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Canadian File Sharing Plaintiff Admits To Copyright Trolling
An anonymous reader writes "Canipre, a
Montreal-based intellectual property rights enforcement firm, has
admitted
that it is behind the Voltage file sharing lawsuits involving
TekSavvy in what is described as a 'speculative invoicing' scheme.
Often referred to as copyright trolling, speculative invoicing
involves sending hundreds or thousands of demand letters alleging
copyright infringement and seeking thousands of dollars in
compensation. Those cases rarely — if ever — go to court as the
intent is simply to scare enough people into settling in order to
generate a profit. The Canipre
admission is important because it is consistent with
arguments that the case involves copyright trolling and that the
Canadian Federal Court should not support the scheme by ordering
the disclosure of subscriber contact information."
I would imagine that you can't judge how sad the day is before seeing what the reaction is. I would imagine this scheme is active in most countries enforcing copyright.
Voltage Films is a well known copyright trolling firm in the United States. Unfortunately for our neighbors to the north, it appears that these cockroaches are now infesting them as well.
Here's a sample of the RECENT cases they've filed in the U.S.:
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-12
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Southern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-24
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Northern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-11
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Northern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-43
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Northern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-22
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Southern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-26
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Southern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-19
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Southern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-72
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Southern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-13
Copyright Infringement – Ohio Southern District Court Filed: 3/4/2013
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1 - 198
Copyright Infringement – Oregon District Court Filed: 2/19/2013
Voltage has many other ongoing lawsuits in the states. They've been filing them since at least early 2011.
Turn over all the subscriber info to Canpire immediately. Let them send out demand letters. Then send out letters to all those subscribers explaining the exact nature of Canpire's business, on the theory that there's a least a handful of those subscribers with money, good lawyers, and short tempers ;-)
'speculative invoicing' I think the correct term would be blackmail.
IANAL, but why isn't this simply considered fraud, and prosecuted as such?
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
1) Send out threatening letters
2) ???
3) Profit!
I call that a Racket as in Racketerring...
Traditionally, the word racket is used to describe a business (or syndicate) that is based on the example of the protection racket and indicates a belief that it is engaged in the sale of a solution to a problem that the institution itself creates or perpetuates, with the specific intent to engender continual patronage.
So you have companies asking people to pay for protection or immunity from further civil or criminal prosecution. All they have to do is just pay up.
I don't know if Canada has Racket laws, but in the US we do have the RICO law which has been effective in going after organized crime, especially around Rackets such as this.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
You mean extortion. Blackmail involves extortion by keeping a secret/returning information/etc.