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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.
That's still not exactly chump change...
#DeleteChrome
The real Hollywood Magic is in the accounting departments.
Sony Hack Reveals MPAA's Big '$80 Million' Settlement With Hotfile Was a Lie
What do you expect from a mafia-style organization? And yet most Slashdotters tacitly support this though purchases of "media" while bleating how oppressed they are by these giant media companies. I hear "show it through your dollars" here all the time, but in actual prctice, it isn't happening, just think about all the bleating about xBox being down? I don't own an xBox, though I play plenty of great PC games... Well, I guess it works my way since I'm mostly into "first person shooters" rather than multi-play, but really? Put your money where your mouth is? Maybe?
I guess I'm not a good example since I haven't been to a theatre in many years... Seen a few good movies, though, and none of them involved the Joker or Blue People, or whatever...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
HA! Let me just go ahead and write you a check...
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That they moved the news up from 11?
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
There are always limits to what they can take. Depending on the state you live in various assets are protected, and only so much of your income can be taken for payment. They don't get to just take everything you own and demand all your money. You will find it is usually things like your primary residence, primary vehicle, and so on are protected, and the limit of monthly payment is a certain percentage of after tax income.
So while a big judgement sucks and can effect you in various ways, it isn't a life ending "you are forever in debt and can never keep a dollar" event.
How many songs or "incidents of infringement" did Sony claim Hotfile was guilty of? What did Sony settle for as the price per infringement. Knowing the price sets a negotiation point for anyone else in a similar situaiton.
If Sony claimed there were 800M bad files sent out by Hotfile and the settlement was $4M then when Sony knocks on Joe Publics door. Joe Public can say "You settled with a commercial infringer for 4/800 = 1/200 = 0.5cents a file. As I am not a commercial operation lets start the negotiation at 1/10th of that or 0.05cents a file."
Makes it hard for Sony to intinidate the public if the settlement cost is going to be less than an hours of lawyer fees.
Why are so many commentators constantly in need of surprises these days? Life generally too exciting?
I, personally, like to have my opinions based in fact. I like to change my opinions when facts show otherwise. I like to consider my opinions correct when the facts match up to what I thought all along. Reading a news story that confirms an opinion is just as important as reading a news story that indicates I might be wrong.
I believe that Sony is a bigger threat to me and my welfare than North Korea and the NKVD.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Most Fox stations show their main newscast at 10pm, and other CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates do as well. The 10pm drama appears to be going out of style.
The Interview movie was determined to be a flop... straight to download it goes.
Sony has some bad talent contracts that drag down the stock value... "published by hackers" instead of "published by PR."
Now, lawsuit wins that can't be collected on... might as well let the "hackers" publish the bad news.
Is Sony really being hacked, or has their PR guy moved to N. Korea for a few months?
1/ MPAA / RIAA lie - news at 10
2/ PR statements are bullshit - news at 10
Where's the surprise here?
Actually, if they report this as part of their stockholder's meeting/information about the state of their company, I think it's quite illegal. As in the Feds can come in and start checking your books for other 'hundred million dollars lies'.
(Sorry, did not mean to post anonymously).
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
I'm pretty sure that if I ran a business and I misrepresented a $4 million deal to my business partners, investors, and/or the general public as being 20 times larger, either my ass would be in jail or I'd be sued into oblivion.
Log in or piss off.
The judgement was in fact entered for $80 million. That's true. A judgement doesn't mean you're going to get paid. I've had a judgement for $2,500 against a guy for fifteen years. He paid $40. There's basically no way to make someone actually pay a judgement, especially if they are going out of business. The executives take their last pay check and close up the business. The judgement creditor can send demand letters all day long to where the business used to be, demanding that the now non-existent business pay the judgement.
Here, they agreed that Sony would get a judgement for $80 million, so reporting that judgement isn't exactly a lie. In addition, they agreed that the defendant would actually pay $4 million of that judgement, since they probably didn't have the money to pay the whole thing and even if they could, it's pretty easy to avoid paying a judgement in most cases. Just ignore the judgement. Then the plaintiff has to file additional law suits trying to get specific property seized to pay the judgement, after they identify specific non-exempt property that won't disappear before it's seized.
