File-Sharers Start Handing Over $1,000 Each in Bizarre Amnesty Program

enigmax
February 17, 2011
124
Liberty Media
Print

Ten individuals have freely and bizarrely handed over $1,000 each to movie studio Liberty Media in piracy settlements, despite the company having absolutely no idea who they are or if they did anything wrong. Now Liberty have a new amnesty and are offering BitTorrent users the chance to hand themselves in or risk being involved in 36,000 upcoming lawsuits.

After running rampant in Germany and the UK, the United States is now suffering under an onslaught of Speculative Invoicing – mass file-sharing lawsuits designed to scare people into paying cash settlements on the basis that by doing so they avoid a much more costly trial later.

While these cynical schemes seem straightforward enough, they are currently suffering drawbacks. Judges are increasingly ruling that it is improper to join so many unconnected individuals together in a single lawsuit, which leaves the alternative of suing each defendant individually, a costly exercise which eats away at valuable profits.

Movie studio Liberty Media, however, had a new trick up their sleeve last month which didn’t require any lawsuits at all. The simply announced that they intended to sue people sometime in the future, and that if people who had downloaded their products wanted to avoid being involved in that, they should simply turn themselves in.

Bizarrely, with Liberty Media having absolutely no idea who they are, where they live or even if they’re guilty, so far a total of 10 seemingly crazy individuals have freely handed over $1,000 each to the company.

But there’s more. Liberty Media general counsel, Marc Randazza, has announced that the company is preparing to file lawsuits against 36,000 BitTorrent users. And guess what? He’s running another amnesty program, this time at nearly double the settlement price of the earlier one.

So, if you’ve acquired some Liberty Media videos from BitTorrent and want to freely hand over $1,900, despite the company being as familiar with you at this point as they are with the person currently watching guard over Osama Bin Laden’s hideout, be our guest.

Easiest money making scheme ever.

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http://knightsbritannia.blogspot.com/ Topperfalkon

LOL.

This is almost as bad as someone falling for the ‘Nigerian Lottery’ Ponzi scheme
- Anonymous
  
  Do you suppose that there’s some way that this can be reversed and directed back at the Liberty Media, as with the Nigerians? For example, http://www.419eater.com/ is dedicated to scamming the scammers.
  
  We help Americans find jobs and prosperity in Asia. Visit http://www.pathtoasia.com/jobs/ for details.
  - http://knightsbritannia.blogspot.com/ Topperfalkon
    
    Who knows. If they make the mistake of crossing Anonymous then we may not even have to do anything at all.
    - Anonymous
      
      You are Anonymous… Anonymous are the people that want to fight. Leaving it up to Anonymous is leaving it up to your fellow humans and not lifting a hand yourself.
    - PENISCAKEMAN
      
      no, anonymous is on 4chan.
    - DocGerbil100
      
      This is off-topic and I’m sorry, but: your username is Peniscakeman? I thought I’d heard everything. What the hell is a penis-cake? o_0
- http://www.facebook.com/dodgeFTW David Weddell
  
  Its not a ponzi scheme, that would imply that people actually go money back. The Nigerian thing is just a straight up scam.
  - http://knightsbritannia.blogspot.com/ Topperfalkon
    
    Ah, yes you’re right. Whoops.
    
    Common sense seems to have departed me during that post
http://knightsbritannia.blogspot.com/ Topperfalkon

LOL.

This is almost as bad as someone falling for the ‘Nigerian Lottery’ Ponzi scheme
http://knightsbritannia.blogspot.com/ Topperfalkon

LOL.

This is almost as bad as someone falling for the ‘Nigerian Lottery’ Ponzi scheme
DocGerbil100

Does anyone believe a single word of Liberty’s claims? I believe the only appropriate description to use is the word ‘bullshit’.
Kevin

What kind of rubbish does Liberty Media create anyway?
- John Space
  
  Euh… blackmail?
- lawlz
  
  This question actually made me think “hmm, good question.” So i loaded up imdb.com and searched for Liberty Media, and as quickly as this plan was put together, as quickly was it turned down.
  http://www.imdb.com/company/co0193419/ ….Apparently you need an imdbpro account.
  
  http://www.libertymedia.com/ ….Their homepage didn’t give any clues either.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Media …and the wiki page is a load of history-crap which i don’t care for.
  
