Zee Germans Are Coming: German Copyright Troll Announces Plans For Anti-Piracy Surge In The UK

from the invasion-of-the-privacy-snatchers dept

I'll give the entertainment and the copyright troll industry this: they sure know how to talk a big game. After the settlement prospecting done by copyright trolls in the UK died down somewhat these past few years, it appears the war is back on. TorrentFreak has the story of one German copyright troll, Maverick Eye, announcing that it is going to step up its efforts in the UK in the coming months.

Framed as one of the largest anti-piracy campaigns in history, Maverick Eye says it teamed up with law firm Hatton & Berkeley and other key players to launch a new wave of settlement demands.

“Since July this year, Hatton & Berkeley and Maverick Eye have been busy working with producers, lawyers, key industry figures, investors, partners, and supporters to develop a program to protect the industry and defend the UK cinema against rampant piracy online,” Maverick Eye says. "The entertainment industry can expect even more from these experts as they continue the fight against piracy in the UK.”

Funny that Maverick Eye should be putting so much weight behind "experts." You see, a review on Maverick Eye's website of the films it is working on protecting includes some familiar names, such as The Cobbler, The Expendables, and Dallas Buyer's Club. If these sound familiar, it's because they were also all films working with German company Guardaley, whose website lists many of the same movie franchises, and Malibu Media, whose ongoing game of hide-the-ball as to who was representing what and which company was actually a shell of company of whom we detailed last year. It all comes back to this German copyright troll traversing the globe to shuttle out settlement notices to individuals it deems have infringed on these movies in an effort to get them to pay up or face time in court. What makes the trotting out of experts hilarious is Guardaley's own internal documents indicate that the experts it relies on are so shaky that they have to hope that courts don't bother to question their qualifications.

Add to that this group's failure to answer as to exactly what technology it is using to identify supposed infringers, and it seems reasonable to expect any kind of court proceedings to turn into the monumental shitshow that Malibu Media made famous. Mixed in with accusations of experts being paid contingency fees based on suit outcomes and the ongoing games this parent group's child-companies engaged in as to who worked where and for whom, and this is expert level shadiness we have here.

And this is the group that entertainment companies want championing their product in public and in court? These are the people announcing a new offensive surge in the UK? This practice of identifying "infringers" using "software" that nobody is sure actually "works" and then shaking down victims is still being allowed to continue? Even though it never actually seems to work? C'mon, entertainment industry. At this point, it's worth at least trying some new ways to do business rather than just putting the mistake track on repeat.

Filed Under: copyright troll, copyright trolling, germany, uk
Companies: guardaley, maverick eye