Automated Legal Threats Turn Piracy Into Profit
Written by Ernesto on June 28, 2009Piracy watchdog Nexicon has found the ultimate way to turn piracy into profit for the fresh copyright holders added to their clientele. They offer alleged file-sharers the chance to settle for $10 per downloaded song or an equal amount for a pirated movie. If you decide not to settle, they promise to bankrupt you in court.
Some people might remember Nexicon from the Getamnesty site we mentioned in the past, or perhaps as the Youtube copyright cops. The company has a history as a cigarette retailer but went on to hunt pirates after they were sued for selling smokes to minors and failing to report their sales to the tax office.
After its transformation into a pirate tracking outfit Nexicon launched its Getamnesty program which offers copyright holders a chance to turn piracy into profit. They cleverly circumvent privacy protection laws by using ISPs to forward settlement requests for various copyright holders to alleged infringers. One of their most successful partner programs is the Payartists website which is a misleading name to say the least.
The money collected through Payartists is not going to any artists at all. The only artist they collect ‘settlements’ for on the site is Frank Zappa, and he passed away in 1993. All the settlement money collected now goes to The Zappa Family Trust which is headed by Zappa’s widow.
Most recently a new Nexicon franchise emerged, as the ‘Video Protection Alliance’ (VPA) has teamed up with several porn studios to track down and force settlements from alleged copyright infringers. The methods they use are very similar to Getamnesty and Payartists and are designed to get cash payments from illicit file-sharers without even having to first find out who they are.
The process is simple. Their software monitors BitTorrent swarms and other filesharing networks and records the IP-addresses of those people who share the work of their clients. It then automatically sends an email to the ISP linked to the IP-address with a request to forward it to the associated customer.
Thus far, this is very similar to the warning letters that the movie and music studios have been sending out for years. However, there is one big difference. The emails sent out by Nexicon to alleged infringers contain veiled threats of legal action if they don’t choose to settle within 10 days.
In their email they write that “it may be beneficial to settle this matter without the need of costly and time-consuming litigation.”
If you don’t settle they are “prepared to pursue every available remedy including damages, recovery of attorney’s fees, costs and any and all other claims that may be available to it in a lawsuit filed against you.” To make it even more scary, they point out that ISPs might cut your Internet connection if you don’t comply.
In the FAQ on the VPA website it is noted that consulting a lawyers is an option, but it would be a rather silly thing to do since it will cost more than the settlement itself. “It is likely that the cost incurred to retain a lawyer will exceed the settlement amount offered.”
Indeed, the settlements are rather cheap compared to the fine that was handed out to Jammie Thomas recently. The settlement offer for an adult movie is close to the retail price of a DVD and for a single Frank Zappa track you’ll pay $10. In comparison, Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $80,000 per song.
Settle with Zappa on Payartists, or else…
However, because of these low fees and the use of threatening language we cannot help mentioning the word ‘extortion’ once more. Even if they handle with the best intentions they should adjust their tracking software to be more accurate. We confirmed at least one case where they sent a settlement offer to the wrong person, and we’re pretty sure that this is not the only mistake they’ve made (here‘s another one).
Still, even people wrongfully accused of sharing [insert obscene porn title here] may be inclined to pay a few bucks rather than risk being taken to court. The threats are worrying enough for some people to pay for an offense they didn’t commit. But there might be an even easier way out.
Unsurprisingly, very little happens when the threats are ignored. A Manhattan College employee dealing with DMCA notices wrote recently. “We have not passed the settlement info on to the students linked with the allegedly infringing IP address and have not had any follow up notices from them.”
This aside, we are not aware of any legal action taken by any of Nexicon’s partners to back up their threats. To the best of our knowledge they don’t even have a proper license to act as private investigators which is a felony in several US states and renders the ‘evidence’ they have in their spreadsheets useless.
Our advice, if you get a settlement offer from one of Nexicon’s partners please forward it to your spam folder – after forwarding it to us first of course.
Previously: Pirate Bay’s YouTube Competitor is “Coming Soon”
Next: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
84 Responses
WOW how many are running to pay?
We should all spam everyone with threat letters from these guys.
Send them to the white house , the queen ect…..
make them look like the PHISHERS they are.