  And now im sick of researching Liberty Media. From a 2-second view it seems like they’re just stockholders in different companies and haven’t done anything outstanding on their own. So giving them money would be like donating sand to Sahara. No one (and let me repeat this), NO ONE would notice except you!
  - Djboydanny
    
    fuck imdb, just like the media parasites… you have to have pro for more info…”donating sand the the Sahara” good one :-)
- http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes
  
  There’s a few different LLC’s (ie Limited Liability Company) that are not related to one another but each with the name Liberty Media.
  
  The one that the legal attack-dog Randazza has been working with for some years now, and is the subject of this article by enigmax/Andy, is called Liberty Media Holdings LLC who own the gay porn studio Corbin Fisher.
  
  So they do gay porn and VERY aggressively threaten, harass or sue their own potential customer base because they mistakenly believe sharing files for no cash, no profit and no other gain is theft.
  What dummies.
  - Anonymous
    
    Dammit Rob stop 8-ing my cakes!
Corinthos

Major distributor of TV entertainment, sports and other programming including Discovery Channel, USA, QVC, Encore, and STARZ
from their website
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Anonymous

Didn’t any of them even think to maybe talk to a lawyer first?
AMB

Such bullshit.. Why do people actually fall for this crap.. Make no sense!
Guest

It’s gay porn. The people who paid up are probably closeted and terrified of their names being associated with it.
- Anonymous
  
  Decent point.
- Momo
  
  Did you just say “blackmail”?
  - Guest
    
    It’s why they are going to make a boatload of money if they do actually send out extortion letters to 35,000 people. Even innocent people, who might fight back if wrongly accused of downloading something like Hurt Locker, won’t want their names attached to a gay porn case. It’s going to take cast iron nerves not to give in to this one.
    - Momo
      
      It’ll all fall down like a house of cards if people start counter-suing for defamation…
      
      I’m not too familiar with US law, but could the victims pool their money together and launch a class action against Liberty media?
    - Harpalos
      
      It depends, if it’s female gay porn, I do not mind being known as a downloader of female gay porn. The body of the woman is a gift from God. Why should we refrain ourselves from worshiping it’s creation ?
    - Anonymous
      
      Thou shalt not worship false idols…
      
      Hey, you brought up the imaginary friends, so you asked for it.
    - Anon
      
      LOL you said it
    - Anonymous
      
      Thou shalt not worship false idols…
      
      Hey, you brought up the imaginary friends, so you asked for it.
- Momo
  
  Did you just say “blackmail”?
- tom cruise
  
  am not
Anon

This particular studio is CorbinFisher.com (NSFW)
Phobophobia

Well, i dont know about you guys, but i’m off to my local crack den to hand over the contents of my wallet, just to make sure I’m not mugged in the future!!
http://twitter.com/ZippoS Zippo

Either ten people are frightened morons, or this is a clever scheme in which ten employees have “paid” $1000 in order to give this scheme momentum, in the hopes that others will follow suit.
- flint
  
  i was going to say the same thing
- Marcus
  
  Or they’re lying.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SM3H457UZFPF6PEST46Q25WVBI Fake Person

So how is this not extortion?

Would this be?
“I took about 2 hours and used what I could gather from posted comments using the DISQUS system. Manged to link almost all of you back to illegal downloads. I highly suggest you donate $100 to the EFF, it would be a shame if that info ended up in the wrong hands?”
- Guest
  
  It’s such a perfect example of it that I hope someone is brave enough to fight back on those grounds. I know very little of the law, can one sue for extortion as a John Doe? Because you can’t really say you have a fear of being outed if you out *yourself* in order to sue, right?
- DocGerbil100
  
  Perhaps a more interesting strategy would be to ID those of us who don’t link back to illegal downloads – and threaten to give their details to Anonymous…
Whatdumbasses

I wish I had a list of suckers like that. I have some products I think they would love to buy.
Tony

This is a complete joke! I would suggest that these 10 people who coughed up are simply stooges, but on the other hand, these are stupid Americans were discussing….
- Youareadumbasstony
  
  Tony, that is a bit too far. Insulting a whole nation because of a few dumbasses is ignorant. You can’t compare all americans to a few dumbasses. That seems to be a common attitude on this site. Very sad on your part.
  - Anon
    
    He’s right. If people living in the U.S. were smart, they wouldn’t be living there anymore.
    - Youareadumbasstony
      
      don’t be a dumbass….how does that make any logical sense?
  - Tony
    
    read it again fool, “these 10 people” not “all america”, so im assuming you agree that their could be 10 stupid americans or you gonna argue that too?
    - Youareadumbasstony
      
      I’m only talking about your statement that “these are stupid american’s we are discussing…” Don’t act like all american’s are stupid. I’m gonna assume you are in Europe somewhere…Don’t forget all that america has done for the world especially europe…..you ass hat. We have a fucking stupid administration now but it will change very soon.
      
