22,000 alleged 'Hurt Locker' pirates are let off the hook

Earlier this year, Voltage Pictures filed a lawsuit against 24,583 defendants for allegedly downloading and sharing pirated copies of the Oscar-winning picture "The Hurt Locker."

Today, the studio has let 22,000 of those defendants off the hook, voluntarily dismissing them "without prejudice."

Voltage will still seek damages from the remaining 2500 defendants, although many of those being sued still have not been identified positively. The studio continues to work with ISPs to link the IPs correctly.

The studio had 120 days to serve them with papers, but many of the anonymous defendants filed motions with their ISPs, slowing the process to a crawl.

Via VentureBeat, the recent filing says:

In circumstances where a Doe [unidentified] defendant has not filed the motion and only sent it to the ISP, most ISPs withhold the identifying information so that the Doe defendant can then file the motion with the court. Further, plaintiff's counsel has been informed by the ISPs that numerous Doe defendants have recently re-filed their motions or have filed motions for reconsideration of the Court's prior rulings.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Oct 2011 0:55

LordRuss

the movie is going on 4 years old. Which probably means the thing got downloaded, what(?) 2.5 years ago, give or take. Dependent on when the case was filed, I would have thought there might have been a statute of limitations on this kind of thing. Not to mention, hasn't the 120 days already lapsed?

Other than Voltage filing obstruction charges (or charges with regards to malingering toward the finalization date) I see them asking for a continuation (which can only happen probably once given the sheer number of people on this one).

Then this wishy-washy dropping of 20K of defendants? Smacks of the legal strong-arming scheme that DirecTv pulled way back when to nail people for supposedly stealing satellite reception. If you had happened to buy anything from a reseller known to sell equipment used for such a purpose, the reseller got busted, your credit card gets issued to D-TV's lawyers, they simply issued you a legal nasty-gram in the mail. If you replied they started suing for god-knows-what & you'd feel like it'd never end.

I'm just saying, this is beginning to feel like another one of 'those' approaches. They have their fish on the line & now their going to reel them in.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

2.10.2011 11:41 #1

Mysttic

As long as piracy is considered criminal, there is no statutes of limitations.

2.10.2011 12:45 #2

Hopium

@lordruss hurt locker was out on .torrents before it was in theater's, thats why they started this whole ordeal

2.10.2011 13:22 #3

LordRuss

@Hopium... Aaaahh, there's where I dropped the ball...

@Mysttic... What piracy did you happen to have in mind? We're not exactly talking about the high seas here, or at least that's not what I think the current judicial system seems to have in place. They certainly aren't imposing punishment in the same fashion for similar infractions (at least for theft).

And although military style force now seems to be a force worth imposing, unlike the Somali pirates, 3 highly trained SEALS looking down the bore of a Barret to pop a hacker a new asshole in the forehead doesn't seem quite on the forefront. I mean barring the whole 'walking the plank', 'bread & water', crap & all, pirates seems to be a bit of a misnomer. Plain old wanton thieves would be fine. I mean that's what they are prosecuting them for.

Pirates kidnap, destroy, coerce, loot, profiteer, kill, ransom, are territorial and terrorize. These folks just didn't want to pay properly for the viewing of the movie. Smack them for a good few hundred dollars & be done with it. This "kicking them so hard God winces" is just stupidity defined.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

2.10.2011 13:57 #4

dEwMe

Wasn't watching that movie punishment enough?

Just my $0.02,

dEwMe

2.10.2011 16:06 #5

llongtheD

Uh, I don't think "let off the hook" should be the term. More likely they didn't have a shred of proof and it was pointless to pursue the charges. Is this the studios way of threatening, then giving a warm fuzzy? It's funny that the 2500 remaining haven't been identified positively. What are the odds that the majority of those will be "let off the hook?"

If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

3.10.2011 00:57 #6

Interestx

......and for someone like myself who downloaded the film, liked it & bought the Blu-ray how have I done anything 'criminal' or deprived the copyright holders of anything?

This sueing crap is what is really criminal, extortion for what?
Some film that made millions of $ and is now free on FTA TV.
Yeah, that sounds just.
Not.

3.10.2011 09:25 #7

LordRuss

Originally posted by Interestx: ......and for someone like myself who downloaded the film, liked it & bought the Blu-ray how have I done anything 'criminal' or deprived the copyright holders of anything? If they had done a similar note worthy thing I don't think it would be an issue, but 'most' people simply aren't that way. That's why the barter system is what it is. Pay first, then complain for your purchase after the fact.

What the biggest complaint at the moment here is that Voltage seems to have grabbed supposedly 25,000+ IP addresses of movie down loaders. They can't prove it. They don't 'know' it was them. They don't know their names or where they live, just the IPs & the service providers. And like cereal box detectives they think they can catch them by sending nasty grams to the ISPs & lure them out (the supposed down loaders), sue the crap out of them by proxy & make an example out of them.

But they haven't proven that they even have the movie in their possession. Frankly, it's not even for the money. These idiots "know" the people they're suing don't even remotely have the money. It's to get laws on the books that no one in the known universe can fight.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

3.10.2011 11:38 #8

xboxdvl2

Originally posted by dEwMe: Wasn't watching that movie punishment enough?
i agree i watched about 30minutes of it and was very bored.seriously confused as to how it won so many awards.

hopefully in the future we see a 22000 + people strong class action against voltage for harassment.

R.I.P. mr 1990 ford falcon.got myself a 1993 toyota corolla seems to run good.computers still going good.

4.10.2011 02:52 #9

attar

How do they actually get warrants served in China?

7.10.2011 21:54 #10

LordRuss

Originally posted by attar: How do they actually get warrants served in China? With rice or noodles...

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

8.10.2011 11:15 #11

AfterDawn: News