100,000 P2P Users Sued in US Mass Lawsuits - GoFuckYourself.com

Aussie Rebel · 01-30-2011, 04:42 PM

Interesting

Quote:

100,000 P2P Users Sued in US Mass Lawsuits

The avalanche of copyright infringement lawsuits in the United States, mainly against BitTorrent users, are about to hit a dubious milestone. In total 99,924 defendants have been sued in the last 12 months, and new cases are being filed at a rapid rate. Adult companies in particular have have embraced the profitable pay-up-or-else scheme where tens of millions of dollars are at stake.

Mass P2P lawsuits have been filed all across the United States in recent months, especially by companies dealing with adult content. They have embraced this new revenue stream by the dozen and new studios are joining every month.

Through these mass lawsuits the copyright holders are trying to obtain the personal details of (mostly) BitTorrent users who allegedly shared their material online. Once this information is handed over, they then offer the defendant the opportunity to settle the case for a few hundred up to a couple of thousand dollars, thereby avoiding a full trial and potentially even bigger financial penalties.

In the United States the judicial system is currently being overloaded with new cases, but the scope of the issue was never really clear until now. An anonymous TorrentFreak reader has spent months compiling a complete overview of all the mass P2P lawsuits that have been filed in the US since the beginning of 2010, listing all the relevant case documents and people involved in a giant spreadsheet.

The research shows that between 8th January 2010 and 21st January 2011, a total of 99,924 individuals have been sued. The vast majority of the defendants have allegedly used BitTorrent to share copyrighted works but a few hundred ed2k users are also included.

Of the 80 cases that were filed originally, 68 are still active, with 70,914 defendants still in jeopardy.
# defendants sued

mass lawsuits

What?s further worth nothing is that although the makers of the Hurt Locker were one of the first to sue, this scheme has now been hijacked by copyright trolls and adult movie studios. Nearly all the cases filed recently involve adult material, and the law firm behind the pioneering United States Copyright Group has now accepted its first adult cases as well.

The mass lawsuits have had quite a lot of criticism from consumer rights organizations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in particular. One of the main points of critique is that the copyright holders have no intention of going to a full trial against each of the defendants. They are out to get a settlement, which means that the (possibly weak) evidence will never be tested in court.

Two weeks ago the EFF filed an amicus brief in which it asked an Illinois judge to quash subpoenas issued in pay-up-or-else lawsuits involving alleged illegal file-sharing of pornography.

?Copyright owners have a right to protect their works, but they can?t use shoddy and unfair tactics to do so,? said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. ?We?re asking the court to protect the rights of each and every defendant, instead of allowing these copyright trolls to game the system.?

All the information regarding these mass P2P cases can be accessed by the public though this Google spreadsheet that will be regularly updated.

?I am hoping that having the data available will stimulate discussion and that it could be of value to people actively resisting/fighting the suits. Even if that is overly optimistic, public access to the information that shows the scope of this bullshit is, in and of itself, a good thing,? the anonymous spreadsheet creator told TorrentFreak.

Stopping the lawsuits wont be easy though, considering the huge amounts of money that can be made by the suing parties. Just multiply the 100,000 defendants by an average settlement proposal of $1000 dollars and it?s clear that tens of millions of dollars can be made with this dubious scheme.

source: http://torrentfreak.com/100000-p2p-u...wsuits-110130/

Agent 488 · 01-30-2011, 04:44 PM

ratios like 1999 now. whew.

Alprazolam · 01-30-2011, 04:51 PM

gideon is a fucking idiot for wasting all his time putting that spreadsheet together.

Caligari · 01-30-2011, 04:58 PM

Adapt or Die

Spudstr · 01-30-2011, 05:11 PM

To bad this was done before and thrown out, they have to file for each "unknown" individually and can't name all 100k john does in a single lawsuit. And on top of it if they file in say CA, they can only go after CA john does and the rest are thrown out.

F-U-Jimmy · 01-30-2011, 05:36 PM

I like that comment "dubious scheme".
Its no more dubious than the fuckers who steel the content in the first place.

I hope they all get ass raped

L-Pink · 01-30-2011, 05:43 PM

Good news, I hope the shit hits the fan for anyone violating copyright laws!

.

DWB · 01-30-2011, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alprazolam

gideon is a fucking idiot for wasting all his time putting that spreadsheet together.

don't think it's a spreadsheet that made him an idiot. he was doing an outstanding job of being leading the GFY idiot parade prior to that.

gideongallery · 01-30-2011, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alprazolam

gideon is a fucking idiot for wasting all his time putting that spreadsheet together.

if i did i would take the credit

01-30-2011, 04:58 PM	#4
Caligari Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: At The Mountains Of Madness Posts: 5,414	Adapt or Die __________________ ATTN Webmasters Cruel Bucks - LIVE Gonzo Does Not Pay ------------------------------------------------ Animal Rescue Click Here to Feed An Animal for Free

01-30-2011, 05:11 PM	#5
Spudstr Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: In a Tater Patch Posts: 2,321	To bad this was done before and thrown out, they have to file for each "unknown" individually and can't name all 100k john does in a single lawsuit. And on top of it if they file in say CA, they can only go after CA john does and the rest are thrown out. __________________ Managed Hosting - Colocation - Network Services Yellow Fiber Networks icq: 19876563

01-30-2011, 05:36 PM	#6
F-U-Jimmy Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Visiting a city near you soon ! Posts: 6,853	I like that comment "dubious scheme". Its no more dubious than the fuckers who steel the content in the first place. I hope they all get ass raped __________________ icq. 176240424 44.years as a pornographer !!!!!!!!!!!

01-30-2011, 04:44 PM	#2
Agent 488 Registered User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 22,511	ratios like 1999 now. whew.

01-30-2011, 04:51 PM	#3
Alprazolam So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 864	gideon is a fucking idiot for wasting all his time putting that spreadsheet together.

01-30-2011, 05:43 PM	#7
L-Pink working on my tan Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Florida/Kentucky Posts: 39,151	Good news, I hope the shit hits the fan for anyone violating copyright laws! .