Movie Group Will DDoS The Courts To Have File-Sharing Laws Weakened

enigmax
December 23, 2010
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A movie interests association has just announced an interesting new strategy. Having previously focused on having The Pirate Bay blocked in their home country, ACAPOR – which recently had its emails leaked by Operation Payback – says it will now make legal history by reporting unprecedented numbers of file-sharers to the authorities. Their aim? To have the law for infringements made less severe.

In September this year, movie rental association ACAPOR filed a complaint against The Pirate Bay with the General Inspection of Cultural Activities, a department of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.

Blaming the site for 15 million illegal downloads in Portugal every year, ACAPOR demanded that the country’s ISPs should take similiar action to that taken in Italy, and block The Pirate Bay.

In a parallel action, a complaint was also made against Piratatuga.net, a file-sharing site which has proven extremely popular among their countrymen, also blamed for millions of downloads. In this case a criminal investigation was requested.

But having taken action against the sites that facilitate the transfers undertaken by file-sharers, ACAPOR – which recently had its email database hacked as part of Operation Payback – is now widening its approach somewhat. Starting in January 2011, the movie interests group will begin reporting thousands of file-sharers to the authorities.

Their aim? To have punishments for file-sharing made less severe.

According to ACAPOR president Nuno Pereira, only one case has been brought against a Portuguese file-sharer. He believes that this restrained approach is down to the justice system being afraid of the 3 year jail sentences currently on the books for the offense.

Calling the current system “outdated”, Pereira is calling for Portuguese law to be changed to follow the French lead of a graduated response.

“It would be better to replace the prison sentence, which is never enforced and that is excessive, for a breach or a cut in Internet access, like they do in France,” he explained.

Pereira also says that if the current law was applied as required, the criminal courts would become inundated with case of illegal file-sharing.

So, in order to ‘help’ the situation, Pereira has announced a new ACAPOR strategy of – wait for it – inundating the criminal courts with cases of illegal file-sharing.

Starting January 5th 2011, ACAPOR will begin filing “the largest collection of criminal complaints submitted simultaneously in the history of Portuguese Justice” against individuals alleged to have shared movies online.

“From that day on, every month we will file 1,000 new complaints,” said Pereira, adding that although file-sharing is a crime in Portugal, ACAPOR is being forced to act privately because their complaints to the government have come to nothing.

Will the justice system be able to keep up with what is in effect a Denial of Service attack on the courts? Almost certainly not. But this stunt appears to be less about justice and more about pressuring the government and generating publicity to scare potential file-sharers.

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AnarchyNow

The worse than nazi U$A invasion of Europe keeps going on.
Europe needs a global revolution, let’s start and kill all the politicians and the remaining degenerated inbred aristocrats they work for!
Anonymous

It seems an arrogant move on ACAPOR’s part considering the worthlessness of IP evidence and is likely to come back and bite them.

afterall that is why the UK and other countries have tried to avoid court or having the ‘evidence’ tested
this website’s a joke

How can this action be qualified as a DDoS? There’s no Denial of Service. The filing clerks at the courts can just put those cases on hold and work on more urgent cases. Once again, you fail TF.
LiteHacker

Only 1000 per month? I am sure the courts have had more than that.. Remember the previous posts regarding RIAA filing a court order against thousands of people at a time?
It’s not a real “DOS attack” since it requires work on Pereira’s side to file paper work on each person.
To have a real affect, the costs of making a lawsuit (paper work, maybe money) have to be brought down to 0. Then people of Operation Payback would be able to do the “DOS attack” in a much more powerful way against the government.
politux

@3 “whoosh”

The point made is that if a court is clogged with litigation in the same manner that a website is flooded with requests during a DDoS neither can function.
Millfird

It is a denial of service to the courts AND those wanting justice in other cases. Acapor know what submitting all these cases will do the legal system but they dont care cos they want the government to take notice.

This is no better than what anonymous are doing. Screwing up other people to get their point over except acapor do it ‘legally’
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sj

I wonder if that couldn’t be viewed as attack on the legal system itself?

However what would be a lot more interesting is if the courts can demand fees for all those submitted cases before even looking at them. If the court fee is not paid in time, there won’t be a trial.
Tyler Jordan

Once the governments are gone, who will the control freaks use to attack file sharers?

