Law firm will fight illegal downloadin of your movie for free

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Blade_Jones

Anyone pissed that their movie is being GIVEN away on PirateBay? Well now a law firm will file a lawsuit for free on your behalf.

Virginia-based law firm Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver is filing lawsuits against illegal downloaders.

The enterprising lawyers, under the operative the U.S. Copyright Group, seek out indie filmmakers and offer to sue anonymous movie pirates for no charge. The firm then subpoenas Verizon, AT&T and other ISPs to identify each John Doe user, and threatens to sue each person for $150,000 unless they agree to a $1,500 to $2,500 settlement fee, according to Ars Technica's Law & Disorder blog and Techdirt. Defendants can pony up the cash on a website set up to accept checks and credit cards.

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/article/lawyers_poised_to_bank_millions_on_p2p_prosecution
 
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Why don't the major film companies do this? They've got the money.
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I don't know. Maybe when it only costs a BUCK to rent a movie, they figure that they're not losing that much money. Although "She's Out of My League" currently has 37,000 seeders and leechers on PB.

I thought photo enforced red light tickets were steep. $1,500 to $2,500 will be a hard pill for illegal DL'ers to swallow.

By the way most ISP's retain IPaddress information for 6 months. Film companies have plenty of time to go after people.
 
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TheBuck said:
sonnyboo- How'd it turn out calling them?
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They already called me back and we're talking terms and percentages already.

Blade_Jones said:
I thought photo enforced red light tickets were steep. $1,500 to $2,500 will be a hard pill for illegal DL'ers to swallow.
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Facing a mandatory copyright violation fine of $150,000 versus $1,500 settlement seems pretty cheap. It's only 1% of the total cost that they will face in court with little to no defense - they are responsible for violating the copyright.

Maybe it will discourage people from illegally downloading movies. Even if it's one person at a time, I have absolutely no problem with suing every single person who has illegally downloaded my feature without paying for it.
 
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It may discourage a very small % of people and that's it and I highly doubt it will discourage anyone 25 and under. Still going to be interesting to see how this case affects movie DLing.
 
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They already called me back and we're talking terms and percentages already.
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Cool! I was under the impression that maybe they worked for free and the filmmaker made nothing.
I wonder if they represent intellectual property owners of audio content too.

Do they look to represent people whose property has a lot of "action" on the torrents (torrents with 10's or 100's of seeders and leechers VS torrents with a couple here and there)?
 
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TheBuck said:
It may discourage a very small % of people and that's it and I highly doubt it will discourage anyone 25 and under. Still going to be interesting to see how this case affects movie DLing.
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If enough people get slapped with $1,500 fees or $150,000 fines, I think it might discourage more people. Especially if the number of law suits keep increasing. If kids under 18 get busted for downloading and their parents have to pay $1,500, this will curb a lot of illegal downloading in the home. For 18-22 year old's at the university get fined by the school for illegal downloads, then it will affect the dorms. 22-25 year old's that start out with a hefty debt, then they might stop doing it.

I can't wait to get my lawsuits started. Yes, this law firm works for free to the filmmakers and they will take the majority of money in (about 70%), but it we're already looking at over 10,000 users in the last year alone with IP addresses they've already identified! They said the biggest cash cow are the university downloads because the colleges all settle right away and are now dinging the students in question or they can't graduate unless they pay the fines.

Sounds to me like the beginning of changes in regulation in concerns with Electronic Theft. It's only the beginning, but hopefully when more and more people are punished for stealing, then others will stop doing it.

Viva La Lawsuit!
 
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So not trying to be a jerk here but this got me wondering. What becomes more important to you when making movies? Money? Fame? Reputation? End Product? Audience?

I know my answer to this but I would like to know how everyone else feels.
 
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This could actually be worse for the movie industry and that statement is based on the fact that the music industry has done almost nothing but lose money since all the suing. There was a article I came across a few days ago that go into the loses the music industry has had but I can not for the life of me find it. I will keep trying. If anyone knows the article that I mean please post it, I think the title was THE MUSIC INDUSTRY LOSES THE MOST IN DECAES or it was something very similar to that.

Brooksy- for me it is Rep-Audience-End Product-Fame-Money.
 
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So not trying to be a jerk here but this got me wondering. What becomes more important to you when making movies? Money? Fame? Reputation? End Product? Audience?
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What's important to me is not getting ripped off. If someone wants to cry and complain, then let them all they want. I don't care. Theft is theft. Is it wrong to call the cops if your liquor store is being looted? There's nothing worse than seeing your stuff get stolen before your eyes. PirateBay has been a big party for all the thieves for a few years now. Now, finally a law firm has given indie filmmakers a fighting chance. I'm not gonna spend $10,000 or more fighting DL'ers, so the arrangement that this law firm has is great. This law firm has obviously figured out a system that works and doesn't lose money.
 
