From Two Nude Nuns Mass BitTorrent Lawsuits Down To None

from the nude-nuns-and-bittorrent-lawsuits-don't-mix dept

Back in April, we wrote about the bizarre situation involving one of the many mass copyright infringement lawsuits out there, where the supposed copyright holder, Camelot Distribution Group, for the B-movie Nude Nuns With Big Guns, sued 5,865 alleged file sharers of the film. But what made the story interesting was that Camelot was in the middle of being sued by an investment firm, Incentive Capital, which had loaned Camelot money to buy the film. Incentive claimed that Camelot hadn't paid back the loan, and had supposedly foreclosed on the film itself -- meaning that Camelot didn't actually hold the copyright any more. Of course, for no good reason at all, Incentive then decided to copy Camelot's lawsuit and sue the same 5,865 users.

Thankfully, the court (like so many courts dealing with these lawsuits) questioned the reasonableness of lumping together so many defendants, and appointed the EFF to represent the still anonymous defendants. That resulted in Camelot dropping the lawsuit in May and Incentive dropping its copycat lawsuit last week. And so we've gone from two separate lawsuits over the movie down to none.

Filed Under: bittorrent, copyright, nude nuns
Companies: camelot distribution group, incentive capital

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

from the copyright-gone-mad dept

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).

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

Film Company That's Sued Thousands Might Not Even Own Rights To Film It's Suing Over

from the now-that's-how-it's-done dept

Wired has a "big" story up covering how various indie filmmakers seem to be jumping on the "sue downloaders as a business model," bandwagon. It notes that for some filmmakers, these legal shakedowns are becoming the business model of choice:

Welcome to the future of Hollywood, or at least the less glittery outskirts of Tinsel Town that produce art films, exploitation flicks and porn. Over the past year, small-budget film producers have nearly perfected a slick, courtroom-based business strategy that’s targeted more than 130,000 suspected movie downloaders.

As the article notes, this is wholly different from the RIAA's multi-year lawsuit strategy (which was a big money loser), which was supposed to be about deterrent. These new lawsuits are all about squeezing people for cash. Of course, if you read Techdirt, there's not much new there. But it is a nice piece bringing a bunch of these stories together.

But here is something new. Over at THREsq, Eriq Gardner picks up on the Wired story, and notes that the main example used by Wired reporter David Kravets, the B-movie Nude Nuns With Big Guns -- which Camelot Distribution Group has used to sue 5,865 alleged downloaders, claiming they're owed $880 million dollars -- may be even more ridiculous than some of the others. That's because Camelot is being sued by Incentive Capital for "breach of contract and fraud" in relation to a $650,000 loan that was given to Camelot to acquire the rights to various films, including Nude Nuns With Big Guns. Since Camelot failed to live up to its payment requirements, Incentive foreclosed on the film -- to which "no objection was made." So, technically, it appears that Camelot no longer holds the rights to the movie at all... despite the lawsuits over it.

Yes, you read that right. Camelot didn't make the movie. It has little to do with the movie. It apparently took out a loan to acquire the rights, sued nearly 6,000 people demanding cash for downloading the movie... and, according to the company who lent it the money, failed to pay back the loan, meaning they took control over the rights. Think about that for a second. That's quite a business model: borrow money, "buy" the rights to a film, sue thousands of people demanding they pay up, and don't pay back the loan, let the lending company "reclaim" the rights, but keep the lawsuits (and the cashflow) coming in.

Of course, it seems like this could open Camelot up to serious legal consequences, especially since it filed the lawsuit against those thousands of file sharers approximately two weeks after Incentive allegedly took over the rights to the film...

Filed Under: file sharing, lawsuits, loan, nude nuns with big guns, ownership, p2p
Companies: camelot distribution group, incentive capital