Anarchism = Freedom
Cujo

and inundated they will be lol
Xult

If governments and courts have to deal with so many cases that the courts and governments could crumble,and if they take the veiw that the majority of the tech savvy population are ignoring this law,
they will do what other governments have done in the past and rescind said law.
No demacracy can work forever against the will of its citizens and must eventually bow down to them!
No government can afford to Jail the majority of its citizens.
Who will be the Jailors?
Who will feed the country?
Would any government be able or willing to incarcerate the majority of its computer techs?
Therby losing vital ground against other states.
Something is declared illegal until its found no one complies!
ReasonAnybody?

@ 1 AnarchyNow

“The worse than nazi U$A invasion of Europe keeps going on”

Wow. I didn’t know the US had opened death camps for people who file-share. Get a grip
iop

@1

As heavy-handed as your approach sounds, it may ultimately be what’s needed. Not literally speaking, of course.

We are witnessing an unprecedented expansion of American colonialism, not through violence (at least, not entirely), but through legal and political intimidation. They have pretty much every country in the world at their beck and call, and almost no individual administration has the balls to deny their pressure or can afford to turn down their lobbyist money.

China is getting more powerful every day, and in a few years they won’t be afraid of the US and will be able to do what they think best for their own people.

However, Europe is struggling. Being as fragmented as it is, each constituent country can be bullied into submission individually. The only way to fight off American lobbyists is to do so at EU level, where all the countries can speak in unison. But the EU Commission is so far removed from the wills and voices of European citizens that they can only hear the lobbyists and not the public. Parliament keeps being taken for a ride.

The people of Europe need to wake up and DEMAND that their politicians stop bowing to US pressure, and to direct the EU to speak for them. “United we stand, divided we fall!”
ARTiST

In my days, people used to bribe politicians to pass a bill. :D
Todays Politicans…

In the US they form bills(laws)so Internet/months will become illegal (must pay for duration like the old modem days.
They already have been at the Internet with site-shutdowns, domain sieze and almost everything else you could imagine.

France makes HADOPI (limit access to Internet for “the public”

Portugal looking into same approach as France.

Is it only me that sees a growing Anti-Internet for personal use campaign in the making? Soon

Internet = Shopping (but will decline due to restricted Internet, both sites and amount of connectivity.

Internet = For corporations to sell and for individual to buy ONLY area.

This makes me sick
Maxime

This is an exploitation of the Portuguese juridical system and should be regarded as such.
João

Viva a liberdade do Internet no MUNDO…….
Drag0nflamez

If there’s gonna be like a revolution in Europe, I’m in ;)
but since Holland isn’t that raped by the movie lobbyists (the only part of revolution we want is the death of all BREIN people)
Anonymous

If the courts have any sense, they will see through this “speculative litigation” tactic and put a stop to it quickly.
egbert

doesn’t really sound much different to what ACS:Law have been doing, ie, try to force multiple cases through at once. and who is to decide if the accused are actually guilty or not, assuming that they will be accused by an IP address. too many elderly who have no idea how to file share have been in this position, as have dead people and things like printers. epic fail coming, but the government will buckle to the pressure, particularly from the USA
townie2

big business hits up the taxpayer again! can you imagine how much of your tax dollars this will cost the system trying to sort out all these claims? extra clerks, prosecutors, public defenders, tying up judges, etc. why, just the overtime alone….
Anon

Well it is interesting how they try to make more money. So if they make law less severe they must count that they get more convictions per month and money flow trough blackmailing grows too.

I´m really interested to see what happens and how court react when someone try to abuse judicial system for better profit. Public react… it might be quite…
nnsa

So let me get this right, the president of ACAPOR admits he is going to deliberately swamp the courts in an attempt to change the law. That’s worse than the trolls on TF that think they will change our opinions with nonsensical arguments and personal insults.
Marco

This is just bullshit and trying to make people panic.

Under the Portuguese law, sharing without commercial purposes is not crime.

There are hundreds of people selling counterfeit movie DVDs in streets and they do not go arrested …

Also the IP by itself is not considered enough …

Even Spain has more several laws and they cannot take sites down …
Acce

It’s kinda funny, but it will not stop people to share. Even in France the file sharing community is as strong as it can be! Killing public bit torrent trackers is one thing, killing file-sharing is impossible.
Payback is a bitch, isn’t it?

Here is the people and the companies who are screwing people and filling allegated criminal complaints in Portugal:

dvdparadiso.blogspot.com (Pereira’s company in Loures)
Jotas Video Clube (in Mafra)
http://gilteles.hi5.com/friend/p130561494–GrandVideo%20-%20Invideo–html (in VNGaia)
DVD Boox (in Castelo Branco)
Arco Iris Video Club (In Massamá)
Batalha Video Clube (in Leiria)
http://www.eurovideo.clubedevideo.com (in Loulé)

When and if any file-sharer receive in home any court fine, now you know where to complaint. They’re trying to kill the internet freedom of speech and they must be stopped right away.

