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US Online Piracy Lawsuits Break Record Numbers

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Copyright cases in the United States are dominated by two companies -- Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings -- that are generally unknown to the public at large. This year alone, they have filed more than 1,700 lawsuits, which as TorrentFreak reports, sets a new file-sharing lawsuit record in the most recent quarter.

43 comments

  1. I'm seeing the opposite effect by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So the article mentioned they are going after adult videos being shared.

    However, I'm seeing the opposite effect W.R.T. movies. All the latest crap Hollywood is putting out, such as Stupid Wars: The Latest Junk -- it is SO bad that it isn't even worth pirating in the first place!

    Between RedLetterMedia, MauLer, Midnight's Edge, CinemaSins, etc., and other YouTuber "reviewers" these guys will never be out of a job with all the bad movies Hollywood continues to pump out year after year.

    Are people still sharing music? Apps?

    1. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hollywood should learn that doing the same thing over and over only works in porn.

    2. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the article mentioned they are going after adult videos being shared.

      However, I'm seeing the opposite effect W.R.T. movies. All the latest crap Hollywood is putting out, such as Stupid Wars: The Latest Junk -- it is SO bad that it isn't even worth pirating in the first place!

      Between RedLetterMedia, MauLer, Midnight's Edge, CinemaSins, etc., and other YouTuber "reviewers" these guys will never be out of a job with all the bad movies Hollywood continues to pump out year after year.

      Are people still sharing music? Apps?

      Yeah, I cancelled my netflix account about a year ago because I noticed we weren't using it anymore. All the shows they produce themselves were just garbage I didn't care about, and the rest of their catalog was getting smaller and smaller.
      The rest of the TV and movie industry seems to be the same way. It's like they've found a formula that makes them money so they follow that same formula with every single movie or TV show.
      Unfortunately, I'm tired of that formula because I've literally seen it a hundred times before.

    3. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by luther349 · · Score: 1

      gotta agree there the stuff been so sad i didn't even watch it pirated.

    4. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by luther349 · · Score: 2

      netflicks has alot of great originals but there movie library is shrinking away.

    5. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I stole all the music I want from early 90s Napster.
      HRC

    6. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      However, I'm seeing the opposite effect W.R.T. movies. All the latest crap Hollywood is putting out, such as Stupid Wars: The Latest Junk -- it is SO bad that it isn't even worth pirating in the first place!

      Yeah, I'm old too. I understand. I was once a hipster so I got all my movies from French foreign film festivals, but now, not even that can save me.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 2

      gotta agree there the stuff been so sad i didn't even watch it pirated.

      THIS. When you can't give it away for free (even though you're not trying), you know you've done something wrong.

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
    8. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hollywood should learn that doing the same thing over and over only works in porn.

      It seems to be working out alright for them outside of porn too.

      It's not like people doesn't go to watch the sequel to the remake of the reboot of whatever prequel they are doing next.

      There is nothing to learn. They are making money doing what they are doing and you don't have to watch it if you don't want to.

    9. Re: I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're not pirating these movies, how do you know they're so bad? Did you pay to see them?

    10. Re: I'm seeing the opposite effect by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      If you're not pirating these movies, how do you know they're so bad? Did you pay to see them?

      Because basically the whole world is shouting these are bad films and the previous two gave form.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    11. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

      Netflix should negotiate with the porn industry to include an adults only tier.
      Watch how that subscriber base jumps by several orders of magnitude. :D

    12. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      And that formula: Heterosexual infidelity and homosexuality.

      There isn't a single major sitcom, drama, or even science fiction show or fantasy that does not contain these elements.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    13. Re: I'm seeing the opposite effect by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 0

      /sarcasm Gee, if only I had mentioned in the original post that there are enough YouTubers reviewing movies that the general consensus is that most of these movies are shit. Oh wait, I did !

      Since you are too lazy to search YouTube:

      i.e.
      MauLer's review -- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: An Unbridled Rage
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      MisAnthro Pony's review -- The Last Jedi And The Fall Of Star Wars: Part 1 - The Idiocy Awakens
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      RedLetterMedia's review -- Half in the Bag Episode 149: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      The Stupid Wars: The Latest Junk -- is so bad people don't even want to pirate it.

    14. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, I'm seeing the opposite effect W.R.T. movies.

      [emphasis mine] What do you mean? Instead of following up with a random anecdote about how you're measuring fewer lawsuits from Hollywood, you go off on some tangent about how you haven't been pirating. What exactly is it that you have been seeing that sheds light on the number of lawsuits? Looks non-sequiturish to me.

      Sorry, this might be a little insensitive, but it might explain everything: are you retarded? (If so, I'm sorry to hear that but thanks for clearing everything up.)

    15. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And that formula: Heterosexual infidelity and homosexuality.

      There isn't a single major sitcom, drama, or even science fiction show or fantasy that does not contain these elements.

      This is very true. Also: "men are bad and women are good" and "women can do things not because they are smart or work hard but because they are women and that auto-magically gives them super powers".

    16. Re:I'm seeing the opposite effect by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkTR4l62Duk

      This is well worth watching on the subject of female costuming and the inverse proportion between intelligence and cleavage in science fiction.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  2. 5.2x10^-4 Percent by Excelcia · · Score: 2

    1700 out of 327 million, that's a 5.2x10^-4% chance of getting sued. I like my torrents, I'll take my chances.

    1. Re:5.2x10^-4 Percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've been outted my dear. Yourz warez dayz arez numberz.

