>
A federal court in Virginia has signed a temporary restraining order that requires PayPal to freeze the assets of VPN provider VPN.ht. The company is being sued by several movie studios and stands accused of facilitating piracy. The court also signed off on a request to lock the domain name of a Popcorn Time fork, which already appears to have thrown the towel.
Hawaiian attorney Kerry Culpepper has made a habit of putting pressure on key players in the piracy ecosystem.
Representing the makers of films such as “Hunter Killer,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” and “London Has Fallen,” he’s gone after individual file-sharers, apps such as Popcorn Time and Showbox, and pirate sites including YTS.
>
A group of movie companies is continuing to put pressure on the Popcorn Time app and VPN.ht. After filing a copyright infringement lawsuit earlier this month, they are now asking the court to freeze the VPN provider s PayPal funds. In addition, the movie outfits want the Popcorntime.app domain locked, to prevent it from being transferred.
A group of movie production outfits, including affiliates of the film studios Millennium Media, Voltage Pictures and CineTel Film, has taken legal action against key piracy players in recent years.
The makers of films such as “Hunter Killer,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” and “London Has Fallen,” have gone after individual file-sharers, apps such as Popcorn Time and Showbox, and pirate sites including YTS.
>
A group of independent movie companies, including the makers of The Hitman’s Bodyguard and London Has Fallen, has filed a lawsuit against a widely used Popcorn Time app and several of its users. The companies don t stop there either. The complaint also accuses VPN service VPN.ht and hosting provider Voxility of copyright infringement.
Hawaiian attorney Kerry Culpepper has built quite a track record in recent years, putting pressure on various pirate sites and services.
The biggest score came a little over a year ago when he convinced the operator of YTS, one of the largest torrent sites, to settle with several movie companies for more than a million dollars in damages.
>
The company behind the movie I Spit On Your Grave has filed a lawsuit against 14 people who allegedly downloaded the film without permission. The defendants are identified through an IP-address and email and, according to the complaint, they have registered an account with the popular torrent site 1337x. This raises several questions.
The lawyer was able to do this because YTS handed over database information as part of a private settlement.
The tactic proved quite useful. For one, the database information is additional evidence and provides valuable details such as email addresses. In addition, calling out a torrent site by name may deter some people from using it in the future. It’s a win-win for the copyright holder.
>
The company behind the film Hunter Killer has sued a former phone store employee who allegedly promoted the piracy app Popcorn Time to customers. The woman in question, who already lost her job due to the accusations, also downloaded the movie herself according to a recently filed complaint.
Every year, thousands of “Doe” defendants are sued for allegedly sharing pirated videos via BitTorrent.
Most of these lawsuits follow a common pattern. The copyright holders track down an infringing IP-address, uncover the associated account holder through a subpoena, to then offer this person a settlement.
Defendants who ignore or deny the settlement offers will often be named. And if they fail to respond after that, the copyright holder will ask the court to issue a default judgment.