Wow, ONLY IN USA… :) god thanks in northern europe we have better legal systems :)
Everyone claims that us “pirates” take advantage of artists by downloading their content for free thus hurting them financially (which is pure bull crap), but these guys are the true predators in the “piracy” issue. They look to profit off the “problem” by trying to get people to pay fines or settlements for their acts of downloading and never sending a penny to a single artist. This is actually a crime, its called fraud. File-sharing is not a crime, never has been.
When you get one, mark it as spam, and then every similar e-mail goes to spam as well so problem solved!
I saw that site ages ago, I didn’t think they were actually doing anything. Hmmm…It’s a good thing I don’t really download anymore, not been anything worth getting anyway.
Tumors like this are parasites feeding on society.
Wonderful. Combine shysters with a business plan ripped for from Homer Simpson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa%27s_Date_with_Density
I think I’ll send out a lot of these e-mails as spam to everyone around the globe. With an option to settle by paying $10 to avoid law suit. Of course they’ll be paying to my own bank account.
I think enough people will be scared to pay me, even if they haven’t downloaded any illegal files.
#3 it only works on americans too :P
theer is no biznez like lawyer biznezz… :) if u have assets… be pro… get vpn… or pay2leech…
would a sort of digital flash mob (i.e all TF readers email them at once and access their site) screw thier servers up?
just DDoS the site and bring it down.
Nexicon Inc is trading at 0.10 a share, with their last trade in 2008. I don’t know who else is tired of these protection-racket-running companies abusing law, but I certainly am.
Anyone who receives a letter from Nexicon or similar site should forward all relevant information to their local BBB (BBB.org) or local equivalent, especially the Other Americans (Canadians). What they are doing is illegal regardless of intention, and victims should have no trouble finding protection under current extortion and anti-gangsterism/anti-organised-crime legislation.
A quick Google Search should reveal what resources are available to combat these Redcoats.
This is ridiculous.
You can’t just accuse whoever you want, regardless of presence or lack of evidence, of filesharing, and order them to pay up before they’re even convicted in a court of law.
Innocent until proven guilty! Research it!
where do I sign up?
Yet another company breaks the law and gets away with it. :D
vote for the tpb cow daily
http://www.litago.no/kampanjer/kunst/?guid=fa701771-76c2-9d00-69c2-6e3440d43dd2
@18 thanks for reminding me.. I couldn’t vote the other day as site was slashdotted to hell I think or they pulled it on purpose..
The Pirate Cow is 8320 votes behind.. Come on people .. Vote Pirate C0W!
@14: Canadians are “the other Americans”? The hell are you on. Canadian ISPs won’t even forward these letters to customers. I doubt this company will even send them to Canadian ISPs.
@21 even if Canadian ISPs don’t forward those mails, Canada remains America’s b!tch
Personally, If I got one of those emails, I’d print it out, fly to the US, take it to Nexicon HQ and burn it in their faces. I may also burn down the building.
Not that I’d actually know if I recieved one. I have never logged into my ISP email. Ever.
We need some kind of social networking system to evaluate these kinds of letters. Some of them are legit and the companies will sue you for A LOT (and usually win). Others, like this one, are simply spewing bull shit and are predetors.
The site could evaluate whether the email is worth listening to, fighting over, or simply agreeing to settle.
Jews did 9/11
cool story bro :)
does anyone realise that we scared away reasoned mind and neosyles, looks like they ciouldnt take the heat of all of this anger.
America includes Canada, the U.S , and all of the Central and South American countries. Plus outlying islands.
so is this in America? or just germany
okay apparently the sites in the uk. IGNORED.
and one day a guy goes postal and start offing IP industry people
ya i can see a video game called
KILL IP
@28
NO the America in question is the USA its a shorthand so don’t confuse
NORTH America is all those places.
Funny how stupid Americans are don’t ya think?
Now all together now , did i :
A) insult the USA
B) all of the countries in #28′s speech
C) you for reading this far and not knowing that A) was right all along.
these guys are worst than file sharers who make profit !
Indeed much worse than people who share.
People who share content do it for free, as so to help others get the content-not for profit-.
and imagine if you goto court as does 10000000 others and then decide ot call ALL YOUR FRIENDS to testify
as in the other 99999999 of them HAHA
whose gonna be bankrupt?
ill represent myself in that one LOL
every person will get on stand and give a speech about this or that and say all the same answers and by law they’d all have to be heard and cross examined i can see it now……
I looked at their site and googled them, and they just seem like a scam. From their own website:
“Why did my credit card authorization fail?
