Author Topic: 23,322 Bittorrent users are being sued for downloading the worst movie...  (Read 5503 times)

Offline Soryon

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Just recently, a few cases like this have been thrown out of court simply due to the people in question having wi-fi. Its not hard to use someone elses wi-fi (I steal my neighbors bandwidth when I am outside all the time) since my own wi-fi doesnt reach out into the backyard.
These sort of cases are generally scare tactics. Its VERY hard to pin a conviction on someone for this, they are just hoping to sucker as many people into settling out of court as possible.
(click to show/hide)

I tried to find links to the other cases, but was unsuccessful, however, this is related.
http://www.piracynetwork.com/piracy-news/judge-botched-child-porn-raid-proves-ip-address-not-proof-of-crime.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42740201/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/
In other words, in any jury trial, it would be nearly impossible to overlook reasonable doubt. (Unless they took your PC as evidence and found the files, I guess.)

That said, just about every bar and restaurant near me offers free wifi so if I want to DL anything that I think might be questionable or under watch I go there =p
But then I rarely watch, much less DL American movies. I can get most of them on uVerse for a few bucks and just record if I want to anyway.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2011, 02:46:49 PM by Soryon »

Online kitamesume

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just watch them on cinemas or theaters for a few bucks, less hassle and safest bet, they can sue the cinemas if they want, doubt they win tho.

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Offline Freedom Kira

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Sue the cinemas? What are you smoking? The cinemas are where movie makers get most of their income. Or did you think that cinemas download the movies too?

Online kitamesume

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no, i meant, watch the movies on cinemas, so the dudes cant sue you, rather, they'd try to sue the cinemas for showing the movie, get what i say?

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Offline NaRu

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Sue the cinemas? What are you smoking? The cinemas are where movie makers get most of their income. Or did you think that cinemas download the movies too?

He is talking about those local places that show older movies for like $3 to $5

Offline Freedom Kira

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no, i meant, watch the movies on cinemas, so the dudes cant sue you, rather, they'd try to sue the cinemas for showing the movie, get what i say?

Exactly, and that's perfectly legal, and is where movie makers get most of their money. It would be like trying to sue a grocery store for selling apples.

He is talking about those local places that show older movies for like $3 to $5

Those places show movies legally as well. Unless, of course, by "cinema" he means "home theater" or something, which isn't exactly a "cinema."

Offline TiYlER

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Online kitamesume

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if piracy was that much of an issue, i`d sue god for granting the possibility of having an identical copy of living creatures, including plants and animals.

so why dont people sue their doppelgangers or twin because of pirating their faces? or sue people that copies your hairstyle? its because piracy has been people's way of living.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2011, 05:10:42 PM by kitamesume »

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Offline TiYlER

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if piracy was that much of an issue, i`d sue god for granting the possibility of having an identical copy of living creatures, including plants and animals.
+1
XD I lol'ed !

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Offline vuzedome

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Look at it this way, for example Movie A just came out in the cinemas.
A cam version appeared soon after, and was downloaded 100 thousand times, that's a loss of 100K ticket sales.
Fast forward a while later, Movie A is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray, a DVD rip appears as well and again was downloaded 100k times, that's a loss of DVD sales amounting to 100K copies.
P2P technicalities and numbers aside, put yourself in the film makers' shoes, you could've sold more, which is why it's time to claiming losses legally.

All that freedom of speech and internet as well as copyright bull shit was shoehorned to those who are unaware of what's actually going on.
In the end, we are all taking advantage of what is made available to us, and we are also being taken advantage or being exploited by those who saw the opportunity and decided to make full use of it.

Nothing comes free, even pirating is effort when it comes to staying below the radar or doing stealth yourself.
 
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Online kitamesume

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yep, to top it all off, they still get millions of copy sales even with a certain percentage of pirating. they're a bunch of greedy people, if they shot down dvd price below 10$ each and atleast 25$ on B-Ray each then its a pretty damn good steal considering you`d be owning an original highquality legal copy of [insert movie title] with an included of warranty as well. pirates would be forced to shoot their price down below 3$ which would lead them selves to ruin as their electric bills, internet bills and other operation bills arent free and pirates cant perfectly copy the original quality as well. considering who wouldnt buy a legal copy for 10$?

if they considered pirating for free, then they're at more loss than they would've gained, pirating would then lower down for quite a number. doubt pirating would seize tho.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2011, 08:01:52 AM by kitamesume »

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Offline Lupin

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if piracy was that much of an issue, i`d sue god for granting the possibility of having an identical copy of living creatures, including plants and animals.
You won't win because you don't own or have rights to the originals

so why dont people sue their doppelgangers or twin because of pirating their faces? or sue people that copies your hairstyle? its because piracy has been people's way of living.
Can you prove that you have the original face? or hairstyle?

You can sue anyone but how do you prove your claims?

