Makers of

By MatiasRaudzus
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MatiasRaudzus

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Will they ever learn, the lawsuits aren't working!

With worldwide box-office grosses totalling $274 million since its premiere in August of last year, The Expendables can be classified as a modest blockbuster. The film also did well on file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent, but thus far without any direct revenues. In an attempt to cash in on these unauthorized downloads, the makers of the film stood by an earlier warning and sued 6,500 BitTorrent users in the United States.

In the last 12 months filmmakers and licensees have sued well over 100,000 alleged file-sharers in the United States alone. The purpose of these lawsuits is to obtain the personal details of the alleged downloaders, and use this information to negotiate a settlement offer ranging from a few hundred to a few thousands dollars.

This scheme was pioneered in the US by the law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, aka the U.S. Copyright Group (USCG), but recently it has been replicated by several other lawyers across the country. A few days ago, USCG filed a round of new lawsuits on behalf of another major client, Nu Image, the studio behind the action flick The Expendables.

After The Hurt Locker, The Expendables is the first major film release associated with this type of legal action. It is also one of the largest mass P2P lawsuits that was ever started, with a total of 6,500 unidentified defendants (Does). All defendants are suspected of having shared The Expendables on BitTorrent in recent months.

The complaint, filed by Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver at the District Court of Columbia, further appears to be copied from previous cases. It starts off with describing how BitTorrent works, and goes on to explain how the defendants have used this technology to distribute The Expendables without permission of the copyright holder.

http://torrentfreak.com/makers-of-the-expendables-sue-6500-bittorrent-users-110208/

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Fluxii Media

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No, they will never learn... when will they just ditch the lawsuits and start implementing a system with torrents... release bad copies of it, if a person likes it, they'll end up getting a hard copy that has far superior quality. Get it? Pretty simple entertainment industry.

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LiquidSolstice

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The problem I have with TorrentFreak is that it's always pro-piracy and constantly pointing out mistakes made by copyright laywers and RIAA, but does nothing to address the fact that people don't and never will find anything wrong with them getting something for free that they should be paying for, instead propagating a self-entitlement stance.

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7Dash8

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The following proves Hollywood wrong:

Internet Piracy Boosts Anime Sales, Study Concludes

The following proves torrentfreak is wrong.

The problem I have with TorrentFreak is that it's always pro-piracy and constantly pointing out mistakes made by copyright laywers and RIAA, but does nothing to address the fact that people don't and never will find anything wrong with them getting something for free that they should be paying for, instead propagating a self-entitlement stance.

Amen to that. Torrentfreak is just as bad as the MPAA, RIAA and the lawyers. It only presents a fabricated one-sided story every single time, it's just propaganda. I'm sick of seeing people quoting torrentfreak stories without actually reading the source material from those stories, which sometimes present a much less flattering story about piracy or a completely different set of facts.

It frustrates me that people are so stupid and/or selfish that they swallow this pro piracy garbage whole, just to make themselves feel better about pirating. Piracy is never going to be acceptable or viable for businesses.

I say let torrentfreak or the pirate party or some other bleating piracy advocates develop and put out commercial quality movies, games or music for free distribution via torrent, or shut up.

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MR_Candyman

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The following proves torrentfreak is wrong.

Amen to that. Torrentfreak is just as bad as the MPAA, RIAA and the lawyers. It only presents a fabricated one-sided story every single time, it's just propaganda. I'm sick of seeing people quoting torrentfreak stories without actually reading the source material from those stories, which sometimes present a much less flattering story about piracy or a completely different set of facts.

It frustrates me that people are so stupid and/or selfish that they swallow this pro piracy garbage whole, just to make themselves feel better about pirating. Piracy is never going to be acceptable or viable for businesses.

I say let torrentfreak or the pirate party or some other bleating piracy advocates develop and put out commercial quality movies, games or music for free distribution via torrent, or shut up.

All that said is that it negatively affects DVD RENTALS, it specifically states it does not negatively affect sales. Personally, I'm sure as hell not spending $10 to rent a movie (that's the going rate around here) when I can buy it brand new for $20. I download stuff, and if I like it, I buy it, always.

I haven't seen this particular movie, because I knew it would be crap.

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briangw

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Hell, i THANK those torrent users for keeping torrents popular, this way it keeps the other 'alternatives' off the radar ;)

If you think these companies don't know of the other 'alternatives,' I've got some ocean front property to sell you up here in MN ;)

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Grand Master

inactive

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If you think these companies don't know of the other 'alternatives,' I've got some ocean front property to sell you up here in MN ;)

i am sure they do but there is probably less they can really do on the 'alternatives' since it's SSL and they can't see who uploads what ;)

so currently... it's just easier for them to go after torrent users. plus torrents are typically free where as the "alternatives" generally are not.

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Gaffney

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Haha.

I can't believe I wasted money on watching this movie too.. it was awful.

How was is ? Does what it says on the tin, action. I would only see it in the cinema, would be rubbish on 3D. But I download a lot of films but I also have a monthly Cinema card and I usually see 2 films a week, half of them are boring and uninspired films like It's sort of a funny story, the other guys and so on.

Piracy doesn't mean anything your either going to buy it or your not. There isn't he would buy it if he couldn't download it, I buy and download but I only buy or go to the cinema to see the films that deserve it.

If I get a letter saying you downloaded our film I'm going to find the person who sent it and slap them in the face with my dvd's, cinema card and my cinema receipts.

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Grand Master

presence06

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How embarrassing it must be for the 6500 people who?ve been sued for having illegally downloaded The Expendables. At least get caught downloading with merit, not that silly bit of nonsense. But yes, word on the street is that the same law firm (the ?US Copyright Group?) that spearheaded the effort against people who illegally downloaded The Hurt Locker have now been retained to go after people who downloaded The Expendables. Hope you haven?t been downloading from BitTorrent lately!

The lawsuits target some 6500 unidentified individuals using the good ol? John Doe method.

There?s a few reasons for the lawsuits. One, of course, is to try to obtain the personal details of the infringing IP address. Can?t really sue someone if you don?t know who they are. Two, and most sinisterly, it?s to get these people to cough up some money, perhaps to the tune of several thousand dollars per person. At this point you?re better off walking into a brick-and-mortar store, shoplifting the Blu-ray, getting caught, then paying the simple fine for shoplifting. It?s a wacky world we live in.

TorrentFreak notes that if 80 percent of defendants pay up (as opposed to actually trying to fight the lawsuit in court, being that justice is only available to the wealthy in this country) then the studio stands to earn some $10 million. Considering the movie made a cool $274 million at the box office, an extra $10 million may be able to pay for the inevitable sequel?s catering budget.

Advice? Stop using BitTorrent, people. It?s not 2004 anymore.

DANG. That's a lot of people. I thought they were only going after the uploaders/seeders. ? None the less, wow.

Source:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/02/09/lawsuits-target-6500-people-who-downloaded-the-expendables-via-bittorrent/

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