'Copyright Troll' Has Already Filed Over 1,000 Piracy Lawsuits This Year * TorrentFreak:
For more than 15 years, alleged file-sharers around the world have been pressured to pay significant settlement fees. These so-called 'copyright-trolling' efforts are pretty straightforward. Copyright holders obtain a list of 'pirating' IP-addresses and then request a subpoena from the court, compelling ISPs to hand over the associated customer data.
These schemes can be rather lucrative. With minimal effort, rights holders can rake in hundreds or thousands of dollars per defendant. That is, if a court grants expedited discovery, allowing the companies to request the personal details of alleged infringers from ISPs.
In the United States it was relatively easy to pursue these cases but over time that began to change. Most prominent was the 2018 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the Cobbler v. Gonzales case. Here, the court ruled that identifying the registered subscriber of an IP-address was not sufficient to argue that this person is also the infringer. Rightsholders needed "something more".
This has made it harder to pursue legal actions against file-sharers, but not impossible. While pretty much all prolific lawsuit filers have ceased their activities, Strike 3 Holdings is still going strong.
Strike 3 is in the adult video business. The company makes its content available through subscriptions via the Blacked, Tushy, and Vixen websites. When it discovers that pirates have shared these videos illegally via torrent sites, the company takes action.
To present "something more" than just an IP address the company is also using other sources to gather information on the defendants. This includes information shared on social media. In addition, the company has also requested data from Google and Netflix.
[...] Finally, it is also possible for accused pirates to secure a win. This happened when Strike 3 filed a lawsuit against a "John Doe" who turned out to be a 70+-year-old retired police officer.
Instead of settling the matter, the former policeman lawyered up and submitted a counterclaim accusing Strike 3 of "extortion through sham litigation" and abuse of process. The defendant eventually secured a win and was awarded $47,777 in attorneys' fees and costs.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday June 13 2022, @12:31PM (8 children)
Of course they are. Because if you're accused of sharing pr0n, you're more likely to give in, because the alternative is creating publicly searchable records about how much you enjoy whatever freaky stuff you're into. It's basically legal blackmail, and like most blackmail schemes it works.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday June 13 2022, @01:01PM
Indeed. This seems to have more in common with some kind of legal blackmail. It's more akin to "Nasty porn preference you have there ... Would be a shame if other people found out about it ... Now if you just pay us $X we'll forget about it ... Otherwise other people, children, significant other, future employers will find out what a dirty little wanker you are that likes to watch (and then they insert the most embarrassing title you torrented or all of them) and the list will be like cum-glazed-sorority-anal-gilf-motherfuckers-35.
In that regard I think a lot of people just pay, to avoid the "shame" or embarrassment.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday June 13 2022, @02:07PM (4 children)
The irony is that this business is shameless, far beyond "it takes one to know one".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2022, @02:24PM (3 children)
They are pornographers after all. If they had shame they wouldn't be in the business they are in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2022, @07:49PM (2 children)
Why? Pornography and sex aren't shameful, except to those who take offense, and they are welcome to stay away from it if they don't like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2022, @11:17PM
Why doesn’t just everyone join up in pride month to celebrate their sexual perversions. All the opinion leaders are in for it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 14 2022, @11:22AM
So here's the problem: While you might truly believe that, there's almost guaranteed to be somebody who can have significant effects on your life who doesn't or at least pretends not to. All it takes is a single supervisor or cow-orker or somebody in HR (quite possibly someone who enjoys that stuff on their own time but likes to pretend they don't), and your perfectly innocent and normal desire to watch kinky stuff will start having impacts on whether you can work in your chosen profession. Or, very commonly, the messaging will be "I don't personally mind, but I can't let the news get hold of this and drag our company name through the mud for this."
So it's not so much your shame or lack thereof that matters, it's everyone's perceptions of somebody else finding it shameful.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Monday June 13 2022, @03:10PM (1 child)
Not for me, I got my start in tech working for Seth Warshavsky at IEG…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Warshavsky [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2022, @08:47PM
You know what they say, the internet was made for porn.