Hotfile Settles With MPAA, Drops Countersuit Against Warner Bros

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hotfile Settles With MPAA, Drops Countersuit Against Warner Bros

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday December 4, 2013 @05:02AM from the some-heads-are-gonna-roll dept.

After winning the right to use the term perjury in regards to Warner Bros abuse of the DMCA takedown procedure, and successfully blocking the MPAA from using the term "piracy" at their trial, Hotfile settled out of court with the MPAA today (mere days before the trial was scheduled to begin). As part of the deal, they are dropping their countersuit against Warner Bros, paying $80 million, and halting all operations immediately. The Hotfile website has been replaced by an MPAA message. From Torrent Freak: "The settlement deal was rubber stamped by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, ... The MPAA is happy with the outcome which it says will help to protect the rights of copyright holders on the Internet. 'This judgment by the court is another important step toward protecting an Internet that works for everyone,' MPAA boss Chris Dodd says."

26 of 88 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Perjury! Piracy! What? by jeffb+(2.718) · 2013-12-04 05:08 · Score: 3, Interesting

So, after winning the right to use an incendiary term in trial, and blocking their opponents from using another incendiary term, Hotfile... rolled over?
1. Re:Perjury! Piracy! What? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 05:14 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Perjury is a legal term. Piracy is an analogy.
2. Re:Perjury! Piracy! What? by Travis+Mansbridge · 2013-12-04 05:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They may have just been flexing their legal muscle to achieve a better bargaining position, allowing them to settle for less than they would have had to pay.
3. Re:Perjury! Piracy! What? by Bacon+Bits · 2013-12-04 05:39 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  This is a civil trial. Perjury is a criminal offense, and prosecution must be brought by the state.
  
  --
  The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
"Everyone" by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · 2013-12-04 05:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

Of course, by "everyone" he means the only people that count... rich people.

--

Technoli
1. Re:"Everyone" by Princeofcups · 2013-12-04 05:47 · Score: 2
  
  Of course, by "everyone" he means the only people that count... rich people.
  Not even. Only a small segment of rich people. Their only joy is getting richer than the guys in the other business segments, like Hollywood verses Big Oil.
  
  --
  The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
2. Re:"Everyone" by rnturn · 2013-12-04 05:55 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Yep... Dodd also has a different definition of "works" than a lot of people would find to be appropriate. His definition appears to refer to "a mechanism that closes off content until rich folks' palms are greased with enough silver". When he says "works" he's not saying that it does anything for content creators after their initial legal contact with publishers.
  
  --
  CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
surprising by Trepidity · 2013-12-04 05:15 · Score: 4, Interesting

The most surprising thing to me here is that Hotfile was profitable enough to have $80 million.

--
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
1. Re:surprising by paiute · 2013-12-04 05:51 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Considering that no movie ever has yet made a profit, yeah.
  
  --
  If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Stupid MPAA landing page by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 05:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

Quoting from the MPAA message now on hotfile.com:
"If you are looking for your favorite movies or TV shows online, there are more ways than ever today to get high quality access to them on legal platforms."
How about a list of those numerous platforms? How about a link to an MPAA sponsored page of links to these various legal platforms?
Yes, they are out there, but why the hell wouldn't they promote them?
1. Re:Stupid MPAA landing page by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 05:40 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Moreover, how about list such platforms usable in places other the US.
2. Re:Stupid MPAA landing page by noldrin · 2013-12-04 07:42 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Unfortunately there is a ton of content locked up copyright holders with no legal way to view or access it, whether for entertainment or study. Much of it is decades old and some of it is culturally significant.
3. Re:Stupid MPAA landing page by decipher_saint · 2013-12-04 07:49 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  This answer is not available in your Region
  
  --
  crazy dynamite monkey
Whoah there! by pla · 2013-12-04 05:33 · Score: 3, Insightful

"Perjury" doesn't mean they called Hotfile's CEO mean things and ate the last cupcake. It means Warner Brothers committed a fucking crime. Hotfile can settle all it wants, that doesn't make WB's actions any less of a crime.

