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posted by n1 on Sunday August 10 2014, @06:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the download-now-button dept.

With the leak of a pristine copy of The Expendables 3 even before it's premiere, Lionsgate is in clear damage control and doing everything it can to ensure that it's profits from the movie aren't impacted. They issued thousands of Takedown Requests and then went directly after filesharing sites that distributed the leak.

Today a California federal court has granted Lionsgate's request for a preliminary injunction against six file-sharing sites. As a result, all bank accounts and other financial assets will be frozen. In addition, the sites' domain names are also at risk.

From the injunction:

All banks, savings and loan associations, payment processors or other financial institutions, payment providers, third-party processors and advertising service providers of Defendants or any of them must, upon receiving notice of this Order, immediately locate all accounts connected to Defendants.

Thus far all six sites remain operational and links to the Expendables 3 leak are still widely available.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Arik on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:04PM

    by Arik (4543) on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:04PM (#79724) Journal
    This is a transparent effort to get people to watch yet another Hollywood Snoozerâ„¢ and generate some buzz before it's officially released.

    Not falling for it. I have better uses for the time and bandwidth, thank you.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:08PM (#79726)

    They're hunting water. With a colander. In the ocean. Err, good luck?

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:18PM (#79730)

    How do we know that the leak was not done by the Hollywood mob themselves? Or maybe it could have been a disgruntled employee of the Hollywood mob.

    The filesharing community may not have beeen the cause of this.

    • (Score: 1) by art guerrilla on Monday August 11 2014, @01:04AM

      by art guerrilla (3082) on Monday August 11 2014, @01:04AM (#79857)

      which shakedown parasite, er, lawyer mob was it that was shaking down people for porn downloads THEY seeded ? ? ?
      hard to keep track of all the bs surrounding 'IP' extortion...

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:59PM (#79747)

    The movie sucks as bad as you think it might. So glad I didn't pay to watch it.

    • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 11 2014, @04:31PM

      by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday August 11 2014, @04:31PM (#80112) Journal

      The movie sucks as bad as you think it might.

      Sir, I commend you.
      Thank you for taking the time to download and watch that turd. You did it so the rest of us can breath a sigh of relief knowing that we were right in calling the movie a pile of shit. And that was only after watching the previews.

    • (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Monday August 11 2014, @07:49PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday August 11 2014, @07:49PM (#80193)

      I could have told you that, and I did not go to the trouble of watching it.

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:09PM (#79752)

    The torrents are everywhere, here is the plot summary from the PirateBay.se

    "Barney and his team, known as "The Expendables", come into conflict
    with ruthless arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks, the Expendables' co-founder,
    who is determined to destroy the team."

    Yep, yet another violent American War propaganda device.
    baarrrrfffffff

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:13PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:13PM (#79754) Journal

    Shouldn't they be after who leaked/stole it out of their studios and improving the security there, rather than wasting their time on a Streisand effort to prevent distribution?

    Most of the sites that share this kind of pirated material have very little profit motive anyway.
    How do we know this wasn't a secret plan to leak a medium quality video to entice paying audiences to see the the full theater version? I mean noooobody [cbsnews.com] would do that right?

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @09:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10 2014, @09:53PM (#79784)

      And a plan to make an excuse to go after file sharing tools as well. Two birds with one stone.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 11 2014, @07:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 11 2014, @07:17PM (#80174)

      how will finding out who leaked it protect their profits from THIS movie? it won't. will they succeed in removing the leak from the entire internet? hell no. but increasing it's scarcity on the internet does help safe-guard the profits from THIS movie. however, i'm sure they are capable of finding who leaked the movie AND increasing the scarcity of the movie on the internet.

      as far as preventing this sort of leak in the future with extra security measures, i'm sure security measures will be increased but that won't stop this from happening any more than they can completely remove leaks from the internet.

  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 10 2014, @09:16PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 10 2014, @09:16PM (#79773) Journal

    So it was piracy that doomed this movie! Good to know. It could have been something like a "Sharknado, the Second One" or all the sequels to "Snakes on a Plane". Sometimes people are in fact laughing at you, and not with you, and contrary to marketing hype, not all publicity is good publicity. Can't wait for Dependables 4!

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday August 10 2014, @10:35PM

      by kaszz (4211) on Sunday August 10 2014, @10:35PM (#79810) Journal

      When I saw the list of actors. It made me wonder how all that ego could fit in a movie. This thread seems to have the answers to that.. ;-)

      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 11 2014, @02:52AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Monday August 11 2014, @02:52AM (#79883) Journal

        Sorry, there was a typo in my post: "I can't wait for The Depends-ables!" Not so much the egos, or lack of writing or acting, just geriatrics alone says this movie is probably going to be the most pirated movie of the year! Better than "Cats"!

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by ngarrang on Sunday August 10 2014, @09:43PM

    by ngarrang (896) on Sunday August 10 2014, @09:43PM (#79781) Journal

    The Expendables has never had a great plot. It is a geek film for action film buffs like myself that I had always wanted to see all of my favorite action movie heroes and heroines together at once doing what they do best...shoot stuff and blow stuff up. Anyone expecting anything more than cheesy lines and explosions clearly does not understand this film series. The thieves that are sharing this film are going to ruin the party for all those out there that are enjoying this series.