      By the way, It’s we are or we’re not were you stupid bastard.
      http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/weregloss.htm
    - Gee
      
      “….you ass hat”
      I can’t stop laughing at that one. Freakin hilarious
    - Tony
      
      And who was we discussing? All of America or 10 idiots giving up their cash?
      Don’t have a go at me if your so mentally incapable of following a conversation correctly.
      If it “seems to be a common attitude on this site” where did that come from? I’m guessing americans!
    - GrammarHypocrite
      
      I would just like to point out that your statement was poorly worded, and as such was somewhat hard to follow correctly. Proper punctuation and sentence structure will justify your sense of superiority, but until that time comes, please get off your high horse.
      
      on-topic: I would not be surprised if 10 closeted individuals paid up to protect their image… perhaps a politician or two?
    - Valid
      
      ; <- learn to use it.
      [of] <- this word belongs somewhere in your critique. Can you guess where?
- Guest
  
  When pre-trial settlement letters go out asking for twice that much, they will probably feel like they made a good deal. Nevermind that they might not have been on the hit list to begin with, some people are just really risk-averse.
- Sketch
  
  Yeah tony you better watch it, we americans OWN the net, and we WILL pull your plug bro LMAO
  - http://knightsbritannia.blogspot.com/ Topperfalkon
    
    No you don’t. At worst you could pull the root DNS servers in the US, which would make most of the web inaccessible unless you go straight to a site’s IP address.
    
    And whilst some components of the Internet were invented in the US, the web as we know it is a British inventor, co-invented by Tim Berners-Lee, a former CERN engineer who know is chairman of W3C, the internet standards body.
Sketch

Jesus Harrison Christ people are so damn stupid…….Hey does anyone wanna buy a torrent client from me for only 100 dollars??
Anonymous

Wow, that is without doubt the most ridiculous thing I have EVER heard.

http://www.total-online-privacy.us.tc
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PXX4S66KOUIGIKTTIMV3CBGO7Y Colin

Difficult to see how John Does can countersue for defamation, because until Liberty Media know who they are, the defandants don’t know they are the subject of legal action. Mind you, if the court refuses Liberty permission to join their proposed 35000 cases together, I suspect the whole idea will be dead in the water. As with Judge Birss & ACS Law in the UK, more & more US judges realise the whole copyright troll game is an abuse of the law.
- Guest
  
  ‘if the court refuses Liberty permission to join their proposed 35000 cases together”
  
  Does that happen before or after they get the identities from the ISPs? They don’t have to be joined together for LM to get subpoenas for their names (and then send out the extortion letters) do they?
  - Violated
    
    The UK and USA use two very different systems in these speculative invoicing schemes.
    
    In the UK, or more correctly England, these copyright exploitation law firms go to court to obtain subscriber details from ISPs.
    
    The problem here is two-fold. First is that this NPO court order is supposed to be aimed at information discovery prior to a court case. Using the information instead as a victim list to speculative invoicing is not quite how things should be.
    
    The second problem is that the subscribers being targeted have no voice in court if their details are released or not. The case is between these law firms and the ISPs. So subscribers have been wanting their ISPs to protect their interests but until this ACS:Law email leak most ISPs were quite happy to turn over their customer data and bill these law firms per IP for their work. So everyone who has a legal voice took their cut while those looking to protect subscribers could only complain. Even the Judge had grave doubts but could do nothing when the ISPs avoided attending court leaving only one NPO approval result.
    
    In the United States things are much different when affected subscribers are informed and have a legal voice even before these law firms are granted subscribers details.
    
    The subscribers have much on their side at the current time. These law firms cant group them together to minimise cost and keep things easy and it must also be requested in the subscriber’s local court.
    
    Then even when they win a court order for subscribers details it is no walk in the park when ISPs have a legal right to only supply 30 a month and can refuse more.
    
    At only 360 a year this is a long way behind the many thousands of subscriber details they seek.
    