Offline rostheferret

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One obvious answer yet to be mentioned is to reduce the budgets. A big budget doesn't make a good film, a good idea and direction does that. Certainly there's a cut off point, but take a look at Miike or Shane Meadows whose vast bodies of work cost less than a million to make. Clerks is known as being amongst the great comedies and was funded largely by an insurance payout when Jay trashed Bobs car. Hollywood's the only one really bitching about piracy and they're also the only ones spend ridiculous amounts on films that often aren't particularly good. Transformers 3? Battle: LA? PotC 4? I mean really? They're not losing their money because people are pirating rather than buying, they're losing it because people pirate it, discover it's shit and don't feel like throwing their money away.

CAMs are universally shite. People who actually care about films would either fork out the extortionate price for a cinema ticket or wait for a DVD release. If they're actually excited about the film, the former usually beats out the wait for the latter. If its a good film, then why wouldn't someone pay for a legit version so they can watch it another time?

That said, I'm not entirely pro-piracy either. I'm pro "try before you buy." You wouldn't buy a car without test driving it; wouldn't buy a bed without sitting on it. Why am I blindfolded when it comes to film? Its a music model I've been pushing for years; a free listen for a limited duration or limited number of times before it asks you to cough up (assuming its actually been released in that country). The beauty of this is that nobody will buy music they will never listen to again, and the actual talent - the ones chosen by a majority and not media bigwigs pushing artists using money and connections - will slowly rise to the top. I don't see why it wouldn't work for films though. Most of my collection was racked up from buying stuff I'd initially downloaded. The problem is those that are completely 'pro-piracy,' which I can't agree with as from there its a slippery slope to never buying anything, and If I'd spent a year working I'd be pissed at not getting paid too.

Offline Takeshi

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Hey, The Expendables is a good movie. Seriously, I don't get why people don't like it. It's exactly how it is suppose to be. And it wasn't that hard to understand what they were saying and this comes from someone who isn't native english speaker.
1+ (haters gonna hate)

I saw it in cinema with a friend, but I do think I ended up downloading it as well. Though from a private tracker with SSL Encryption and Protocol Encryption. Not sure just how much it hides me.

Offline Stsin

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I tend to select movies by the number of times they are snatched.  Don't have to the time to read up each IMDB/tomato review.  And just like my anime collection, The majority of it is unwatched.  I'm not worried though, since I don't use public trackers (and prefer ssl torrents to get by my ISP throttling P2P).

Seriously, they've been harassing leechers for a long while already.  Though usually just sending warnings to their ISP.  The Music industry has been suing hundreds each month.  It's the same thing.  Just that this is made to be more noticeable.

While they are doing this partially for the money, I assume the main reason is to curb the general public from leeching without thought.  Reminding them that can be caught.  While the low minority of knowledgeable folks will just use less trackable means.  Like private trackers/forums to something that's been around before the Web: Usenet.  I see it as another reminder as the general public has forgotten the risks.  There's a reason why scene groups keep asking not to release their stuff on public trackers.

btw, I'm not going to fool myself by saying that I'm not taking money from them.  Of course we all are.  But the value is no where near what they claim.  I still go to the movies, but more for the social aspect of going with friends than the movie itself.

Offline Osmo

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Wondering if users who are being sued contain foreigners. Like the poor arab whos country has been invaded then getting extorted by the same country for everything he's got.
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Offline Burkingam

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If you reject intellectual property, the all Piracy=thievery argument fall appart. The way I see it, the moment you start distributing an idea or an artwork, it no longuer belong to you. It's now part of the general culture.
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Offline AceD

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i downloaded that film, was ok...am assuming the people been sued where all on a public tracker though?

Offline Stsin

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New Record is now 24,583 for the movie Hurt Locker.
http://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-target-record-breaking-24583-bittorrent-users-110523/
If worried that you may be one of the targets, here's a list of all the IPs accused:
http://torrentfreak.com/ip-addresses-of-the-24583-hurt-locker-victims-110524/

It's also good that there are no Funi files here:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-05-31/funimation-sues-1427-john-does-over-ip-man
I like the Ip Man movies.  Watched this at a friend's house  I hope he didn't get this off a public tracker.

Offline mgz

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New Record is now 24,583 for the movie Hurt Locker.
http://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-target-record-breaking-24583-bittorrent-users-110523/
If worried that you may be one of the targets, here's a list of all the IPs accused:
http://torrentfreak.com/ip-addresses-of-the-24583-hurt-locker-victims-110524/

It's also good that there are no Funi files here:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-05-31/funimation-sues-1427-john-does-over-ip-man
I like the Ip Man movies.  Watched this at a friend's house  I hope he didn't get this off a public tracker.
no real worry here state side anymore they will have a hell of a try getting people to settle out of court if the people even with free attorneys dont google people not ip addresses and find that stateside and outside of us judges have ruled that ip =/= person
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/court-rules-internet-ip-addresses-are-not-people/1022