    This is clearly unethical and theft of copyright and it needs to stop. You are giving Hollywood justified reasons to go after the internet.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by BradTheGeek on Sunday August 10 2014, @10:26PM

      by BradTheGeek (450) on Sunday August 10 2014, @10:26PM (#79804)
    • (Score: 1) by Nollij on Sunday August 10 2014, @10:54PM

      by Nollij (4559) on Sunday August 10 2014, @10:54PM (#79823)

      It's the kind of thing every kid in the 80s dreamed of. So, when it was released 20 years too late, I saw the first one.
      I didn't bother with the second, and even this story isn't enough to make me want to see the third.
      Related: Why Duke Nukem didn't work in 2011 [youtube.com] (esp. ~6:30)

      Besides, if people like you are the target audience, a pirated version will not matter.

    • (Score: 1) by nyder on Sunday August 10 2014, @11:38PM

      by nyder (4525) on Sunday August 10 2014, @11:38PM (#79831)

      They didn't steal anything. No one was deprived of anything.

      They decided to share a copy of a copyright movie they had possession of. That is not stealing.

      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday August 11 2014, @04:55AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Monday August 11 2014, @04:55AM (#79915) Journal

        I've been downloading since the FTP years (though now not a fraction of how much I did when younger), and even *I* know that's a load of legal semantics.

        Each copy downloaded illegally that *would* have been viewed in theaters, rented, and/or purchased blocks people from the income they earned just as much as it would have if a physical copy had been stolen. If I arranged with your boss to have three-quarters of your paycheck diverted to a mix of charities and affluent kids, would you figure I'd merely "shared" your income, or would it seem from your perspective like the money you'd earned was 'stolen' from you?

        If the person wouldn't have gone to see it in the theater, rented it, or bought a copy -- that is, if they genuinely would've gone without, regardless of how curious they became -- then it's not 'stealing' as the people wouldn't have been paid regardless. Problem is, aside from people so deep into poverty that they don't have the option of spending the money (like me), chances are that most people -would- have spent money to view/acquire it.

        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday August 11 2014, @06:07AM

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday August 11 2014, @06:07AM (#79928) Journal

          Not everything that is illegal and causes someone loss of money is stealing. For example, fraud is clearly illegal, and almost always causes the loss of money, and yet it's not stealing. As another example, consider arson. Clearly causes you losses (it even typically deprives you from things, because they are destroyed by the fire), and certainly is illegal, but absolutely is not stealing.

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 11 2014, @06:29AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 11 2014, @06:29AM (#79939)

          If it's really stealing you wouldn't need copyright laws to go after the file sharing bunch.

          QED.

    • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday August 11 2014, @12:07AM

      by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday August 11 2014, @12:07AM (#79841) Journal

      The problem with the Expendables is....the writing is fucking terrible! What made action flicks of the 80s and 90s great is they let the guys do what they did best, Arnie and his bad puns, Sly with his overdone macho, with the Expendables the entire thing is really really REALLY fucking LAZY and phoned in. And this is from a guy that is down with watching pretty much ANY action movie, hell I can quote lines from Last Action Hero as THAT is how much I'm into good cheesy action. But Expendables is just boooorrrriiing with a capital B! The first one had Eric Roberts phoning it in as the bad guy along with the cast phoning it in, the second one had JCVD at least trying to invoke the rule of ham but the action heros were AGAIN phoning it in so bad I'm shocked their ADR wasn't done long distance. in fact the only ones that looked like they were having ANY fun in the second one was Arnie and Bruce doing their little one liners in their cameo, that was it. And WTF was CLINT EASTWOOD'S THEME doing playing when Chuck Norris walked on screen? Were they REALLY so damned lazy that they couldn't get a snippet from Delta Force or any other Norris action flick and just said "fuck it, we got Clint's western tune around here somewhere"...really?

      So I have to wonder if somebody behind the scenes got tired of the lazy and just chucked a copy online hoping the shit will just end.

      --
      ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    • (Score: 2) by Rune of Doom on Monday August 11 2014, @01:15AM

      by Rune of Doom (1392) on Monday August 11 2014, @01:15AM (#79861)

      If the copyright has been stolen, shouldn't the thieves (and not the former owners) be the ones taking legal action? :P

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by halcyon1234 on Sunday August 10 2014, @11:53PM

    by halcyon1234 (1082) on Sunday August 10 2014, @11:53PM (#79836)
    OR they could have been smart, and instead of targeting the sites with takedowns, they could have created accounts on every one of those sites and posted messages along the lines of:

    OMG what a great action movie. I watched it so I know it's going to be fucking awesome. Can't wait to experience it on the big screen!!!

    Or something to that effect. They could go the sockpuppet route and pretend to be users being excited about the movie... or they could go the honest route ("Hey, movie maker here. Watch the movie, but it's going to be even better on the big screen. If you enjoyed it, go see it so we can make another one").

    Turn the negative into a positive. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised that wasn't the plan in the first place. Nothing gets leaked accidentally these days.

    --
    Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]
    • (Score: 2) by tathra on Monday August 11 2014, @01:04AM

      by tathra (3367) on Monday August 11 2014, @01:04AM (#79856)

      that only really works with quality stuff thats actually worth watching. people won't pay money for garbage if they know its garbage before paying. that's how garbage movies work - you don't know its garbage until you've already been suckered out of your money.