Thanks to the leaked e-mails from The AnOnYmOuS wE lOvE yAh (:-)
Anonymous

@11 you forget the mpaa wanted a few years ago life in prison for attempted copyright infringement….
The death penalty is only one step then away….FOR a music tune.

That day will mark a true revolution the likes they/them has never seen.
lulz

So on what basis are they filing copyright “infringement” cases? Are they the rights holders to something that thousands of people share in their country? Are they legally representing another rights holder in their country?

They can’t just file a case willy-nilly, they would acquire some serious reprimands for putting their hands into someone else’ pot.
indy

Just absurd. With just 1000 cutoffs a month the growth rate will eclipse the cutoff rate still. The most outrageous part of this is public money goes towards these useless laws and red tape delay to actual progress.
ReasonAnybody?

Moderated because I said the comparison of current copyright litigation being worse than the Nazi invasion of Europe is an overreaction?

And you talk about free speech?

Pfft.
An0nYm0uS

The crap these guys are doing is starting to piss me off more and more… I continue to sit here waiting for my day in court due to the accedent I had at work because the insurance company has yet to pay for any of my medical expencise… yet these fuckers want the courts to take care of file-sharing issues quicker then legitimate cases like mine.
Ill personally hord a DDoS to the group at ACAPOR myself if this happens.
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Anonymous

@3 Dec 23, 2010 at 13:15 by this website’s a joke: you are the failure here, they are making a joke over the DDoS tactics that rely on several http requests to chuckle and make the servers unavailable due to the heavy load. Oh, they will be directing a heavy load to the courts… Ahem, avoid making a fool of yourself will you?
Ninja

This has a huge chance of backfiring. Once the government notices that a big chunk of the population uses file sharing they might as well allow file sharing for good. Then I’ll seriously rofl.

;D
Anonymous

choke, not chuckle*
governmentsrjerks

so what? france has censored internet like china now? its gonna be hard to censore the internet. i mean they cant even get wikileaks off the internet, and they actually, really, kinda tried with wikileaks. and they just streisand effected it like original napster. and now theres open leaks and a 3rd on in the news. so i dunno if we should be worried as long as we keep helping teh interwebs be redundant, route around censorship and all that. plus wouldnt a few million ppl on vpn’s be too expensive to monitor anyway? and the country is full of idiots anyway, so even with all the internet out there, theres only a few million even reading it anyway, the same few mill that will vpn/proxy/encryp etc, so is there even a point? besides using it as a way to launder tax money and funnel it to your corporate owners of course.
The truth about acapor

What happens in Portugal is this: These guys from acapor buy a lot of dvd copies from local distributors, for €3,99 each one, and after that they’ll force to sell that same copies to the dvd’s rental shops for €49,90 EACH!!! This is a kind of Mafia and they are just an association of 25 video rental shops. Just 25. The whole 312 video rental shops are not represented, and have nothing to do with acapor, and or with that mobsters. They are truly hated here. The guy who runs acapor, nuno pereira, it’s a jerk who have a dvd rental shop in loures, portugal, called dvd paradiso. He is incompetent as well and a huge megalomaniac who deserve to be destroyed. He is the nº1 against the internet and the freedom of speech in Portugal. if he can, he will destroy us all.
anon2

In the UK I think it’s likely that you’d get labelled a vexatious litigant for even trying that. Is there not a provision in law in Portugal?

They might be about to royally shoot themselves in the foot.
rob8urcakes

We can rent DVD’s now? I’m still using VHS tapes ffs … LoL
sucks to be portugal

@34

yeah u guys should start ur own netflix over there and blockbust that dbag into the ground.
Me

They point out how prison is an excessive punishment but fail to see that restricting somebodys access to information is also a completely unsuitable and excessive punishment.

Would you take away a thiefs access to shoes because he ran from the police?
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x

@38

more accurately, would you cut his hand
Anonymous

Mas quem é este otário chamado Nuno Pereira? Num país pobre e corrupto na política, futebol, etc, vem este cabrão “combater” a pirataria para ganhar dinheiro com isso. País de merda!

