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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The war against movie piracy is getting downright explosive.
The producers of "The Hurt Locker" are preparing a massive lawsuit against tens of thousands of people who pirated the Oscar-winning drama online. The case could be filed as soon as Wednesday.
Voltage Pictures, the film's financier, has signed up with the U.S. Copyright Group, a Washington D.C.-based venture that has begun a litigation campaign targeting users of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) service.
"The Hurt Locker" first leaked onto the web more than five months before its U.S. release last June, and was a hot item in P2P circles after it won six Oscars in March, including best picture and director. Despite the accolades, the film grossed only about $16 million in the U.S.
The U.S. Copyright Group has already filed lawsuits over about 10 other films, including German filmmaker Uwe Boll's "Far Cry," "Call of the Wild 3D" and "Uncross the Stars." Reports of those suits raised alarms in some circles, whereas others joked that the movie industry was merely suing those with poor taste.
"You can guess that relative to the films we've pursued already, the order of magnitude is much higher" with "Hurt Locker," said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer at the firm.
If the addition of "Locker" to this litigation campaign could shake things up, so too could news about cooperation by Internet Service Providers (ISP) in this escalating fight. After filing the lawsuits, the plaintiffs must subpoena ISP records in an effort to match IP addresses with illicit behavior on BitTorrent.
According to lawyers at Dunlap's firm, 75% of ISPs have cooperated fully. Those that have resisted are mostly doing so, they say, because of the amount of work involved in handing over thousands of names. But the clock may be ticking. For example, in the lawsuit over "Far Cry," Comcast has until next Wednesday to file motions to quash subpoenas. By the end of next week, thousands of Comcast subscribers could be turned over.
http://abcnews.go.com/Ent...nt/wireStory?id=10620723
The producers of "The Hurt Locker" are preparing a massive lawsuit against tens of thousands of people who pirated the Oscar-winning drama online. The case could be filed as soon as Wednesday.
Voltage Pictures, the film's financier, has signed up with the U.S. Copyright Group, a Washington D.C.-based venture that has begun a litigation campaign targeting users of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) service.
"The Hurt Locker" first leaked onto the web more than five months before its U.S. release last June, and was a hot item in P2P circles after it won six Oscars in March, including best picture and director. Despite the accolades, the film grossed only about $16 million in the U.S.
The U.S. Copyright Group has already filed lawsuits over about 10 other films, including German filmmaker Uwe Boll's "Far Cry," "Call of the Wild 3D" and "Uncross the Stars." Reports of those suits raised alarms in some circles, whereas others joked that the movie industry was merely suing those with poor taste.
"You can guess that relative to the films we've pursued already, the order of magnitude is much higher" with "Hurt Locker," said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer at the firm.
If the addition of "Locker" to this litigation campaign could shake things up, so too could news about cooperation by Internet Service Providers (ISP) in this escalating fight. After filing the lawsuits, the plaintiffs must subpoena ISP records in an effort to match IP addresses with illicit behavior on BitTorrent.
According to lawyers at Dunlap's firm, 75% of ISPs have cooperated fully. Those that have resisted are mostly doing so, they say, because of the amount of work involved in handing over thousands of names. But the clock may be ticking. For example, in the lawsuit over "Far Cry," Comcast has until next Wednesday to file motions to quash subpoenas. By the end of next week, thousands of Comcast subscribers could be turned over.
http://abcnews.go.com/Ent...nt/wireStory?id=10620723
