Hurt Locker Producers Suing "Tens of Thousands" of Downloaders

[Andy Chalk]

Hurt Locker Producers Suing "Tens of Thousands" of Downloaders

The production company behind the Academy Award-winning film The Hurt Locker [http://www.amazon.com/Hurt-Locker-Jeremy-Renner/dp/B00275EGWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1276717817&sr=8-1] is gearing up to launch a massive lawsuit against "tens of thousands" of people who illegally downloaded the movie.

Uncross the Stars [http://www.voltagepictures.com/]. But lawyer Thomas Dunlap says The Hurt Locker suit, which is expected to be filed this week, will be much bigger than any of its previous litigation. "You can guess that relative to the films we've pursued already, the order of magnitude is much higher," he said.

The exact number of people being targeted by the lawsuit is unknown but Dunlap said he expects it to be in the "tens of thousands, if not more." And unfortunately for potential targets, three-quarters of the internet providers who have been subpoenaed have simply rolled over and cooperated; most of those who are resisting are doing so strictly because of the hassle involved in handing over thousands of customer names.

Downloaders will first be sent a settlement offer from the U.S. Copyright Group, which noted that about 40 percent of individuals have thus far chosen to settle earlier suits. Those who don't settle will receive a second offer and if that goes ignored, the full lawsuit will be served.

The Hurt Locker was a "great success on BitTorrent," according to Academy Award for Best Picture [http://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-to-sue-thousands-of-bittorrent-users-100512/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29]. "The hurt locker" was the most-used search phrase on BitTorrent the day after the awards and the film has been downloaded more than ten million times, including three million since its big win in March. In spite of that, however, the film's U.S. box office was only $16.4 million.

Dunlap claimed that since news of the U.S. Copyright Group's lawsuits first broke, 20 to 30 independent film groups have expressed interest in signing on. His firm is also sending representatives to the Cannes Film Festival [http://www.festival-cannes.com/] to discuss more lawsuits with other producers.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter [http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/hurt-locker-producer-to-sue-pirates.html]


Permalink

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Wow. I'd hate to be a low level clerk at THAT law firm. The paperwork would be mind-boggling!

 

[antipunt]

Ouch for pirates

 

[Kenjitsuka]

This very mediocre movie never diserved an Oscar...
Poor people who are now going to have to fork in a ton of cash because they figured it'd be good.

 

[samsonguy920]

So The Hurt Locker is bringing the hurt locker to movie pirates. Let the debate begin!

 

[Cod of War]

What about non-US downloaders? I'd say most culprits are from overseas.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Hah. Hah-hah. Well, good luck with that, guys.
I'm actually one of those who bought the movie and, let me tell you, it wasn't all that great.
I see where they're going with this, though. Oscar winners lose a lot of money on piracy.

 

[Slycne]

Interesting when you factor in that the film only did a limited theater run, at its highest it was only on 500 screens over the US.

 

[Nimbus]

I sincerely doubt that they are going to make this stick, without rummaging though people's harddrives. Seriously, conclusive proof in a case like this is NOT going to fall from the sky, even with ISP support.

 

[Xersues]

Yeah more like "pissing off tens of thousands" of people. You cannot sue a massive group of independent people. It's been tried before, basically they send a threatening letter to your house, assuming you don't have money/time to deal with it, and you end up forking over some amount of money because they're strong arming you.

How much money do they expect to get from this? With the lawyer fees... Probably zilch. Morons. Go make a better movie.

 

[Xvito]

I wonder when people are going to stop complaining about piracy...?

Why it is against the law is beyond me... And what is even more confusing is that most people seem to think that these companies have valid points.

 

[Cod of War]

This is a bit like arresting drug addicts instead of the supplier.
Why don't they simply shut down the torrent sites? What noble purpose do they serve?

 

[Billion Backs]

That could become a bad precedent if it goes.

Especially if you consider the way BitTorrent works.

 

[Sylocat]

Interesting when you factor in that the film only did a limited theater run, at it's highest it was only on 500 screens over the US.

And if it weren't for the Oscar buzz, I doubt the DVD release would have fared much better.

 

[Alphavillain]

Whew, lucky I rented that one legit.

 

[Daveman]

heh heh, I done gotz dur Doovdé.

 

[Citrus]

The producer is just throwing a temper tantrum and trying to scare people. He'll soon realize that he isn't actually going to be able to sue tens of thousands of people, and will probably try to save face by taking it out on the torrent sites or something. I think they've been through something like this more than a few times now.

 

[Jared]

I got a feeling this is going to get really, really ugly.

I dont know how it is going to work for people outside the US who D/Led it, but, I am sure this is going to be one of those cases that just keeps dragging and dragging

 

[katsabas]

Yeah, they can try. It is not gonna stick but they can try. Most of piracy cases though are unreachable and far away, however. An ocean away. They are basically trying to make up for the box office with lawsuits. Reaaaaaaly low. Almost makes me wish Avatar had won these statues instead.