    Asking for voluntary fine donations is not such a bad idea seeing that speculative invoicing in the US is a quick road to nowhere.
    - Guest
      
      “Then even when they win a court order for subscribers details it is no walk in the park when ISPs have a legal right to only supply 30 a month and can refuse more.”
      
      Unfortunately most of them aren’t standing up for their subscribers. I’ve ead about Time Warner Cable fighting subpoenas on a couple of cases, but since I keep reading people online saying they’ve gotten extortion letters, then most cable companies must be giving up the info. when asked.
    - Guest
      
      “Then even when they win a court order for subscribers details it is no walk in the park when ISPs have a legal right to only supply 30 a month and can refuse more.”
      
      Unfortunately most of them aren’t standing up for their subscribers. I’ve ead about Time Warner Cable fighting subpoenas on a couple of cases, but since I keep reading people online saying they’ve gotten extortion letters, then most cable companies must be giving up the info. when asked.
grandpamike

Calling Anonymous…….Are you there ?
- Anon
  
  Op PayBack 2011
piratepal

Some people are just sooooo stupid, no wonder some of them get caught through IP addresses and usernames.
piratepal

Some people are just sooooo stupid, no wonder some of them get caught through IP addresses and usernames.
Anon

The email is – amnesty@corbinfisher.com

Send them nice emails. :)
- Anonymous
  
  Wonder how much spam amnesty@corbinfisher.com will get now ?
Anon

The email is – amnesty@corbinfisher.com

Send them nice emails. :)
This

BE FORGIVEN NOW
send me 2000$
- Violated
  
  Be forgiven by God only $2500.
  
  Or take our holy ultra cleanse package only $2995 and get a free balloon.
  
  If only resolving sin was so simple. LOL. But the rich buying their way to salvation while the poor are condemned is so not right.
  
  There should be a lesson to learn here.
This

BE FORGIVEN NOW
send me 2000$
NYPA

Grandpamike — anonymous is NOT YOUR PRIVATE ARMY!
- DocGerbil100
  
  True enough, but there’s no foul if he’s just asking nicely. :)
- DocGerbil100
  
  True enough, but there’s no foul if he’s just asking nicely. :)
Gargamel

In reference to the 10:

A fool & his money are soon parted.
- http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes
  
  Heheh all too true but the original phrase is,
  
  “A fool and his Liberty Media are soon PIRATED” Mwuhahahahahah.
  - Anon
    
    Wow, you actually made a funny joke… Mind–>blown.
  - Anon
    
    Wow, you actually made a funny joke… Mind–>blown.
  - Anon
    
    Wow, you actually made a funny joke… Mind–>blown.
Anon

Someone should mail or fax them a $1,900 dollar bill and a “letter of confession”.
Pollie

These people probably though they were donating to some charity and had lots of $ to part with. I had a boss once that would get mail, lots of it every day and she would just open it, donate money to whomever so they would leave her alone, and claim it on benefits like “donated by “insert company name here”. It gave the company lots of extra attention such as recognition and usually she didn’t seem to even know what the company was for taking the donations or what they would be used for, she just gave money to get recognition and status and to get less letters. She was a huge insurance person like she has had many milllion dollar homes because she writes so many policies. Too bad that she was married/divorced/remarried about 10 times though and never was able to save anything due to her personal life in shambles. She still makes residuals which = lots of $ but for whatever reason, she lives in a trailer house now, I guess saving all that $ for a rainy day? Anyways, the people who gave money in this case were probably like her, had more money than sense to look into anything and just gave i away.
Pollie

These people probably though they were donating to some charity and had lots of $ to part with. I had a boss once that would get mail, lots of it every day and she would just open it, donate money to whomever so they would leave her alone, and claim it on benefits like “donated by “insert company name here”. It gave the company lots of extra attention such as recognition and usually she didn’t seem to even know what the company was for taking the donations or what they would be used for, she just gave money to get recognition and status and to get less letters. She was a huge insurance person like she has had many milllion dollar homes because she writes so many policies. Too bad that she was married/divorced/remarried about 10 times though and never was able to save anything due to her personal life in shambles. She still makes residuals which = lots of $ but for whatever reason, she lives in a trailer house now, I guess saving all that $ for a rainy day? Anyways, the people who gave money in this case were probably like her, had more money than sense to look into anything and just gave i away.
Bodoblender

my guess is those 10 people are employed at that company
Anon

10 unknown individuals? Sounds like a fabrication.
- Anon
  
  10 is such a convenient nice round number.
- Anon
  
  10 is such a convenient nice round number.
- Anon
  
  10 is such a convenient nice round number.
Anonymous

Well ripping all their titles and BT seeding them all may get some people seeing that paying $1000 for forgiveness was good value. Beyond that then compensation should reflect damages which for a single download would be more around $10.