So, anyone taking bets on the temperature of Hell when we see formal charges filed here?
1. Re:Whoah there! by Jason+Levine · 2013-12-04 05:38 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Perjury isn't a crime if a big corporation does it. Just like if you infringe copyright then you're an evil, artist killing individual. If a corporation steals your copyrighted image/photo/etc and uses it for their own purposes, at most they just need to say "oops" and toss some token payment your way. Corporations are people and all people are created equal, but some people are more equal than others.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
2. Re:Whoah there! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 05:53 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I've had people commit perjury against me in court. Judge didn't do shit. I was able to prove that they had forged a "sworn testimony" against me from a 3rd party by showing that the dates that it was dated outside the scope of when that 3rd party would have had any dealings or knowledge about the case. All the judge did was dismiss that single piece of evidence. You can get away with perjury all you want because judges don't care (they're used to being lied to) and juries will almost NEVER convict someone of perjury -- so good luck getting a DA to prosecute. There is no real defense for an honest man in court against a dishonest man.
3. Re:Whoah there! by DrJimbo · 2013-12-04 08:10 · Score: 2
  
  You can get away with perjury all you want because judges don't care [...]
  That is only because you are an individual and not a corporation. We live in a feudal society where individuals are serfs and corporations are the lords and masters. The purpose of the courts now is to protect corporations from individuals. Crimes against serfs are usually not considered significant but if an uppity serf rebels against a corporation then there is hell to pay.
  
  --
  We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
  -- Anais Nin
Correction: by larry+bagina · 2013-12-04 05:39 · Score: 2

You forgot to mention that Chris Dodd is a disgraced former senator. Why the MPAA would want to associate with a scumbag of that caliber is anyone's guess.

--
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
1. Re:Correction: by Spy+Handler · 2013-12-04 05:53 · Score: 2
  
  He must've done nice things for the movie studios while he was in office. Giving him a nice cushy job after he's out is how they repay their lapdogs.
2. Re:Correction: by Rakarra · 2013-12-04 07:32 · Score: 2
  
  Was Chris Dodd disgraced for having sex with farm animals? Does the MPAA arrange coke parties at farms so that Chris Dodd can have wild bestial orgies? Or was Chris Dodd the guy who was disgraced for having anal sex with underage boys in the airport bathroom?
  None of the above. The only blemishes I could find on his record were that he was fairly cozy with the financial services industry that he was supposed to regulate from his seat as chairman of the Senate Banking Committe, and they heavily funded his 2008 presidential campaign. He was a VIP customer of Countrywide Financial and then voted to give Countrywide a bailout in the wake of the housing collapse. He was probably rightly seen as being deep in the pockets of Wall Street interests. On the plus side though, at least he managed to sneak in a clause limiting "excessive executive pay" for firms that the government loaned/gave money too (though even that was not without controversy...)
  The other big blemish would be that he accepted the MPAA chairman role and has been their mouthpiece ever since.
Jurisdiction by Adrian+Lopez · 2013-12-04 05:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

How does a US federal court gain jurisdiction over a company located in Panama?
A ruling prior to this settlement held that Hotfile could be subject to vicarious liability for failing to comply with the DMCA (they allegedly ignored a bunch of DMCA takedown requests and failed to shut down a bunch of accounts despite repeat infringements), but the DMCA is US law, not Panama law. Unless copyright is somehow a special case (due to, say, international agreements), I fail to see why Hotfile should be subject to US copyright law anymore than US companies should be subject to Chinese or Iranian censorship laws.
What gives?

--
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
1. Re:Jurisdiction by future+assassin · 2013-12-04 06:13 · Score: 2
  
  >What gives?
  Where have you been? There's this new law of the world called Intellectual Property which,... wait wait I'll explain it in peasant terms
  "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!"
  See it all makes sense now
  
  --
  by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
2. Re:Jurisdiction by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 08:17 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  In Soviet Russia, US is the new China.
MPAA message wrong (surprise) by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 05:55 · Score: 4, Interesting

The MPAA message says that a federal court found Hotfile liable. The court didn't find anything because the parties settled before trial began. It seems a little disingenuous, but perfectly within the normal bounds of the MPAA playbook, to blatantly lie like that.
Re:term by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-04 06:28 · Score: 2, Insightful

Make it zero years, and do the same with patents. You can have your government-imposed monopolies in hell. Copyright (and patents) are anti-free market, anti-private property, and copyright often utilizes censorship to try to stop websites from hosting copyrighted materials. Truly a disgusting concept.
Doesn't copyright start when *published* ? by walterbyrd · 2013-12-04 07:36 · Score: 2

And not when you first started working on something?
If so, then your argument makes no sense.
> Seven years? Kid, seven years is nothing. How old are you, fourteen? I just published Nobots [mcgrewbooks.com] last month, have been working on it since 2009. I'd have a two year copyright.
No, you would have 6 years and 11 months left.