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Brooksy said:
So not trying to be a jerk here but this got me wondering. What becomes more important to you when making movies? Money? Fame? Reputation? End Product? Audience?
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I am driven by the need to watch a story unfold in a dark room with a bunch of strangers watching the flickering lights on a screen. But to tell some stories, you need significant amounts of money to do so. If you do not treat the investment of money seriously, then you do not deserve the money and most likely won't return on that investment.

I make a living making movies. Someone is stealing money directly from my pocket by illegally downloading my movies. There are taking food from me and my families plate by taking something that isn't theirs.
 
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Brooksy said:
So not trying to be a jerk here but this got me wondering. What becomes more important to you when making movies? Money? Fame? Reputation? End Product? Audience?
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Money.

It's fun to make movies on the side while going to your
day job. I don't have a day job. I can't make money making
movies, I can't make a living.
 
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Mainly you have two types of indie filmmakers.

The one's who want to actually make a living at it.

And the one's who want to have as large an audience as possible.

Both are passionate about films.

The one's who want to make a living out of it, go ahead and join endeavors like this law firm, the one's who dont, work on getting publicity through any means you can.
 
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The one's who want to actually make a living at it.
And the ones who want to have as large an audience as possible.
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You can rationalize stealing, and demonize people who protect their stuff all you want. Until you've put up your own money, remortgaged your house, and invested your life in a movie you probably can't appreciate what it's like to see your stuff stolen. We all love the art of making a movie, but you cannot make a movie without taking the business side of it seriously or you will have a short career.

And with regard to publicity, there's a little thing called a "trailer" that has worked in promoting films for years. Having your movie stolen is not "publicity". Piracy is not a "net gain". There has been a clear drop off in music sales ever since Napster came along. The decline in foreign film sales is a prime example of what piracy has done to movies.
 
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Ernest Worthing said:
Mainly you have two types of indie filmmakers.

The one's who want to actually make a living at it.

And the one's who want to have as large an audience as possible.

Both are passionate about films.

The one's who want to make a living out of it, go ahead and join endeavors like this law firm, the one's who dont, work on getting publicity through any means you can.
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Why is it an either/or? What is the rationale between thinking that making a living at film somehow negates the artistic merit?

I joined this lawsuit, but I do a lot of publicity. see and click on that.

I believe very much in publicity. Now, getting publicity by any means and condoning illegal activities like theft are two very different things... especially theft that costs me money and steals my hard work.

I just don't see the notion of believing that if you want to protect your copyright has anything to do with wanting to have as large an audience as possible.

I really do see this as a perception issue of those who have never had investors or have been responsible for amounts of money more than $10,000 in a single movie and those who are simply hobbyists that don't comprehend how much damage is being done to the film industry as a whole by illegal downloads. It doesn't affect you and you get something for free, so why worry about it? it's so short sighted in that when the big mega corporations lose even a chunk of their profits, they stop looking at small independent films... the very movies we all make... as an option and we ALL lose. That's fine if you make movies as a hobby and that's all it is to you, but I have a family to take care of and this is what I do to pay the rent and buy food.
 
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sonnyboo said:
Why is it an either/or? What is the rationale between thinking that making a living at film somehow negates the artistic merit?

I joined this lawsuit, but I do a lot of publicity. see and click on that.

I believe very much in publicity. Now, getting publicity by any means and condoning illegal activities like theft are two very different things... especially theft that costs me money and steals my hard work.

I just don't see the notion of believing that if you want to protect your copyright has anything to do with wanting to have as large an audience as possible.

I really do see this as a perception issue of those who have never had investors or have been responsible for amounts of money more than $10,000 in a single movie and those who are simply hobbyists that don't comprehend how much damage is being done to the film industry as a whole by illegal downloads. It doesn't affect you and you get something for free, so why worry about it? it's so short sighted in that when the big mega corporations lose even a chunk of their profits, they stop looking at small independent films... the very movies we all make... as an option and we ALL lose. That's fine if you make movies as a hobby and that's all it is to you, but I have a family to take care of and this is what I do to pay the rent and buy food.
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My post came across wrong. I did not mean either/or and i certainly did not mean that making a living at it negates artistic merit.

I was actually trying to simmer the debate down a bit, seems like ive done the opposite thing. I put indie in bold, italics and underlined it for this reason. A lot of indie filmmakers just want to reach an audience. They just want to make some beautiful and have ppl see it. Torrents etc are a way for them to do that. Unfortunately most of the torrents are illegal but in themselves torrents are a good way to distribute your film for free if u want to.

I was not saying not to fight against illegal downloads. I do not know how to prevent illegal torrents, law firms do. In law firm endeavors like these, ppl who are tired of having their money ripped of should go for it and ppl who do not care about about their film being distributed for free should stay out of it. Then we'll see where we end up.

I thought my post was clear enuf but if it came across as me not caring for those ppl who r losing money, lemme know and ill take it down bc i certainly do not want to be a voice for that.
 
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