Anti-Piracy Lawyers Sued For Fraud, Abuse and Extortion

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It looks like the copyright lawyers are getting a taste of their own medicine. Obviously we do not condone or encourage piracy, we just think it is funny when the tables get turned on the entertainment industry’s attack dogs.

The US Copyright Group thought it had found the ideal scheme to turn piracy into profit when it started filing lawsuits against tens of thousands of BitTorrent users this year. But the defendants in the Far Cry lawsuits have now become the plaintiffs in a class action filed against the anti-piracy lawyers and their partners. Among other things, the lawyers are accused of fraud, extortion and abuse.
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If this gets dismissed or worse they get exonerated I'm moving to Sweden. Seriously everybody and their Mom knows this was extortion.

Pay me now or pay me later when I take your home for sharing a song/movie/game you wouldn't have bought anyway but might now because you heard/watched/played it and liked it. Seriously?!? :mad:
 
While I doubt they will loose, it would be nice if they did. There has already been precedent in many cases for copyrights to be upheld even tho it wasn't formally registered at the time.

Fortunately i'm not american so I never have to worry about it for now (not that i'd of watched hurt locker or far cry.. not my cup of tea).

On the other hand.. am I the only one who gets a headache trying to read the comments on TF? Arrr we pirate everything, and no one will stop us Arrr we are always right Arrr screw you government and MAFIAA for trying to hold us down Arrr.
 
Darth Millennial said:
If this gets dismissed or worse they get exonerated I'm moving to Sweden. Seriously everybody and their Mom knows this was extortion.
:mad:
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Unfortunately most European countries commit FAR worse forms of extortion under the guise of copyright infringement than the USA. :mad: too.
 
Wow, I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner. What these law firms are doing is an alternate form of extortion. They are using fear tactics to get people, guilt or not, to settle their case without due process. A properly filed lawsuit would go like this:

1. Cease and desist letter
2. File a lawsuit
3. Arbitration
4. Discovery
5. Court

Somewhere between process 2 and 4 a settlement could be reached.
 
Having the (flawed) law on your side does not excuse breaching many other laws in misguided attempts to enforce said law. Take them out!
 
Committing felony criminal acts to collect civil penalties. Yeah, sounds like a business plan if your last name is Capone, or Gotti.
 
OregonLAN said:
Wow, I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner. What these law firms are doing is an alternate form of extortion. They are using fear tactics to get people, guilt or not, to settle their case without due process. A properly filed lawsuit would go like this:

1. Cease and desist letter
2. File a lawsuit
3. Arbitration
4. Discovery
5. Court

Somewhere between process 2 and 4 a settlement could be reached.
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Who needs due process when you can buy a couple CONgress men to write the laws to your advantage.
 
All of these corrupt law firms are connected to each other. They are all connected to the law firm in the UK, who is also being investigated in the UK, for their corruption. The leaked emails are proof of it.
 
Darth Millennial said:
Pay me now or pay me later when I take your home for sharing a song/movie/game you wouldn't have bought anyway but might now because you heard/watched/played it and liked it. Seriously?!? :mad:
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ok i'm hate the MPAA and RIAA as much as everyone else, but this argument is way overplayed and makes no sense at all. You download a song that you wouldn't normally buy you listen to it, therefore you benefit in some way from it but you don't want to pay for it?

There are plenty of legal free ways to try music before you buy it, even from your own home...sorry you don't own the copyright, therefore you don't get to decide whether or not it's ok to download this song without the copyright owner's consent to try it out.
 
prometheum said:
ok i'm hate the MPAA and RIAA as much as everyone else, but this argument is way overplayed and makes no sense at all. You download a song that you wouldn't normally buy you listen to it, therefore you benefit in some way from it but you don't want to pay for it?

There are plenty of legal free ways to try music before you buy it, even from your own home...sorry you don't own the copyright, therefore you don't get to decide whether or not it's ok to download this song without the copyright owner's consent to try it out.
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I agree with you, but I agree with him as well. His primary point is that the punishments do not fit the crime in personal use infringement cases.
If I steal a cd, I will prolly have to pay restitution, less than $20, and maybe a couple hundred in fines. But, if I torrent a single $.99 song, I might just lose my house. There is no pretending that makes sense.
 
GORANKAR said:
if I torrent a single $.99 song, I might just lose my house. There is no pretending that makes sense.
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Right on!

This irks me too. The punishments for copyright infringement are wildly disproportionate the the actual act committed.

Listening to a song for which you did not have a license: $80,000 per $1 song.

Imagine what it would be like if that applied to everything. Watch a $20 movie without obtaining the proper license to do so? $1,600,000 fine. And what if someone was held liable for the 3,000 MP3s and 100 films they had on their hard drive? They would be on the on the hook for a half billion dollars.
 
About damned time. I wondered why more people hadn't stood up for themselves. You can take someone to court for failing to take you to court after filing a lawsuit against you, that in itself is proof of extortion.
 
fattypants said:
Right on!

This irks me too. The punishments for copyright infringement are wildly disproportionate the the actual act committed.

Listening to a song for which you did not have a license: $80,000 per $1 song.

Imagine what it would be like if that applied to everything. Watch a $20 movie without obtaining the proper license to do so? $1,600,000 fine. And what if someone was held liable for the 3,000 MP3s and 100 films they had on their hard drive? They would be on the on the hook for a half billion dollars.
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And if you steal 100,000 credit cards, you might get a $150,000 fine and a 1 year jail sentence. Which is likely far less than the amount of profit you got in comparision to what they were able to track against you.
 
i would love to see factual number of how many people who work in the MPAA / RIAA have people they know who download illegal content, and how many politicians have kids or family who do the same yet preach this is wrong every day, and now lawyers....but of hypocrites if you ask me
 
Indeed... like always lawyers win out in the end. And I doubt these lawyers will be the ones who work for non profit organizations or the like and is instead the hounding war dogs that are or will be or have been used by the RIAA/MPAA themselves.

Still, maybe this might get the 2 separated a bit more and help out in the end... maybe... but I doubt it.
 
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