass. The ancient laptop I use to connect my xbox 360 to the net is a huge pain to deal with. My power goes out at least 10 times a year.

 

[treetops]

Furthermore anyone summoned should counter sue for court fees, decimation of character and lost time at work.

 

[Prosercunus]

Cota said:

ikesmasher said:
wasent there an article a few days ago noting that you cannot convict a person using their IP address, as an ip =/= a perseon?

Yeah but who cares about law, its the american way

A judge said that... it is not law on the books when a judge says something.

Yeesh.

 

[Guest]

Yep.

Dear Attorney filing a lawsuit against me based on my IP:

Take your client and go get yourselves coited. You can't prove that I personally sat there and downloaded your asset, you can't prove that I personally authorized my PC or anyone else to download your asset, and you can't prove that I wasn't operating a public wi-fi at the time you claim your asset was downloaded.

Enclosed is an invoice for my time and effort in handling your frivolous lawsuit, for which I will sue in federal court if not paid within 30 days.

Yours truly,

John Doe

 

[TomSEA]

Don't steal and you won't have to worry about the Feds knocking at your door. I'm not sure why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.

 

[Guest]

The most common sense suggestion.

 

[neonxy]

You are right. No excuse for stealing/piracy.

 

[gwailo247]

TomSEA said:
Don't steal and you won't have to worry about the Feds knocking at your door. I'm not sure why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.

I know this is an exception to the rule, but still.

http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014867387_wifi25.html

What if you made an enemy of someone and they intentionally did this to you, and your reputation was forever stained. Just saying...

 

[captaincranky]

Furthermore anyone summoned should counter sue for court fees, decimation of character and lost time at work.

You might want to look up "decimation". I'm just sayin'. Oh hell, look up the past tense, "decimated" while you're at it.

 

[red1776]

You might want to look up "decimation". I'm just sayin'. Oh hell, look up the past tense, "decimated" while you're at it.

Of course...it's supposed to be 'definition of character'

 

[gwailo247]

captaincranky said:

Furthermore anyone summoned should counter sue for court fees, decimation of character and lost time at work.

You might want to look up "decimation". I'm just sayin'. Oh hell, look up the past tense, "decimated" while you're at it.

I'm willing to lose 10% of my character for the right price.

 

[captaincranky]

Of course...it's supposed to be 'definition of character'

Here I thought it was, "defecation" of character?

I'm sure glad you guys helped float that to the top for me.

 

[red1776]

Here I thought it was, "defecation" of character?

I'm sure glad you guys helped float that to the top for me.

no, no...It's self defecating humor.

 

[ramonsterns]

TomSEA said:
Don't steal and you won't have to worry about the Feds knocking at your door. I'm not sure why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.

Sure, first they go after the people who downloaded movie illegally, then they'll be deciding what websites you can't go to as well.

It's like we're really Chinese!

 

[matrix86]

This wouldn't happen if you were running proxies and peer-guardian

But the smartest thing to do in this case is to ask for proof that you were the one who did the downloading and not someone else piggy-backing off of you. Either the lawyers will ask the court to shell out money for warrants of hard drive seizures or they'll all just say "you know what? Don't worry about it. They're right. We have no proof it was them." Just think about how much money and time would be spent on getting warrants approved and then going through all the info on all those hard drives. It just isn't worth it. Unfortunately, if you caught downloading, you most likely aren't smart enough to think of this, lol.

 

[yRaz]

matrix86 said:
This wouldn't happen if you were running proxies and peer-guardian

But the smartest thing to do in this case is to ask for proof that you were the one who did the downloading and not someone else piggy-backing off of you. Either the lawyers will ask the court to shell out money for warrants of hard drive seizures or they'll all just say "you know what? Don't worry about it. They're right. We have no proof it was them." Just think about how much money and time would be spent on getting warrants approved and then going through all the info on all those hard drives. It just isn't worth it. Unfortunately, if you caught downloading, you most likely aren't smart enough to think of this, lol.

Of course they can always subpoena your harddrives, look what they did with geohotz. It really isn't that hard or expensive to do. It isn't even that hard to search for files on a harddrive. With the Windows search function and a few minutes I can find your music and movies. People don't hide pirated stuff like they hide their porn, very easy to find.

 

[gobbybobby]

Its ok rest of the world, its only Americans included on there, no mention of my ISP ot any other Uk ISPs for that matter.

 

[PanicX]

TomSEA said:
Don't steal and you won't have to worry about the Feds knocking at your door. I'm not sure why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.

I swear you're just as bad as religious zealots.

 

[fimbles]

This whole taking downloaders to court thing is just so futile in my opinion.

Like hitting a bull with a feather and hoping it will behave.
When will these companys learn....