In the end if people want to give them money then that is their choice, foolish or not.
http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes

Ah the propaganda war and extortion scam continues under a veil of lies, deceit and threats to out you to your family for not only being gay but sharing gay porn for free. Because that’s what will happen if extortion letters do actually get sent out.

I can’t help thinking of the number of broken families and suicides that will be caused simply because of this evil and ridiculous extortion scam. And of course as highlighted by Judge Birss in the ACS:Flaw scam, we now know that IP addresses don’t necessarily lead to the residence of anyone related to filesharing.

So it looks as though we have to wait for the shit to hit the fan before it blows back in the face of Randazza, Corbin Fisher and Liberty Media. I just hope President Obama gets sent a demand letter saying his IP Address was shown to be involved in “illegal” filesharing and that he’s being sued for $x00,000 per title because he didn’t accept the amnesty.

Now THAT would be sooooooo cool.
The Paladin Of Thruth

Hahaha, that crazy Liberty Media! ;) Luckily, ten individuals have already adhered to the new amnesty program. While I’m know to always maintain the focus on the impartial, objective and Facts, I fell I must now take slight license (or liberty, if you will ;) ) to convey my personal feelings toward this development.
Intellectual producers companies are, as we are all too aware, frequently painted as evil, money-grabbing entities. This new program, however, must clearly shatter this misconceptions in all but the most stubborn and close-minded people. Not only is the company offering its bona-fide olive branch in the form of amnesty, but the illegal-fileshares themselves have been spontaneously moved to embrace and restitute to the owners their due shares. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a more moving and suiting picture for this so often ugly war!
- http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes
  
  OK so what you’re saying is that if you are GUILTY of having an INTERNET CONNECTION then you should pay this company $1,900 just in case they mistakenly send a demand letter saying your IP address was noted for sharing gay porn.
  
  And you don’t see this as a scam?
  - The Paladin Of Thruth
    
    Hello, Rob8urcakes! While I appreciate your input in this matter, I’m afraid not all of your facts have been appropriately gotten straight! ;) Since the Amnesty Program is currently voluntary, the people referred to in the article are definitely guilty of illegally sharing files whose copyrights belonged to Liberty Media. Indeed, they came forward motivated by nothing but their own guilty consciences, which is in fact the reason why this piece stirred me personally and emotionally so: the Amnesty Program is not only redeeming the copyright owners, but the illegal file-sharers themselves!
    To the point: no ‘evil threat letters’, so to speak, have been sent. All the Liberty Media has done is let it be know that they are planning on taking legal action against those who are illegally sharing the media which are their property, and opened a door for all of those who are, and indeed know that they are, guilty, to voluntarily come forward and pay the company its dues. 10 people, who were previously undoubtedly struggling against their guilty conscience, have taken this opportunity graciously offered to them by Liberty Media and cleared their minds of guilty. Truly, a wonderful outcome, which will hopefully be only the beginning of a new chapter in the relations between the creative industry and the public!
    - Guest
      
      “All the Liberty Media has done is let it be know that they are planning on taking legal action against those who are illegally sharing the media which are their property”
      
      No, they are planning on taking legal action against a list of IP addresses which do not identify any person who has infringed on their copyrights. They will likely extort settlements from the owners of those IP addresses, which I can guarantee you will not, in any way, help the relations between this industry and the public.
    - http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes
      
      Thanks for the support Guest, but this Paladin creature is just a copywrong troll trying to deceive innocent people into giving him and his Liberty Media dummies our cash simply for sharing a digital file for free.
      
      He wont see our point nor agree with any sense we put. But when Liberty Media start splitting up families, cause suicides and drive people nuts for falsely accusing them of sharing gay porn when all they had was an internet connection, then the REAL LAWSUITS will begin.
      
      So bring it on Paladin (and bring your fat wallet with you).
    - The Paladin Of Thruth
      
      Must we really resort to ad-hominem attacks? I have always taken the path of Truth and stuck to the relevant and objective facts, and I have my reputation to prove this. As such, I will refrain from not only stooping to the level of name-calling, but I will also point out that both Guest’s and Rob8urcakes’ reactions (and fears, for that matter ;) ) stem not from carefully analysis and observation of actual and concrete Facts, but from a premature and void speculation, no doubt brought about by the general and unsubstantiated aversion and hostility toward the Creative Industry.
      Hopefully we can all put this little unpleasantness behind us, sheath our swords, as they say ;) , and retain ourselves within the realm of Fact and Truth!
    - http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes
      
      Would that not be the Thruth, the whole Thruth and nothing but the Thruth.
      
