Sony Hack Reveals MPAA's Big '$80 Million' Settlement With Hotfile Was a Lie

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Tech Dirt: For years, we've pointed out that the giant 'settlements' that the MPAA likes to announce with companies it declares illegal are little more than Hollywood-style fabrications. Cases are closed with big press releases throwing around huge settlement numbers, knowing full well that the sites in question don't have anywhere near that kind of money available. At the end of 2013, it got two of these, with IsoHunt agreeing to 'pay' $110 million and Hotfile agreeing to 'pay' $80 million. In both cases, we noted that there was no chance that those sums would ever get paid. And now, thanks to the Sony hack, we at least know the details of the Hotfile settlement. TorrentFreak has been combing through the emails and found that the Hotfile settlement was really just for $4 million, and the $80 million was just a bogus number agreed to for the sake of a press release that the MPAA could use to intimidate others.

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Re:"Just" four million?

[Maxo-Texas]

Your point is valid but there is a further gotcha.

The company then files the 4 million as a loss-- which results in the irs counting it as income by you which results in taxes due on 4 million and the taxes are not forgivable by bankruptcy. After several years of harassment, wage garnishment, etc. you'll be allowed to settle the tax debt for a smaller amount. If you have the money to pay, it will be about 10 cents on the dollar. If you are really poor, you may not be able to get it forgiven and it just sorta hangs round for a very long time.