Verizon Handing Over Names For US Copyright Group's Mass Automated Lawsuits
from the shame-on-verizon dept
We've already discussed how the so-called US Copyright Group (which seems like a bit of a front for DC-based law firm Dunlap Grubb Weaver -- tag line: "Lawyers with a Higher Standard" -- since the first named partner in the operation, Thomas Dunlap, also happens to appear to run US Copyright Group) has been filing tens of thousands of questionable lawsuits for certain movie producers, including, most recently 5,000 lawsuits for those accused of file sharing Hurt Locker. Of course, it looks like this particular operation is nothing more than a copy of European operations like ACS:Law, whose main goal is not to take anyone to court, but to get people to pay up to not get sued. In this case, US Copyright Group's starting offer is $1,500 to not get sued. How generous.When the news of this operation first came to light, it was noted that one major ISP had already agreed to hand over names of folks based on IP addresses. At the time, we wondered who that was. Later on, we found out, Dunlap claimed that 75% of ISPs were cooperating. Again, we wondered who was actually doing this. The only major ISP we know who is fighting handing over the names is Time Warner Cable. In response, Dunlap is trying to advance the novel legal theory (i.e., one that would get laughed out of court) that by not handing over the names TWC is guilty of inducing infringement itself.
Well, now we know at least one ISP that is handing over the names In a rather annoying "photo gallery" put together by News.com that only shows one photo per page so you need to click through a bunch of pages to get the actual story (nice to see News.com stooping to cheap page view boosting tricks), we find out that Verizon is handing over names to US Copyright Group. The photo gallery shows images from one guy who received one of these pre-settlement letters. Verizon apparently gave him less than a week to retain a lawyer to fight the subpoena or it would hand over his info.
This is unfortunate. Verizon was the one big ISP that stood up to the RIAA back in the early days, when it pulled a similar trick, going to court to protect its customers' identities. It's too bad that it no longer thinks so highly of protecting its customers.
Some other tidbits from the letter in the News.com story: US Copyright Group demands $1,500 not to sue, but only if you pay up within a month. After that the price goes up to $2,500. The letter, not surprisingly warns that the producers of the film will seek at least $30,000 per infringement in any lawsuit, with the possibility of asking for $150,000, if it believes it can prove the infringement was "intentional."
The letter cites the ruling against Joel Tenenbaum to support why it's cheaper to pay up. Amusingly, but not surprisingly, it doesn't cite the ruling against Jammie Thomas, who also was ordered to pay huge amounts... until the judge greatly reduced the award. Funny that the lawyers would omit that little fact...
Also, the letter (which is not about Hurt Locker, but about Uwe Boll's Far Cry) points people to www.farcry-settlement.com, which you can check out for yourself.
Oh, as for the guy who showed the letter to News.com. He has an open WiFi setup, says he doesn't know who downloaded the film and appears pretty annoyed by the whole thing:
"For me, the issue here isn't whether or not peer-to-peer is evil," said Harrison, a photographer. "It is whether or not our federal courts and Verizon should cooperate with such an obvious intimidation scam."
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Filed Under: copyright, isps, subpoenas
Companies: time warner cable, us copyright group, verizon
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The best part...
"Please note: You should seek the advice of an attorney before entering into any settlement agreement. All settlement agreements are strictly confidential."
Yes, that's right. Your settlement with Hollywood is confidential, but your identity as an ISP customer is not.
...Awesome.
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Re: The best part...
Verizon Privacy Policy "Protecting our customers' privacy is an important priority at Verizon. We are committed to maintaining strong and meaningful privacy protections for customers." I can't resist this one jab which makes their privacy policy a joke. "Verizon shares customer information across our family of companies for marketing purposes unless you advise us not to." So you actually have to advise Verizon that you want your information protected!!!!!!!!
"Outside the Verizon Family of Companies: Except in certain circumstances explained in our privacy policy, Verizon does not sell, license or share information that individually identifies our customers with others outside of Verizon for non-Verizon purposes without your consent."
Once again supposed guarantees made by the corporate world are nothing more than hot air.
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Intriguing
Dunlap says that all of the ISPs are cooperating with him. Then, behind closed doors, he talks to them individually. He tells them that the others are doing it, so they might as well do it themselves. He even sweetens the deal by telling them they're liable for infringement themselves. Then, when one fall, all the others fall save the most resilient.