Who is this jerk called Nuno Pereira? In a poor country where politics, football, etc, are corrupt this fucker “figths” piracy to make money from it. What a shitty country!
Portuguese dude

@37

We already have 2 companies (at least) that provide VoD for roughly the same price it costs you to rent a physical DVD… and all without getting off the couch. The loonies in ACAPOR are just too stupid to see it.
anon

They way things work in Portugal… this DOS attack will certainly work, there are cases that involve rape, murder, robery and drugs that take almost a decade to get trialed… look at all of that bullcrap about casa pia and apito dourado…
neo

And where exactly are they getting the information about the infringements? As far i know you can only get that from the ISP via court order.
Lothor The Evil

You should change the title of the article. No where do you mention anybody actually planning a denial of service attack until the last paragraph, nor does the article have anything to do with a DDoS attack.
Quote from final paragraph:
“Will the justice system be able to keep up with what is in effect a Denial of Service attack on the courts? Almost certainly not.”

Sounds like you’re just taking a guess as to that happening instead of saying it’s a sure thing. Unless there is something you know about and are not telling us.

From now on please make the title of the article actually match what the article mainly discusses.
Lothor The Evil

Oops. I misunderstood the article title. My uncle explained it to me.
DDoS the court systems as in give them so much work to do, they won’t be able to handle it and, what ACAPOR is hoping, the government will give in to their demands.

Sorry about my previous comment Torrentfreak. Just a misunderstanding.
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Portuguese dude #2

The way courts work in Portugal (decades of trial for almost every single case) this action will only get publicity and nothing more. It is in some way a DDOS to the courts since they are already overloaded with cases far more important.
CuntyMcFartPants

what number 1 said…
Wing3r

Internet = exchange of information
This is what it’s created for

totalitarian states don’t like this because it could cause people to think for them selves, out of their control!

fundamental capitalist states and organisations don’t like this because it could cause people to think for them selves, out of their control!

free exchange of information and data = no $ and no control for old corporations, they still hold the money and therefore the power.
Its them or the internet as we know it, how will this war end? People need need to be made aware! :D
SteveO

Why doesnt the MPAA and RIAA just inflate their prices even more to recoop supposed losses. Hell they calaim they dont make any money now anyways.
anon

@11 It’s true that America has not “opened death camps” for file sharers, but look at Iraq, where American corporations have caused tens of thousands of civilian casualties to get their hands on the oil supplies, and natural resources there. They have denied medical & humanitarian aid with sanctions for years causing all manner of suffering, to weaken the people there. they will torture, brutalize & murder to get what they want. To any one who cares about their safety and freedom, don’t let this bunch get a foothold on your government, remember they started in Iraq by putting their puppet leader “Saddam” in power to implement “justice”. America is facing an economic crisis in the coming years, and they are looking for fresh meat, look out.
Anonymous

The response for the court is obvious: dismiss all the cases “en Bloc” for lack of evidence and charge
ACAPOR for abusing the court.

Problem solved.
LOL

@ all dumbases who didnt understand about DDoS

DDOS = Floodgates argument

if u dont know law then Be quiet(stop writing) and read/research

lame comments about how u dont understand just makes everything worse,

to other dumbasses with death threats or lame bs(crap you read which is either made up or aimed specificly at u cuz ur so gullible), i recommend to stfu, ur not helping or contributing in any way, infact go start your own blog and whine there.

to all other commenter’s offering real arguments or work which is derived from other academics then well done, because when people are ill informed they usually make stupid/rash decisions, while you pps can analyse the situation properly and figure out the best course of action + contribute to this website to help other pps understand..

and as for me, i need to stop being a hypocrite and take my advice.. cuz i still tend to badmouth dumbasses every now and then……… oops
wut

It’s not DDoS since it’s single point-of-origin. It’s maybe “packet flooding” if anything. Bad analogy.
Depapagiorgio

No matter what laws these filthy, repugnant, greedy media giants attempt to pass, through their bribery of the government, file-sharing will never ever be stopped. never. In fact, I think, it will escalate. So let them try.
jghdkhi

Wait a minute… DDoSing courts to make file-sharing laws /weaker/??? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
WHO WRITES THESE ARTICALS?

This is by no means a DDOS in any form…

Also this is bullshit, out of those 1000 ‘s of complaints this will only result in more people being jailed for 3 years, Before the law gets changed.

seriously torrent-freaks level of journalism is really going down from some of the spectacular articles which I’ve read in the past
bullwhacker

I have a questions?
This company for the rental of Portuguese movies and other movies are not the copyright holders to these movies?
So how can they sue anyone?
How can they file ” criminal complaints” against internet users and force ISP’s to do anything?
I know the joke about this country; BUT WTF..

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Movie Group Will DDoS The Courts To Have File-Sharing Laws Weakened

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