shamu726 Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 In a new complaint filed at a Hawaii federal court, 19 'John Does' are accused of sharing pirated copies of the film Ava. The defendants, who are only known by their IP-addresses, are described as users of the site YTS. While there is no hard evidence to back up all claims, the accused may still be in trouble. In recent months we have reported in detail how users of the popular torrent site YTS were sued in US courts. In several of these cases, information shared by the site’s operator was brought in as evidence. The user info was obtained by anti-piracy lawyer Kerry Culpepper, as part of an undisclosed settlement agreement. This week the same attorney is back in court representing ‘Eve Nevada LLC,’ the company behind the film Ava, which is shared widely on various pirate sites. Again, YTS is prominently mentioned, but this time things are different. The complaint, filed at a Hawaii federal court, lists 19 ‘John Doe’ defendants who are only known by their IP-addresses. These addresses were caught sharing the film via public torrent trackers. Specifically, the complaint mentions a file titled “Ava (2020) [1080p] [WEBRip] [5.1] [YTS.MX].” This title leads the filmmakers to the conclusion that the defendant must have been users of the YTS site. Or as the complaint puts it: “Upon information and belief, each of the Defendants registered for an account on the YTS website using an email address or installed a BitTorrent Client application on their device that retrieved torrent files from the YTS website.” This same conclusion, in addition to the fact that defendants downloaded the same file, is also used as an argument to join the 19 defendants in one case. However, based on the information presented, it’s far from clear that at all of these people were indeed YTS users. Unlike in the other cases, the copyright holder didn’t present any information from the YTS user base, likely because it doesn’t have any. The data-sharing was a one-time arrangement several months ago, long before YTS released the movie Ava. While it’s possible that the defendants indeed used YTS, they could have easily downloaded the .torrent file from other sites where the same file was made available. Although several torrent sites banned YTS torrents, many haven’t, including the illustrious Pirate Bay. Whether the defendants are actually YTS users or not may not make much of a difference. At least not for the copyright infringement allegations. In addition to direct and contributory copyright infringement, the complaint also accuses the defendant of violating the DMCA by altering copyright management information (CMI). In this case, that means distributing the movie Ava with an edited title, which references YTS. “Particularly, the Defendants distributed the file names that included CMI that had been altered to include the wording ‘YTS’. Defendants knew that the wording “YTS” originated from the notorious movie piracy website for which each had registered accounts and/or actively used,” the complaint reads. It’s doubtful that any of these cases will be fought on the merits. When the defendant’s personal information is exposed it’s likely that they will receive a settlement request, which is usually around $1,000. Those who refuse to settle can argue their case in court, but that’s going to cost as well. They can eventually win the case, but not without investing in a legal defense first. As far as we know this is the first time people have been sued for downloading the film Ava. The company Eve Nevada is a new name as well, but one with familiar connections. It’s connected to the broader Voltage Pictures family, which has sued tens of thousands of people over the years. — A copy of the complaint filed at the US District Court of Hawaii is available here (pdf) Source: TorrentFreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 Another failed movie so they have to try and sue users for downloading something no one in there right mind would pay to see. Besides for the eye-candy woman lead Jessica Chastain it is nothing to see. 5.3 at IMDB almost 15,000 votes and popularity is down in a year of bad movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zanderthunder Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 They can't do anything about users who downloaded the movie outside from US tho, due to jurisdiction limitations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp68terr Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 Copyright laws exist in several countries, 'they' just have to communicate with local agencies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zanderthunder Posted October 21, 2020 Share Posted October 21, 2020 15 hours ago, mp68terr said: Copyright laws exist in several countries, 'they' just have to communicate with local agencies. But then, don't expect local agencies to take swift actions during this pandemic season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp68terr Posted October 21, 2020 Share Posted October 21, 2020 Not sure that the pandemic is playing much there. This very forum 'FileSharing News' is still reporting actions outside the US regarding law firms/copyright-linked agencies/courts against pirates and pirate-sites. There are likely other actions not reported here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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