It is not uncommon for a request for credit card authorization to fail once or twice before the card is finally authorized. We will send you an e-mail if we experience difficulties in authorizing your credit card.”
Yeah. Real professional.
The $ amount is still way too high.
One guess as to who Nexicon got their idea from.
Hint: it was a certain UK legal firm who tried suing over a pinball game.
stupid
WTF are they jews or something?
screw that your not getting any money.your company isnt worth 10 dollars.
here, here. This is why we hate these record labels and love the internet and creativity. plus, I would know that the issue of piracy is nothing more than a business. These legal threats are desperate, pathetic and idiotic attempts at making money when all the mainstream music is a joke–its not even music! Reason found at:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090623/2337095343.shtml
I think all you people who bash America secretly wish they were American. I mean, isn’t a majority of downloaded content off torrent trackers American products anyway?
Tools.
If we’re so stupid how come our artists and movies are the majority of what the world wants to see and hear? Obviously America is the major country spearheading these anti-piracy campaigns you loathe so much, they’re the only one with quality material worth a damn.
I’m pro-piracy but anti-stupidity. The more I read these forums the more I believe that most file sharers are complete adolescent douche-bags (or perhaps it’s just TorrentFreak readers).
All the more reason to use torrents anonymously. If they can’t figure out who you are then they are SOL
This is blackmail, plain and simple.
I live in Japan. Should I be worrying about anything?
It doesn’t sound like it..
I wish this would work the other way too. That end users would point at the companies and say ‘Jump!’ to the legal system. And the ‘pointed ones’ would either pay up for some alleged mischief or got the internal parts of their life publicly vivisected by judicial system.
These parasites should be murdered in their sleep. Scum of the earth rats.
yeah, wth is everyone beating up on us americans. We are in this all together. And its true that 90% of the worthwhile stuff being pirated is from the US. Pretty rude of you people doing that to us. WE are people just like you. I dont get it.
According to their business model, Nexicon might be close to what is know as “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization”.
come to indonesia i dare you where i live sue me $%@$@#
they want all money!
but we don’t want to pay we want a free internet!!
it sounds like an extortion scam…
wow, 10 bucks a song
i’m bankrupt either way
@43 NastyBedazzler
I forgive you for your ignorance
Ameen
Why are these guys still in business?
By the way, I live in the Philippines, where even real crime isn’t a concern. Come find me. :D
Offshore transcription
Hey, at least they are civilized, unlike the MPAA and the RIAA!
http://www.complete-privacy.tk
Right. Cos piracy hurts the industry. The Dark Knight broke almost all box office records, and yet was one of THE HIGHEST downloaded, (?”pirated”) files at the time.
If anything, it helps the industry, but getting the material out to a much wider audience, and leads to more people buying the products if they’re deemed worthy.
This is not a bad thing.
Philestines.
We don’t hate americans. We hate people who think they are the best thing on the planet and the salvation of all other species. Which, as it so happens, applies to many moronic U.S residents. I’d say 90% of the world has a strong dislike of America, it’s just something you can’t shrug off unfortunately.
Jews do hate America, however @43, @59.
Its obvious.
Jews did 9/11
@ 49 Jun 29, 2009 at 08:59 by StevO
Well I’m in the UK and I don’t regard the people in the USA as being bad people at all. That said, I think that globally people tend to bash the USA more because of your corrupt, world-dominating, self appointed world policemen of a government. They interfere in the affairs of other nations (especially where oil rich nations are concerned) and if a government doesn’t want to play ball, your CIA will arrange for their leader to be assassinated, and then install a sock puppet in their place. But all this has little to do with ordinary citizens of the USA.
Likewise, American interference in other nations also comes with the likes of the RIAA/MPAA trying now to reach across the water. But if they do, we will cut the arm off.
Perhaps that will give you a little heads up as to where the USA bashing originates. Hope its helped.
Are they intentionally trying to make their website look like the Apple website?
Isn’t that subject to copyright infringement too?
LOL.
This is the telemarketing scam of the 21st century it seems.
Shame on you Zappa Family Trust!