      Just don’t stoop at all Paladin because you’ll get far more than a dose of Thruth when the parents of dead children you and your copywrong trolls have killed come seeking real justice.
    - Guest
      
      Here’s an actual and concrete fact for you, from right here at TF. 100,000 people have been sued based on nothing more than their IP addresses.
      
      http://torrentfreak.com/100000-p2p-users-sued-in-us-mass-lawsuits-110130/
      
      Here’s another one: IP addresses don’t identify actual infringers, says a judge:
      
      http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/court-confirms-ip-addresses-arent-people-and-p2p-lawyers-know-it.ars
      
      So, yes, the facts lead me to believe that when Corbin Fisher says they have tens of thousands of IP address and are going to sue, I can comfortably conclude that they are knowingly using a method that does not properly identify infringers.
    - Guest
      
      Here’s an actual and concrete fact for you, from right here at TF. 100,000 people have been sued based on nothing more than their IP addresses.
      
      http://torrentfreak.com/100000-p2p-users-sued-in-us-mass-lawsuits-110130/
      
      Here’s another one: IP addresses don’t identify actual infringers, says a judge:
      
      http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/court-confirms-ip-addresses-arent-people-and-p2p-lawyers-know-it.ars
      
      So, yes, the facts lead me to believe that when Corbin Fisher says they have tens of thousands of IP address and are going to sue, I can comfortably conclude that they are knowingly using a method that does not properly identify infringers.
    - The Paladin Of Truth
      
      @Rob8urcakes: You seems to be under the impression that I am part of the companies involved in seeking copyright reparations. This is, in its entirety, a false allegation. I am not part of those companies, and indeed, neither am I a anti-fileshare advocate. As my reputation well pays me credit, I am an entirely unbiased, non-partisan party in this debate; my only allegiance is with the Truth! We are currently on different side of the fence, so to speak, merely because it is my understanding (an understanding backed up by the objective Facts, mind you ;) ) that Liberty Media is acting to the credit of both the Creative Industry and the Public as whole.
      
      @Guest: I’d rather not engage in a debate over the merits of the cases you pointed out, for a parallel discussion of such magnitude would only serve to muddy the waters and prevent us all from the Truth regarding the case at hand. Namely, the actions of Liberty Media. That Liberty Media is, at the moment, merely inviting fileshares who have illegally distributed material copyrighted by the company to pay their due, legitimate fees, and in the process clearing their troubled consciences as well as laudably purging the too-often smeared and sordid arena, is a Fact. While I genuinely cannot see how one could honestly argue against my interpretation of clear-cut, self-evident Facts such as these, I do invite you (as well as anyone else interested in a genuine debate ;) ) to amicably discuss the matter!
Gae

clearly 10 people without a shortage of money who are worried they may be discovered for downloading gay porn.
- Jay
  
  Hehe, yeah, each of them is probably a politician.
Anon

Good to see that there are still stupid people(as if we really needed the reminder).
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Marcus

I’ve never downloaded any of their films.
But I’m going to give them $1900 just in case I accidentally download one in the future.

Also, if anyone believed they’ve received a penny from this amnesty then you are as stupid as they think we all are.
SuperSeeder420

Keep Seeding people!

wanttorrents.me
Majax01

Why doesn’t someone find out where Corbin Fisher films and let his neighbors know? Let him see how it feels to be looked down upon.
jd100

In my opinion, the lawyers doing all the suing are th every ones that belong locked up in jail. This is just insane what they try to get away with.
- http://disqus.com/ Rob8urcakes
  
  I humbly apologise for contradicting you jd, but the people who should be locked up are the politicians who allowed these stupid, outdated copywrong laws to remain in force after the internet revolution made it quite clear that we live in a New World Order of communicating freely and happily with one another Worldwide.
  
  And that includes the sharing of digital files for no cash, no profit and no gain.
  
  Then these very same politicians get the USA’s Sates Dep’t to threaten trade sanctions against all countries in the World because they don’t have similar copywrong laws in place.
  
