Pirated

Producers Of The Hurt Locker Sue 5,000 Torrent Users

Well I hope you didn’t download The Hurt Locker using any torrents because producers from the movie have launched as huge lawsuit against 5,000 BitTorrent users for copyright violation.

Voltage Pictures, which produced the movie, filed the lawsuit in the Columbia District Court but they don’t know the name of the defendants and can only identify them by their IP address. They will subpoena the internet company providers for access to the users name and info.

The movie, which was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, grossed less than $17 million despite being a huge success at award ceremonies, including the Oscars, and the production company blame torrent users. The lawsuit says…

“A Defendant’s distribution of even one unlawful copy of a motion picture can result in the nearly instantaneous worldwide distribution of that single copy to a limitless number of people. The Plaintiff now seeks redress for this rampant infringement of their exclusive rights.”

Those users who are getting caught will receive a letter asking them to pay a settlement of $1,500 and if they don’t then that fee can be ten times as much if they go to court.

I think I would shit a brick if I received a letter asking me to pay that much money, to be fair to the people who did download the movie – most people only downloaded it because they weren’t able to see it before the Oscars since it wasn’t given a bit national release so the production company only have themselves to blame in my opinion. $1,500 is also a bit steep. Where do you stand on this piracy issue?

source: Hurt Locker producer sues 5,000 BitTorerent users [TG Daily]

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Tags | Gossip, Movies Kathryn Bigelow, Lawsuit, Movies, Pirated

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Fox News Writer Fired Over Pirated ‘Wolverine’ Movie

Allie @ Gone Hollywood

This week, Fox News columnist Roger Friedman provided lecture fodder for journalistic ethics professors everywhere. When news of a pirated copy of 20th-Century Fox’s forthcoming ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ recently surfaced (the movie’s set to hit the big screen May 1st), comic fans and interested moviegoers began scouring the Web for an early viewing.

Mr. Friedman not only found and watched the advance copy, he decided it would be a good idea to review it, saying, “It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer.’” He was pretty brazen about it, saying also that he found all of the “current top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away.” He went on to say, “I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room?”

Rupert Murdoch, the Charles Xavier of Fox (or Magneto depending upon your view) and Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, which is part of the Fox conglomerate, vehemently condemned Friedman’s tactics, citing a “zero-tolerance” policy for pirated movies. According to the DeadlineDailyHollywood blog, the News Corporation asked Fox News to take down the “reprehensible” column, which it did, and then, after advising Fox News on how to properly handle the situation, promptly dismissed Friedman.

Perhaps in the future, Friedman will review illegally released movies through a blog, rather than on a Web site owned by the company releasing the film. But then again, maybe he thought it would be alright. We are talking about Rupert Murdoch, after all, who doesn’t exactly let accuracy and integrity get in the way of a good story.

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