The Oscar winning Hurt Locker and the U.S.C.G. (U.S. Copyright Group) are in the news – for suing thousands of people who have downloaded the film illegally using file-sharing networks like BitTorrent. They even intend to find out the names of all the individuals by taking the help of the ISPs.
It is reported that more than 20,000 movie torrent downloaders have been sued recently for copyright infringement by the U.S.C.G., and Lawsuits on 30,000 more are on the way.
The U.S.C.G. suing on behalf of independent film producers; is said to be using a new proprietary technology from Guardaley IT, which provides them real-time information on all the movies that are downloaded through torrents. The program is said to capture IP addresses based on the time the films are downloaded and then checks to see if the film is copyright protected.
Voltage Pictures, which owns the copyright for The Hurt Locker got together with the U.S.C.G. to sue all individuals who download the film illegally.
When Nicholas from Canada, e-mailed the producer of The Hurt Locker, Nicolas Chartier, expressing his dislike at the way things are being handled, the producer is said to have responded with an e-mail filled with insults.
Here is an excerpt, “Hi Nicholas, please feel free to leave your house open every time you go out and please tell your family to do so, please invite people in the streets to come in and take things from you, not to make money out of it by reselling it but just to use it for themselves and help themselves.” “I’m glad you’re a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference.”
With the help of this technology, Voltage has the IP addresses of 5,000 people who downloaded this film, and they believe that very soon, they will identify each of the defendant’s true name.
