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| DepositFiles Settles Multi Million Dollar Piracy Lawsuit Posted: 13 Jun 2012 04:03 AM PDT
After the Megaupload shutdown the cyberlocker appeared to be one of the top alternatives. Aside from attracting new users, the site also grabbed the attention of Hollywood with the MPAA describing it as one of prime targets that should be dealt with next. This is exactly what adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 has tried to do over the past months. June last year Perfect 10 filed a complaint against DepositFiles’ parent company, the Seychelles-based Kalmet Investments. The publisher described DepositFiles as a “pirate website that sells access to large amounts of unauthorized intellectual property to the public without paying the rightful owners of that property” and demanded millions in damages for facilitating copyright infringement. DepositFiles disputed the accusations, and both parties have been trying to convince the California District Court that they are right ever since. Earlier this year a schedule was setup to move the case to trial, but a recent filing reveals that this is not going to happen. Both parties have reached a settlement that will be made official shortly. They therefore asked the Court to cancel all planned actions. “Plaintiff Perfect 10, Inc. and defendant Kalmet Investments, Limited have reached a settlement in principle of this entire action. The parties are in the process of drafting a written settlement agreement and expect to execute it shortly.” “The parties expect that all conditions of the settlement agreement will be met on or before July 16, 2012. Accordingly, the parties jointly move the Court to vacate all pre-trial dates so that they can devote all efforts to settlement efforts.” Details on the settlement have not been disclosed, but it’s not unlikely that DepositFiles paid a sum of money to make the case go away. TorrentFreak contacted DepositFiles for a comment on the decision to settle but we were told that the company “cannot legally disclose anything on the issue.” Perfect 10 are no strangers to lawsuits. From 2005 to the present day they have sued several huge companies for either allegedly using their images without permission or somehow being connected to infringements. Notable among them are Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Yandex (for providing search engine results), Giganews, Megaupload, RapidShare, DepositFiles (hosting files) and Mastercard, Visa and CCBill for providing payment services for allegedly infringing sites. Last month Perfect 10 added to this ever-growing list by suing the microblogging platform Tumblr. A few settlements aside, the adult magazine publisher hasn’t been very successful in court. In 2010 Perfect 10 lost its case against RapidShare with the court ruling that the cyberlocker was not guilty of copyright infringement. Still, the legal endeavors must be successful enough for them to keep on going. Source: DepositFiles Settles Multi Million Dollar Piracy Lawsuit
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| Comcast Protests “Shake Down” of Alleged BitTorrent Pirates Posted: 12 Jun 2012 11:04 AM PDT
In recent years more than a quarter million alleged BitTorrent users have been sued in federal courts. Most of the lawsuits are initiated by adult entertainment companies, but mainstream movie studios and book publisher John Wiley and Sons have also joined in. These copyright holders request a subpoena from the court to order ISPs to identify the alleged BitTorrent users through an IP-address. They then contact the account holder with a request to settle the case in return for a sum of money. Initially Comcast complied with these subpoenas, but an ongoing battle in the Illinois District Court shows that the company changed its tune recently. Instead of handing over subscriber info, Comcast asked the court to quash the subpoenas. Among other things, the ISP argued that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction over all defendants, because many don’t live in the district in which they are being sued. The company also argues that the copyright holders have no grounds to join this many defendants in one lawsuit. The real kicker, however, comes with the third argument. Here, Comcast accuses the copyright holders of a copyright shakedown, exploiting the court to coerce defendants into paying settlements. “Plaintiffs should not be allowed to profit from unfair litigation tactics whereby they use the offices of the Court as an inexpensive means to gain Doe defendants' personal information and coerce ‘settlements’ from them,” Comcast’s lawyers write. “It is evident in these cases – and the multitude of cases filed by plaintiffs and other pornographers represented by their counsel – that plaintiffs have no interest in actually litigating their claims against the Doe defendants, but simply seek to use the Court and its subpoena powers to obtain sufficient information to shake down the Doe defendants.” Comcast cites several previous cases to back up their claims and points out that federal rules require courts to deny discovery "to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense." The attorney for adult publisher AF HOLDINGS is furious at Comcast’s refusal to comply. He asks the court to disregard the ISP’s arguments entirely, and accuses Comcast of denying copyright holders the opportunity to protect their works. “Comcast's delay in objecting to the Plaintiffs' subpoenas is part of a wider campaign to deny and delay the Plaintiffs', and other similar copyright holders', ability to protect their copyrighted works. Comcast routinely objects to subpoenas issued to it by producers of adult content,” AF HOLDINGS’writes. “Even after courts regularly order Comcast to comply with the subpoenas, Comcast fights tooth and nail to resist complying.” The case is now in the hands of Judge Gary Feinerman, who has to decide whether Comcast has to hand over the subscriber data after all, or whether the subpoenas should be destroyed. Whatever the outcome, Comcast’s protest is part of a growing trend in which Internet providers object to handing over subscriber data in mass-BitTorrent cases. Previously, Verizon did the same, successfully arguing that it has an obligation to protect the privacy of its customers. Source: Comcast Protests “Shake Down” of Alleged BitTorrent Pirates
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