The 10pm drama appears to be going out of style.
It IS the 10 PM drama.
If you do mean getting a 1099 for the "loss", then you're wrong. Getting 1099'd (1099A or 1099C) is dischargeable in bankruptcy, even if you get the 1099 after you're discharged. All you do is file Form 982 with your taxes and it's gone. (Of course, IANAA - I am not an Accountant...) I filed BK7 in 2011, got discharged in 2012, and had a property foreclosed on that was discharged, and got a 1099-C in 2013. The full amount of the 1099-C was not considered income on my 2013 taxes (filed & payable in 2014...)
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
When will the lawsuits roll into court?
it was meant to affect shareholder value, value of future negotiations and all manner of other things.
further, it was meant to be used as a number to throw around when trying to extort money from other sites. like, when negotiating with isohunt say that the other site paid 80 million bucks and vice versa.
basically.. at the core of things.. it was fraud.
not just on one level but on many levels. all the mpaa member companies should be held accountable for that fraud... but guess if they are? fuck no..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
It is sad, and somewhat scary, just how accurate Marilyn Manson was in his interview in Bowling for Columbine. The gist being, "keep the masses afraid. scared people spend money."
I can't remember the names of the dead moles because new moles keep popping up too fast.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
This is another example of how settlements can work against the public interest of justice. This blatant lying may influence other court cases differently to an open judgement.
I think all terms of settlements should be public, for the sake of justice.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
If a suit has already been filed at the time a settlement is reached, you typically don't just withdraw the suit; you ask the judge to enter judgement in the amount of the agreed settlement. That saves a step later if one party breaches the settlement agreement, or is tempted to, because the court has already ordered them to abide by the settlement they agreed to. If you withdraw your petition at settlement and the other party breaches, you have to file suit to enforce the settlement. Better to get that out of the way as part of the existing suit, while everyone is in agreement as to the settlement.
Similarly, even if settlement is reached before suit is filed, you go ahead and file and the judge enters the settlement terms as judgement if the state or a third party has an interest. A very common case of this type is divorce. Suppose husband and wife agree to the division property, before the divorce suit is filed. They go ahead and ask the court to render the settlement as to property as judgement because they already have to be in court to make th divorce itself official. Since you're going to be at the courthouse anyway, you may as well have the court approve the settlement now rather than having to file a new suit about it later if an issue arises.
It would be interesting if Hotfile could now sue Sony for releasing details of their confidential settlement.
I've got mod points but won't be using them.
Why?
Because the system isn't working. Check the number of comments rated 5 on this thread. How many are basically the same comment? I had to scroll down towards the very end to find a different and valuable comment.
There are too many moderator points sloshing around.
I'd be happy with 2 points only on about the same timeframe as I've been getting five points.
work in progress
This is the same people that tried to sue Limewire for Trillions of dollars, is anyone surprised? I didn't see any mention of that settlement in the summary, but I believe it was eventually in the 10's of millions of dollars, and I remember thinking, that even that value was pointless, as they will never see any real part of that, as with any civil lawsuit, if they can't pay it, it is rather moot. It might as well have been for a Bazillion dollars for their ability to pay it.
In most reasonable cases, the plaintiff wouldn't bother, as the lawyer would tell them it is pointless, as your likelihood of recovering even your legal costs is remote. You can't get blood from a stone. However for them, it is more about sending a message and PR, so they likely justify it, and if you can then fraudulently report the damages even higher, then all the better... Most settlement agreements have wording associated with not talking about the settlement as the company doesn't want the public to know how much they payed out. In this case I wouldn't be surprised if the wording was such to inflate the actual value as it would be in their best interests to do so... This also likely falls into the category of justifying their existence, and their fees that companies pay into MPAA, where they can point to such "successes" and keep the fees, and their existence going.
What's the process for reporting a crime in your country? Maybe someone should start the ball rolling?
Requiem for the American Dream
Spending exceeds receipts.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear