Major movie studio starts targeting file sharers, demands 1000 bucks for download

[SonsOfLiberty]

Ordinary file sharers have largely been spared by Hollywood and its world-wide partners so far, but it looks like this is about to change: Germany-based movie powerhouse Constantin Film has started the first mass-scale enforcement effort against file sharers. Constantin has been identifying more than 10,000 file sharers as infringers in recent months, and it has started to send threatening letters to about 500 of them, according to an article published in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The company is using these letters to demand out-of-court settlements, asking for 800 Euros (about 1000 USD) per infringing work as well as the promise to not commit any further acts of infringement. Downloaders that don't pay up can expect a full-fledged lawsuit.

Constantin Film is Germany's biggest motion picture production and distribution company. IMDB credits it as the production company of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Resident Evil: Extinction, DOA: Dead or Alive, as well as countless German titles. It also has Germany-wide distribution rights for Hollywood flicks like Michael Clayton and Basic Instinct 2.

Constantin executive Bernhard Burgener told the newspaper that his company has been going after file sharers since March. Burgener called the 1000 USD his company is demanding from file sharers "largely symbolic." Accused file shares that don't quite make as much money as him may disagree.

Mass-scale copyright enforcement through costly out-of-court settlements has been pioneered by the German music industry, who recently broadened its focus and is now also targeting Rapidshare uploaders. The tactic was quickly copied by porn studios that have been targeting tens of thousands of German file sharers in recent years.

However, if there's one lesson to be learned from those music and porn enforcement campaigns, then it's that rights holders don't just want to crack down on German downloaders. In fact, the very same enforcement companies that have helped to make Germany the testbed for a taking no prisoners approach of intellectual property protection have also started to export these tactics to other countries, leading amongst other things to thousands of threatening letters to UK residents accused of downloading video games. It wouldn't be too surprising to see Constantin go after file sharers in other countries as well.

Source: p2p-blog

[megabyteme]

This is far too similar to the extortion ring that DirecTv was pulling on people who were assumed to have been "stealing" signal. DirecTv got a hold of lists of people who had purchased card reprogrammers and sent hostile, threatening letters to these people. They were offered the same "deal"- pay us $1000 or face our lawsuit.

The interesting thing here- a recent court case filed by Dish Network against Viewsat (a company that sells reprogrammable set tops) was won by the company. The judge ruled that since DirecTv had been predatory, Dish Network could not demand a customer list. It was the first time unknown defendants had their privacy protected without being named in a suit.

Hopefully these assholes will get in the same kind of trouble as DirecTv!

[Jim]

hmm last time i checked it wasnt $1000 dollars for a dvd from my local store must have been a crap film for them to need to make that much profit on a dvd and screw us over if it was that good we would have bought it simple and the sooner they get that concept the sooner they start to make money. Make good films and people will buy them price even crap films cheap enough and people will buy them . Make shoddy rubbish and we will just download it as it aint worth our hard earned cash or the price of petrol to the store !!!