@60 Jun 29, 2009 at 15:06 by Anonymous
Where have you got this BS from? If you want to know who is responsible for 9/11 then look no further than at your own government.
http://www.sprword.com/videos/towersofdeception/
“However, because of these low fees and the use of threatening language we cannot help mentioning the word ‘extortion’ once more. Even if they handle with the best intentions they should adjust their tracking software to be more accurate. We confirmed at least one case where they sent a settlement offer to the wrong person, and we’re pretty sure that this is not the only mistake they’ve made.” … resorting to extortion through civil suits has its cost — the counterclaim of a frivolous lawsuit, where the plaintiff (the RIAA) must pay your lawyer’s fees … that aside, I cannot understand why the RIAA continues to try the unsustainable practice of attempting to force their product down the throats of their consumer base …
“Our advice, if you get a settlement offer from one of Nexicon’s partners please forward it to your spam folder – after forwarding it to us first of course.”
Ernesto – This is totally the wrong advice. I’m not a lawyer, but I can see that these are notices and should not be ignored.
The failiure to respond to one of these things means that they will take you to court because firstly, by not responding to a notice you are agreeing with it by aquiescence. Secondly, if it does go to court on the strength of this, they will get a default judgement against you. A very expensive one for you.
Americans are so greedy
GG
Oh.. I have found some shit like this in my spam folder… Wow… In soviet russia this crap is already sent to spam folder.
P.S. Why do they actually write as the spammer usually do with d.o.t.s ..bet.we.n. ran.do.m l.e.tters?
Yet most artists at one point took part in file sharing and piracy as well.
Fuck you greedy bastards.
Your fundamentals as a human being are fucking backwards.
However, extortion, by it’s definition is threating unrelated litigation. Threating litigation for an entirely relevant matter is not extortion.
Well, it’s fair. Now the copyright holders are getting the compensation they deserved originally.
I would just respond back with a letter stating your intentions to sue them for extortion.
If they don’t have a license to investigate.. sounds like a money pot to me.
Block their IP addresses:
84.49.26.0-84.49.26.255
84.49.135.168-84.49.135.175
208.74.73.128-208.74.73.255
208.74.76.0-208.74.76.63
208.34.1.81
216.117.161.24
Whether you believe in it or not is up to you, but if you’re using Bluetack’s Level 1 blocklist, these ranges are already on there, so if you’re using IP filters or PeerGuardian, you’re chances of getting fingered by Nexicon may be reduced.
LOL americans are soo stupid! I am so much cooler and better in all ways possible! For example my Internet balls they are so big. So I win.
Unfortunately it appears they are using the shotgun approach to Web law enforcement. Just fire indescrimately until you hear cries for surrender. The only thing they have in their favor is that huge chunk of the victims (aka Torrent users) are transferring copywrited material, so that get something out of it. The answer is though 2 wrongs dont make a right, both are wrong.
Sounds a lot like random blackmail, and I’m pretty sure blackmail is still illegal.
tnx TorrentFreak & commenters for sharing the alternative truths!
I guess I am inclined to share their new range for the time being:
Nexicon:84.49.31.0-84.49.31.255
As of now, this range is NEW so it is not in any existing list(but it will be soon). Only 1/4 of the 65536 possible IP addresses have been checked, so there may be more to come.
Wow.. this is just like the fraud/scam/spam business (primarily from Africa), and profits millions or billions of dollars a year!… This can easily be yet another business model to the fraud/scam/spam industry. For example, I’m from (wherever, lets say Africa capital of the industry I’d say) Africa. I can easily set this up with minor programming skills, and whatever.. I don’t need to prove a legit business in order to receive funds, just like most fraud businesses. And right now with this new business model I can rake up a large win ratio on nearly 80% of all sent emails that have been opened and read, will fork up the cash… other 20% may be more smarter and know this is a fraud or will make background checks on the business, and like the daily spam today most people already know its fake, and people tricked into it is very low (I think its 4% respond and pay up).
So end result this easily can blow up becoming the new fraud/scam/spam business, and you know whats sad about… most governments will allow it… EVEN USA!
COME TO A BETTER PLACE, WITH BETTER RELEASES, FASTER SEEDS, FASTER SPEEDS, FOR ALL YOUR BIT TORRENT PROTOCOL NEEDS:
http://extratorrent.com
ET is the place to be :-)
Isn’t this kind of extortion quite legally entrenched in Germany under the name of “Abmahnung”? ()
zOMG i’ll not be forced to pay about 6 mils due to my catalouge of illegaly shared files… for simple reason even if i worked all my life and gave all my profit to such extortion… i’d still be missing…6 mils(or more i’d never stop :D ) so let me be blunt in reply to such proposal from such company: “F… OFF”
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