  This is a war jd – and it’s going to take people-power to win it. Collectively and with one purpose – to share info via the net for free.
Guest

Paladin – oddly, there was no Reply button on your last response to me so I’m starting over here. You stated “Liberty Media is, at the moment, merely inviting fileshares who have illegally distributed material copyrighted by the company to pay their due.” That is not true. From an article in South Florida Gay News with their counsel, Marc Randazza:

“Randazza said their upcoming lawsuit will focus heavily on the South Florida area.

‘If I look at my chart South Florida has a pretty big red circle on it,’ he said.”

That is not *merely* inviting amnesty. UPCOMING LAWSUIT. That is a clear declaration that they going to do exactly what I said they were, and even who they plan to terrorize first.

http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/local-news/3138-gay-porn-studio-takes-pounding-from-pirates-offers-second-amnesty-deal-.html
DocGerbil100

Following up the links in the article shows a bit more about the company and what kind of person this amnesty is targeting.

The news article TF links to has some interesting comments at the bottom (no pun intended). Most of those commenting clearly have little or no understanding of bittorrent and no idea at all of the unreliability of IP addresses. Some of them may indeed be uninformed enough and fearful of exposure enough to pay out.

One commenter suggested (without attribution) that the guy who allegedly settled for $250,000 was a Corbin Fisher subscriber who was caught uploading large quantities of material to a torrent site from the same IP he used to log in at Corbin Fisher. If true, such a quick and easy settlement is slightly more plausible, given that the company already had his name, address, credit card details and possibly a complete history of all his uploads.

The linked article also has this to say:
“Last week Randazza told The Advocate the company is planning to move forward with the lawsuits in a couple of weeks. Last year Corbin Fisher “won millions of dollars in court judgments … including a recent $250,000 judgment against a single Torrent user,” the company said in a statement last week.”

Further research on Wikipedia suggests that the “millions of dollars” they claim to have won came almost exclusively from someone selling copies of their videos on eBay – a very different sort of case. It speaks volumes about the fraudulent nature of Liberty Media’s campaign that they are holding up these unique, essentially unrelated cases as evidence of an ability to go after regular file-sharers.

It’s also highly unlikely that they actually obtained more than a tiny fraction of this – settlements are a long way from actual payments, especially if they are sealed settlements which allow them to claim to have obtained far more money than they’ve actually received, in return for not subjecting their victims to any more abuse.

Since the victims are constrained to keep their mouths shut as part of the settlement agreement, no-one can contradict Liberty Media’s outlandish claims. That’s always assuming that those settling are not simply working for the company in the first place – something that doesn’t seem unlikely, given the way the PR campaign is being run.

Along with Guest’s evidence above, it’s clear that any suggestions that this “amnesty” is anything other than pre-action PR bullshit are completely false.
Ninja

Srsly? I’m gonna start asking ppl for $1k or I’ll tell the world they watch gay p0rn. Easy money! No wonder those ponzi/scams work out. I mean, if there are ppl who give money for Liberty Media for nothing there must be ppl that believe in a stranger about some Nepal lottery…. Ahem, Nigeria…
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JjfChipotle Jones

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There is

this is truly the stuff on Nigerian scam folklore.
DUDE

FUCK THEM MONEY HUNGRY ASSHOLES!!
J.

OK, its late, so maybe I’m not reading this right, but…. From the article:

“Bizarrely, with Liberty Media having absolutely no idea who they are, where they live or even if they’re guilty, so far a total of 10 seemingly crazy individuals have freely handed over $1,000 each to the company”

So 10 random people thought it would be wise to pay to prevent from being sued in the future…. Doesn’t that seem to indicate that they’re likely guilty (or plan on becoming guilty in the very near future)…. I mean if I didn’t download anything, why would I voluntarily give them 1,000….

Secondly…. If they have no idea who they are, or where they live…. What’s to stop Liberty Media from suing them? They don’t know who paid, so how do they take these 10 off their “We should sue these people” list? More over, unless these 10 people all sent in 1,000 in cash in an unmarked envelope, shouldn’t LM have at least some clue who they were? Other than the handful of checks you get when you first open an account, don’t all checks generally have at least your name on them? Credit/debit cards as well. Again, if it were me paying 1,000 – especially if it means I don’t have to worry about possibly paying A LOT more later…. I’d want to make sure my account got credited with the payment….
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File-Sharers Start Handing Over $1,000 Each in Bizarre Amnesty Program

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