    2. Re:5.2x10^-4 Percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      P.S. Your web page is awesome. Where can I subscribe to your newsletter?

    3. Re:5.2x10^-4 Percent by luther349 · · Score: 1

      being ips where ruled not to be id i wonder how many of those suits they actually win. they probably will have a riaa track record lol.

    4. Re: 5.2x10^-4 Percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use my city public internet with a random mac address, good luck

  3. Test that VPN by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Make sure its not showing an isp ip when the ip is moving around.
    Ensure any VPN fault results in your ip still staying hidden.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re: Test that VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't live in a country run by the owner class in the first place.

  4. Someone is by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    doing collect it all on all p2p?
    Use a quality VPN that does not show your ip no matter the OS, settings.
    A VPN for your entire network so nothing can detect, show, induce an ISP ip to get discovered.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  5. Fee-fi-fo-FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t

  6. remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    REMEMBER THE MURDER OF IAN MURDOCK, creator of Debian Linux and leading member of the Free Software community, killed Christmas 2015 by the notoriously corrupt San Francisco police department.

    1. Re: remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SFPD slogan: We're not as bad as Baltimore PD!

    2. Re: remember by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      He was an hero!

    3. Re: remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SFPD stole his iPod?

  7. NOT your usual suspects by sad_ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In case you were thinking the big hollywood studios are behind this, they are not.
    These two companies are part of the adult industry, never would have thought that they would have been the biggest driving force behind copyright cases.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    1. Re:NOT your usual suspects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Makes sense, it's easy to shame people into paying up when their choices are:

      1. Go to court to dispute pirating Fat Black Asses In Bondage in front of a jury of your peers
      2. Paying a fine

      Besides, the music industry more or less gave up after streaming services gained traction, the film industry is more interested in big fish pirate distributors than petty individual cases, and the gaming industry is more content to fuck with pirates than sue them.

    2. Re:NOT your usual suspects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Big Hollywood studios are behind the criminalization of private-use copying. Criminal copyright infringement used to only apply to commercial activities, where the infringers were selling thousands or millions of dollars worth of material. Downloading something for your personal use used to be only civil copyright infringement, which could be pursued with a lawsuit but would never be worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per incident.

      The adult industry isn't going after copyright infringers either. These lawsuits are coming from firms that produce and distribute movies purely with the intent of going after copyright infringers. Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings are the ones producing the content (or hiring out the production) so they can own the rights to sue. They're legal firms, only part of the adult entertainment industry by coincidence. Because, as others have mentioned, it's easier to force someone to settle when you can extort them with the nature of what they downloaded.

      So yeah, the problem here is due to Hollywood (for creating the legal climate) and lawyers (who see the adult industry as a good way to make bank).

  8. Adult Industry by thePsychologist · · Score: 1

    The article mentions the majority of these are in the adult industry.

    --
    "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
    1. Re:Adult Industry by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      Which is so weird given the terabytes of free porn available on pornhub and xvideos, etc.
      Who the hell is paying for this stuff?

  9. 3 strikes ? by rojash · · Score: 1

    Dont these 'victims' of lawsuits get a 2-strike warning and then ISP boots them out ? SO there are some ISPs who dont care ? or dont respond to these guys ?

    1. Re:3 strikes ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. The ISP gets a motion of discovery to turn over the IP to the plaintiff, and the plaintiff then uses that to file legal action against the accused IP infringer. No three strikes needed.

  10. My guess by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    It's more profitable to sue folks pirating adult films than it is to actually SELL adult films in this day and age.

    The film itself is produced as bait knowing there will be lots of opportunities to sue folks who download it.
    If not, then the firms themselves create those opportunities by uploading said content and waiting for the inevitable downloads to start.

    1. Re:My guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I eagerly await the Rule #34 of this:

      [cue 70's porn music]
      [Girl watches torrent download complete and begins fingering herself]
      [Mustached Muscle 'Cop' busts down the door]
      Cop: "FREEZE! You're masturbating to illegally obtained PORN!"
      Sexy Girl: "Oh No! I got caught red handed again! Isn't there something I can do to make you forget you saw me?"
      ["Bow chicka bow wow"ing increases]

    2. Re:My guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd watch it

  11. Not in this case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In cases of adult themed copyright infringement, three strikes does not apply. Three strokes is more appropriate.

  12. Closed minds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm always entertained by these stories due to the preconceived ideas they bring out. This one, though, appears to have plenty in the article itself.

    "The majority of these cases list a single ‘John Doe’ defendant."

    "The ultimate goal still appears to be to identify the account holder of the suspected IP-address and settle the case out of court for a few hundred or thousands dollars."

    See, the author knows the ultimate goal because.... well.... I dunno. And in spite of just the court filing fees being $450 for these single John Doe defendants, the plaintiffs *want* to settle for a few hundred or thousand dollars.

  13. The news here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The news here is that there are a significant number of suits being filed against individual defendants.

    A couple of years ago, I'd have pointed out that there were numerous jurisdictions where unauthorized torrent downloading of copyrighted material was essentially legalized by the courts through refusal to grant the ISP subpoenas. (The Southern District of Georgia, for one- the court being so worried about the prior bad actors in this field in other districts that, when refusing those subpoenas, the court would point out that an IP doesn't necessarily correspond to an individual.)

    I think it'd be a lot harder for the court in such districts to insulate individuals instead of big groups- then it's a lot more like a standard civil case where it's well-understood that you can get relevant information from third parties.