ISP Providers Want Piracy Lawsuits Stopped
 

Comcast, Verizon and Co. Want to Stop Mass Piracy Lawsuits

Posted: 30 Oct 2013

In recent years hundreds of thousands of Internet subscribers have been sued for downloading copyrighted material in the United States, but not a single case has gone to trial.

Most of the defendants are sued in bulk, with copyright holders joining hundreds or thousands of alleged copyright-infringing IP-addresses in a single complaint. The rightsholders then ask the court to grant a subpoena to identify the account holders behind the IPs, who are then approached with settlement requests of a few thousand dollars.

After an initial avalanche of mass piracy lawsuits in 2010 and 2011, federal courts in several districts ruled that these cases should be restricted to one defendant each. Last year several ISPs asked for a similar ruling in the District of Columbia, but without success.

Judge Beryl Howell ruled against the Internet providers and granted the adult movie company AF Holdings the right to obtain the personal details of more than 1000 Internet users suspected of downloading their works using BitTorrent.

The adult film studio and its controversial law firm Prenda celebrated the verdict as a huge win, since many other judges had previously rejected joining so many defendants in one lawsuit. Adding to the controversy, Judge Howell told the ISPs who joined the case that they were not doing enough to stop online piracy.

The ISPs were disappointed with the ruling and Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and Cox filed an appeal hoping to reverse it. The case has been lingering for a few months but yesterday the ISPs filed their latest brief.

The providers argue that the request for customer information is not supported by good cause, as previous cases have shown that AF Holdings has no intention of actually serving the defendants. “In 118 multi-Doe actions filed by Plaintiff’s counsel during a two-year period, none has resulted in a defendant being named and served,” they write.

In addition, the ISPs note that the adult studio is only attempting to generate as many settlements as it can, at the lowest cost without knowing whether the defendant is actually the person who downloaded the copyrighted work.

“Plaintiff’s primary purpose in seeking the personal information for hundreds or thousands of Internet subscribers per lawsuit is to extract payments without conducting any investigation into whether the subscriber — rather than another person using the subscriber’s Internet connection — is indeed responsible for accessing Plaintiff’s film without paying for it.”

The ISPs continue by citing several similar cases in which judges ruled that joining so many defendants in one case is not allowed. If the current verdict is upheld, they fear that the District of Columbia will become a “unique venue” for copyright holders to “gain the Doe defendants’ personal information and coerce payment from them”

Finally, the ISPs mention the controversial nature of the law firm Prenda, who were recently punished in court for their mob-like tactics. Among other things they note that Prenda’s principals used The Pirate Bay as a honeypot, relied on fictitious persons as clients, and submitted fake documents in support of their lawsuits.

“In the wake of these revelations, virtually all of Prenda Law’s multi-Doe cases have been dismissed or transformed into investigations into misconduct by AF Holdings’ principals and counsel. Yet, incredibly, Plaintiff derides the ISPs for objecting ‘with an air of moral superiority’ to Plaintiff’s ongoing efforts to extract personal subscriber information from them,” the brief notes.

The ISPs tell the court that this “lack of candor” should be addressed, and they ask the judge to throw out the case, or reduce the number of defendants from 1,058 to just one.

It’s good to see that Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and Cox are attempting to protect their subscribers. Of course it’s in their own interests, but it also helps to minimize the profitability of these classic copyright troll lawsuits.

Re: ISP Providers Want Piracy Lawsuits Stopped
 

I listen to internet radio and one guy I can respect is Lloyd Kaufman and the reason being is cause he's for people downloading his movies, cause as he says it's people discovering his films and if they like it they will buy it.

and business isn't as good as it used to he admit. but he doesn't blame it on people downloading his movies online for free. I also am tired of people getting sued and taken to court for downloading whatever film or album is out. there is no doubt that Jails are over-crowded as it is, I don't think they need any more people than they have if it's just someone downloading something.

Re: ISP Providers Want Piracy Lawsuits Stopped
 

You are so right wildhoney66.

Piracy will never go away!

Many artists are against all the actions being taken against Pirates and such sites, as they now recognize that its' free ads for them and sales increase because of Piracy

Thanks for joining in and posting your thoughts, we appreciate it. :clapper:

Re: ISP Providers Want Piracy Lawsuits Stopped
 

oh i know there are plenty of them. i call about a year or two ago there was a little girl who was about 9 or 10 years old. she downloaded some artist i had never heard of's i think it was one song. her parents had no idea. i think it was a torrent if i'm not mistaken. and than the FBI showed up and arrested her father and took the little girl's Winnie the pooh lap top away from him. they wanted him to sign something and he refused. there's a lot more to the case that i'm leaving out.

but that is not because it's on purpose. it's just i forget quite a bit of it. the singer who this little girl music loved. found out about it. and she felt really bad for this little girl.

and she publicy spoke out against all this bull**** her dad was put through cause of this. and i think she ended up putting some new music for free download for more little girls who love her music.

my point is she spoke out against all this bs. the singer i mean.

yes i did leave some out but like i said i don't remember the whole story.
as for how i am. i can't stand it when people just download and don't buy anything anymore. some may say well i don't do it to save money, ok i can see that but you also have to please the record companies and the movie industry by showing that they are making a profit. and also i love owning the product as well but that's how i am.

i may download a lot of stuff, but i also spend a lot of money on dvd's, blu-ray's and cd's as well. NOT everything is on cd or on any format to watch though. or in print either. so i download. i dunno why these people that want to stop it don't realize there are a lot of people like me.

they had on the Oscars last night someone said they sold over a billion tickets at the movies last year so please explain how in the hell they are losing money? as they claim ?

Re: ISP Providers Want Piracy Lawsuits Stopped
 

Yes I remember that, there is a thread all about it in this section- Disgraceful action by the Grey Men.... as usual !

Re: ISP Providers Want Piracy Lawsuits Stopped
 

Oh I didn't look so I didn't know it was already on here. I was watching Nebraska, and than Dallas buys club last night and tonight. I watched Nebraska last night and Dallas Buyers club today. and on the dvd of it, we rented it actually. The drug mart around us is I think the only place that still rents movies. and at the start the disc it shows those stupid ass signs how piracy isn't a victimless crime. and I forget what the other one said. but SERIOSULY does anyone know who in fact it has hurt?

I mean personally. it's just them wanting our money that's all.