You can't blame a guy for having a plan that works. But I do know we're going to hear about this privacy invasion fairly shortly. There's no reason in the world that their information should be given for being sued. Not without an attorney or someone to fight for you.
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Re:
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So? If you don't like it then move to another country or quit whining.
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Re:
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The time is NOW
Bob
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Re: The time is NOW
my email car21221@yahoo.com
hoping to hear from u
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@4 and you let us know
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Amazing
I would definitely love to represent someone to fight this type of battle. Copyright was enacted "[t]o promote the progress of science and useful arts." I fail to see how shooting 5000 demand letters in the mail, without sufficient process, helps promote the sciences and the arts.
Yasha Heidari
Attorney-at-Law
www.heidariplank.com
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Re: Amazing
That's not quite accurate. There is a subpoena filed due to the initial lawsuit filing. So, there is a "court order," though, as Time Warner Cable has shown, you can fight it. These kinds of subpoenas are issued with little scrutiny.
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Re: Re: Amazing
Kinda like with the warrants that courts grant, they never reject a warrant. Should warrants be required? Yes. Should they be easily granted upon request? No. In this case it's good that there is process but one can make the argument that the process itself needs to scrutinize these requests more thoroughly.
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Re: Re: Re: Amazing
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Re: Amazing
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To funny I wonder .....
I bet there are going to be cases in the future where some no name movie does the drive by infringement thing. Put the movie up as a torrent, then go to random peoples open wifi and download, monitor their own download, then sue the person they have set up.
Or a random person not liking someone, hacking a router and downloading just to cause problems.
This will lead to a whole host of abuses and problems when ISPs are forced to monitor as a result of ACTA.
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Re: To funny I wonder .....
I'm no expert but I stayed at a HIE. I would say, "yes".
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Isn't blackmail illegal?
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Re: Isn't blackmail illegal?
Isn't "pay us, or we'll sue you" the definition of extortion?
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they promote Infringement
One commenter found this tidbit, however.
"* PROBLEM: ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS COSTS THE MOVIE INDUSTRY $20.5 BILLION EACH YEAR*. IN THE FIRST WEEK OF A DVD RELEASE THERE ARE MORE THAN 30,000 UNLAWFUL DOWNLOADS^.
* SOLUTION: THE US COPYRIGHT GROUP WILL ASSIST WITH COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT"
I like the 2nd bullet point really. Direct link to page with above text: http://www.copyrightsettlement.info/index-3.html
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Google's role...
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Could we bankrupt them?
I don't immediately see a way to get that to happen. It would require nearly everyone who was outed by their ISP to refuse to pay up, basically daring US Copyright Group to proceed with all the court/trial work. Unfortunately, it would cost the defendents a lot more than the settlement demand to drag things out enough to financially hurt US Copyright Group, so most will pay off the extortion demand.
Can any of you suggest a way to turn that around? A way to incent the defendents not to cave in and, collectively, stick it to US Copyright Group?
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Re: Could we bankrupt them?
The correct tactic is to make a nominal reply to each letter, rejecting the allegation without giving them any more information. No one who has used this tactic has been taken to court, and in many cases ACS law seem to have given up.
See http://beingthreatened.yolasite.com/
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Re: Could we bankrupt them?
Any lawyers out there have an idea about this?
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Re: Could we bankrupt them?
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Overload their email...
info@savecinema.org
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This is illegal
They are nothing more than extortionists. Extortion is against the law. You give us money, or we force you to hire a lawyer to represent you when we try to seize your assets.
The fact that they are planning this, and there are more than one person planning this falls under Federal laws against "Conspiracy".
They could also be prosecuted for operating a Continuing Criminal Enterprise.
Michigan Phil, and Joey (Two Fingers) Rosetti better look out....they got competition from Thomas (Shoot First, Ask Questions Later) Dunlap.
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Help needed
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Help yourself
^ Not settle and if you get a court notice (how can 50,000 and what judge would put up with this circus) remember this is not criminal this is civil.. get a court dismissal form from Syfert or write judge and ask for a dismissal due to out of jurisdiction. I know for a fact I was not in Washington or Virginia downloading a movie.
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Re: Help yourself
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my take
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