Dispute Over Nude Nuns Copyright Leads To Second Firm Copying First Firm's Lawsuit

from the copyright-gone-mad dept

Wed, May 11th 2011 1:32pm — Mike Masnick

We recently wrote about the lawsuit that was filed against 5,865 alleged downloaders of the B-movie Nude Nuns With Big Guns by Camelot Distribution Group. In many ways, the lawsuit seemed like many of the other mass infringer shakedown lawsuits... but there was one element that made it interesting. A second company, Incentive Capital, said that Camelot didn't hold the copyright in question. Basically, Camelot had borrowed money from Incentive in order to purchase the copyright to the movie in question, but failed to payback the loan and Incentive had foreclosed on the film.

Camelot continued to push forward with the lawsuit and, in an amusing twist, Incentive Capital has filed an almost identical lawsuit against the exact same 5,865 alleged downloaders:

I wonder if Camelot would file a copyright infringement lawsuit against Incentive for copying its lawsuit (though, (1) I doubt that Camelot registered its lawsuit and (2) there would be reasonable claims that much of the copied parts were not subject to copyright). Still, the whole thing is kind of amusing (assuming you're not one of the 5,865 being sued twice).

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Filed Under: copyright, lawsuits
Companies: camelot distribution group, incentive capital

12 Comments

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weneedhelp (profile), 11 May 2011 @ 2:00pm

note to self
Google at home: Nude Nuns With Big Guns. Done.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2011 @ 2:11pm

Im too forgetful for all that, so I just googled it from work. Oopths
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Snidely, 11 May 2011 @ 2:20pm

It's the little things
At least they changed the font. That should probably avoid the lawsuit for lawsuit copyright infringement.
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- Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2011 @ 2:22pm
  
  Re: It's the little things
  All lawsuits should be filed in comic sans, the best font ever invented.
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  - TheStupidOne, 11 May 2011 @ 2:25pm
    
    Re: Re: It's the little things
    no, wingdings ... It would be easier to read than most of the legal drivel I've seen
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    - G Thompson (profile), 11 May 2011 @ 9:28pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: It's the little things
      Or just send the text to
      
      http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/aolertranslator.html
      
      Hilarity ensues!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2011 @ 2:47pm

So how does double jeopardy apply to copyright infringement?
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- abc gum, 11 May 2011 @ 5:31pm
  
  Re:
  So how does double jeopardy apply to extortion?
  
  FTFY
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Joseph K (profile), 11 May 2011 @ 3:54pm

God praise thee copyright
It's good that we have copyright to protect such embattled forms of artistic expression as b-grade. nunspoitation revenge movies. This heaven-sanctified genre is barely surviving, due to the demonic threat of pirates, almost impelling a person to take action in the way of the films noble protagonist and dress up as a nun and hunt down all of those 5,865 infringers one by one.

See the trailer here

(Poe's Law disclaimer: the above is not meant to be taken seriously)
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 11 May 2011 @ 4:45pm

I just got here...
Tied up at work and all that. Is it too late to stake a claim as the "exclusive United States distributor of the motion picture titled Nuns with Guns"?

I'm more than willing to get in on one of the few movies to make nearly all of its money in the courtroom rather than the theater. I can even provide various nuns and/or guns should they be needed for evidence. At least, I assume I can. If I get a school bus and some guns, the rest should all go off without a hitch.
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That Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2011 @ 7:31pm

no no no its not all a money grab... nothing to see here...
*boggle*
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Jonathan, 11 May 2011 @ 11:11pm

Actually, in Israel there were several suits regarding copyright in legal documents
Well,

Under Israeli law, there were four prominent cases involved lawyers copying from other lawyers their suits. In three cases the courts ruled that the defendants violated copyright (Calderon v. Alon, Azgad v. Shpiglman and Goldhammer v. Segal) and rejected in once (Soroker-Agmon v. Artman).

The case of Artman was different as the court acknowledged that there are certain legal documents that lack originality. It was quite interesting to find out, and might be of interest here.
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