Voltage Pictures Continues To Use Its High Profile Films To Copyright Troll
from the sad dept
Voltage Pictures is the movie studio which famously kicked off the process of copyright trolling by "suing" thousands of people who, it claimed, had illegally downloaded its Oscar-winning movie, Hurt Locker, via Bittorrent, and whose producer, Nicolas Chartier, said that anyone who thought this was a bad plan was a moron and a thief. It recently did the same thing in Canada, and apparently can't resist still suing fans. The latest is a new lawsuit filed against 31 anonymous people for supposedly using Bittorrent to get Dallas Buyers Club, an Oscar-nominated film from the same studio. This lawsuit at least seems a bit more targeted, in that it tried to make sure the targeted IPs were actually in the jurisdiction of the court, unlike in the Hurt Locker case. These attempts at lumping a bunch of individuals for a single lawsuit has run into trouble in many (though not all) courts. Still, as a way of making sure that a lot of people will simply avoid any Voltage movie, it seems like an effective strategy. It seems like a reasonable rule to not support any company that sues its fans.
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Filed Under: copyright, copyright troll, dallas buyers club, joinder, nicolas chartier
Companies: voltage pictures
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I also will never see The Interpreter, which came up as a full-screen ad on top of my programming due to a Tivo bug and I couldn't watch my shows for 2 days because of it.
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Is water wet?
Such are the levels of mystery involved in these cases.
While one can argue that it is a herculean effort to attempt to whack-a-mole to take all of the copies out there, that is how the system is supposed to work.
Google doesn't host the files, so sending them notices accomplishes nothing beyond being able to claim Google isn't doing enough.
Trying anything else might hurt their bottom line, so it is easier to allow the content to remain out there and increase their profit stream from pursuing IP addresses and demanding payment from the name on the bill who might not be the guilty party.
They do this while it is clear from the downloads there is demand to see this movie now, rather than in 6-8 months when the sacred window release chart says it is the right time to launch it at a high price. They talk about the millions they are losing, because they refuse to compete in the market and satisfy consumer demand.
They are stuck in the old days of making money at each tier of release, even as more and more people are moving away from that model. They pray that cord cutting is a fad that will not catch on, because then they might need to shift the model and actually compete as the releases might no longer be staggered and the consumer might see something else they will pay to watch instead.
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Bad cop, no donut.
Of course he does. The law has been distorted by public corruption. So it's enforcement is not necessarily ethical or just.
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Re: Bad cop, no donut.
Close, but needed a little tweak, the public had nothing to do with how insane copyright law has gotten, it was all due to private companies buying new and more expansive laws and 'fixes'.
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If you got a letter, Google "maxmind submit correction" and change the location of your IP address.
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Dear Mr. Nicolas Chartier
Thank you
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