Behind Closed Curtains??

Porn Studios Threaten to Call Neighbours of File-Sharers

Apparently, copyright trolls are using quite threatening language in their attempts to convince defendants to settle. Recently, the Prenda Law reincarnation “Anti-Piracy Law Group” sent letters to people accused of pirating porn content, threatening them to inform neighbours about their illegal activities and inspect their work machines.

Such copyright troll lawsuits, involving up to tens of thousands of alleged pirates became very widespread in the past few years, because people tend to settle due to the embarrassing nature of the case. The cases are all alike: a number of IP addresses are accused of “stealing” copyrighted content with the trolls requesting a subpoena from the court to make ISPs disclose the identities of account holders. Finally, they then contact the defendants and offer to settle for a reasonable amount, threatening to name them in the lawsuit otherwise.

While many courts today refuse such cases, there are still judges who sign off on them. Sometimes related, the copyright trolls go crazy: the letters sent by the “Anti-Piracy Law Group”, former Prenda Law, represent a bright example of a new low.

It was the LW Systems v. Christopher Hubbard case where the defendant received a letter from the law firm representing a porn studio. The letter was sent after the defendant ignored the first settlement offer. It was obvious that the case dealt with embarrassing porn material, but the defendant was also threatened that his family members and even the neighbours will be told about his “alleged perverse download habits”.

Moreover, the law firm made it sound like it was doing the defendant a favor and claimed that it wanted to inform the others to make sure that it was targeting the right individual. Nevertheless, another copyright troll Steve “Lightspeed” Jones revealed the true motivation of such moves years ago, saying that normally people aren’t embarrassed to tell their neighbours that they have downloaded some new music. However, things are different with trading midget, tranny, facials, and teen porn video – this is something worth keeping from the family and neighbours. This could be continued to compare this to the Recording Industry Association of America.