- Attack of the copyright trolls — Online, torrents of failed movies linger mysteriously, waiting to net downloaders in shakedown settlements which seem to have little to do with preventing piracy. John Biggs covers the details of a copyright trolls' legal and wildly profitable scam.
The article "Bait Car: How Hollywood Has Found A New Way To Make Money" is worth reading (even though I never use torrents, I found it fascinating).
A few highlights:
- Paul got a letter from his ISP accusing him of torrenting a copy of the file at midnight one lazy evening. His ISP informed him that his IP address, an identifier that, in truth, constantly changes for most Internet users, was identified as being part of the download. Because of this, he’s being sued.
- Paul is now in the strange world of copyright trolls, companies that produce or license content for the sole purpose of suing users who pirate it – even inadvertently.
- “Copyright trolls are generally production studios and/or they’re enterprising attorneys who have decided that it is more profitable for them to sue defendants and elicit multi-thousand-dollar settlements from accused defendants rather than sell tickets or copies of their copyrighted films at retail or discount prices,” he said. “A porn production company could make millions suing defendants rather than promoting $20 per-month memberships at their websites...”
