MPAA: Damage Caused By Uploader Can’t Be Measured in Money. Now Give Us Money
According to the MPAA, a file-sharer who uploaded three movies to the internet caused damage so great it caused them an ‘irreperable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money’. Despite cash being completely inadequate to solve this 3-movie download armageddon, the MPAA is having a go anyway – demanding damages, costs and fees.
The MPAA just filed a lawsuit alleging that a resident of Rome made illegal copies of, and also uploaded – three movies to the internet using an “online media distribution system”, probably BitTorrent.
According to the report, no address was given for Mr James Wilson – the man accused by the MPAA of ‘willful and intentional’ copyright infringement. According to them, he made unauthorized copies of just three movies – ‘Hide and Seek’, ‘House of Wax’ and ‘Robots’ and uploaded them to the internet.
According to the lawsuit, the Plaintiffs (Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox), “bring this action to stop defendant from copying and distributing to others over the Internet unauthorized copies of the Plaintiff’s copyright motion pictures”
Noting that there was no financial motivation to the infringement it continues: “Defendant’s infringements allow Defendant and others to unlawfully obtain and distribute for free unauthorized copyright works that the plaintiffs spend millions of dollars to create and/or distribute”
The MPAA knows a thing or two about drama, it’s their business after all, so when assessing the trouble Mr Wilson had caused them by sharing 3 movies, they told it straight: “Defendant’s conduct is causing, and unless enjoined and restrained by this Court will continue to cause, the Plaintiffs great and irreparable injury that cannot be compensated or measured in money”
Of course, that doesn’t stop the MPAA trying to measure the costs: aside from demanding that any copies of the movies are destroyed (3 DVDRs I guess) they want substantial damages and costs for bringing the legal action.
Incidentally, the movie ‘House of Wax’ was also listed in the 2005 MPAA press release(.pdf) proclaiming the demise of EliteTorrents- so when the MPAA talks about ‘injury that cannot be compensated or measured in money’ I wonder if they’re thinking of how the last 6 months have been for Scott McCausland, sitting in prison.
And he shared just one movie.
