Pirate Movie Privacy Case Set For The Supreme Court
Written by enigmax on February 08, 2010Should copyright holders be allowed to get the identities of Internet users behind an IP-address for private prosecutions, or should that ability be left solely with the police? That’s the key question behind a pivotal hit movie camcorder case which is set to move amid an unusual amount of secrecy to Norway’s Supreme Court.
Released in 2008, Max Manus is a Norwegian World War II movie based on the real-life events of resistance fighter Max Manus. Created at a cost of NOK 55,000,000 it was the most expensive Norwegian film production to date.
Shortly after the movie’s 19th December release date an illicit copy of the movie appeared on the Internet. According to producer John M. Jacobsen the recording was made in an empty theater, prompting suspicions that a projectionist was involved.
“I think this is totally reprehensible, and I wish we knew who is behind it,” Jacobsen told Norwegian media. “Anyway we will go after those who have done this quite mercilessly. There are ways to track these things down.”
An investigation was immediately launched by the Filmkameratene studio, to be handled by the Simonsen law firm with notorious pirate hunter Espen Tøndel at the helm. Technicians went to work, systematically going through every copy of the movie sent out to find a match – that meant checking 103 analog and 20 digital copies.
Their detective work paid off. Simonsen said they had not only tracked the correct copy but also identified the IP-address from where the movie was first uploaded to the Internet. They took the information to the police but were notified that the case would not be a priority for them. Simonsen responded by taking the case to the courts.
Simonsen, a law firm which since 2006 had held a license to monitor alleged pirates and collect their IP-addresses, demanded that the ISP connected with the IP-address hand over the identity of the subscriber, something it had thus far refused to do. The request had the support of the Norwegian telecoms authorities which in this case made a special exception to the country’s Privacy Act, enabling the person’s identity to be handed to a group other than the police – if the court agreed.
On May 5th 2009, Simonsen received the decision from the court but the verdict was kept a secret from the public. Espen Tøndel said this was to prevent the possibility of evidence being spoiled. This lack of transparency caused an uproar, with thousands of Internet citizens demanding to know the verdict in this important case. Many argued that if there was evidence to be spoiled, it would’ve been spoiled by now.
Today in 2010, the verdict is still a mystery to the public, but at least one of the parties is disappointed with the court’s decision.
“I can confirm that the case is being appealed to the Supreme Court, but I can not confirm which of the parties has submitted the appeal, as that may indicate what the results were in the previous hearing,” said movie industry lawyer Rune Ljøstad.
The Supreme Court will now have to decide if it’s acceptable for privately owned companies with financial interests in the outcome of a case to be given the power to obtain the identity of an Internet subscriber behind an IP-address, whether or not they committed the alleged offense.
Despite the leak, Max Manus did incredibly well in Norway, breaking all records. Its 2009 theater run yielded almost NOK 200 million across 1.16 million tickets and the DVD sold 400,000 copies in the same year. From recording a loss in 2008, movie company Filmkameratene made a profit in 2009.
“There is a dramatic change for the better for us in 2009,” said producer Sveinung Golimo. “So we are not now concerned about the future.”
Privacy campaigners will look toward the forthcoming Supreme Court decision before sharing in his optimism.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
Next: NBC Plots Crackdown On Olympic Pirates
34 Responses
Court verdicts aren’t a matter of public record in Norway? What a weird system …
Well… you know which side I’m rooting for ;)
@2 the pirates?
Cost 55M to make, took 200M at box office alone, then add 400k dvds + merchandise. OK there’s “hidden costs” distribution and middle men etc but where’s the justification for all this expense to get what’ll probably turn out to be 1 lone projectionist?
..verdicts are public.
Well… I will never watch this probably shitty movie now…
yet again the privacy of ordinary citizens is going to be thrown out the window, just because 1 industry thinks it is ok to do so. what an absolute joke! the release of this film to the internet is probably what made it such a success and so profitable. jacobson is an obvious internet retard who either knows virtually nothing about the way it is used to promote media, or has received the usual ‘industry’ brainwashing. you wont be able to have a shit soon unless it is on camera and permission gained from the courts!!!
@7
Truer words were never spoken.
The movie is good. A bit long, but it’s worth the watch.
The verdict, however, should not be kept a secret. This is something that file-sharing site owners need to know about in order to stay out of the grey areas of the law.
Seriously, the movie leaks to P2P and it beats the record in revenue giving the studio profit after a year of losses.
Do we have a connection here?
In any case, good luck to the defendants. The profits despite online availability of the film just shows MAFIAA and merry friends are wrong. As always.
Loveley, let the Supreme Kangaroo Court figure it all out. What a joke.
Who uploads a leaked movie from there home ip?
Seriously.. send the movie to a friend in another country, have him upload it from some unsecured wireless.. done, untraceable.
its only secret because the court told them to bugger off
pirate hunter eh lol seems i remember playing a game called pirates and when you attacked a nation they would send annoying little pirate hunters who usually ended up like the other ships….
“quite mercilessly” ?
Is that the word they used. They make it sound as if they got raped, mutelated and tortured.
(or something got lost in translation)
The movie can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKRiD2lSPTE
It’s a very good movie, however the real question is who are the real nazis nowadays?
coool , gonna go download this film =D
Start saying in the title which supreme court you’re talking about.
I’d larf if the film maker won the case, and then asked the ISP for the IP address, and they replied saying “Sorry our recored don’t go back that fair!”
@19
Will you larf if I say I’m gay?
You say “gay” like it was a bad thing.
“You say “gay” like it was a bad thing.”
being gay is one thing. Being a pederast is an other.
it’s turn out that all the people in the entertainment industry are pederasts and constitute a clear and present danger to our kids. We are taking care of this though.
-Daddy why does all these RIAA executive are running in zigzag?
-Never talk kid when somebody is concentrating. Thanks!
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Trooooooliiiiinnnnng!
the supremes, wasnt that a band?
chocolate duck says WT_?
What the hell is the point of a verdict if it is private?
Oh lots of money is involved so normal people don’t need to know about it right?
I understand the need to hold people responsible for breaking the law. But laws are in place for a reason. If you do not agree with a law (privacy act) you need to change the law before it is ok to go against it. Just because it seems justified never makes breaking current privacy laws alright.
If it seems unfair that they can be protected by these laws, too fucking bad, they are. If it is a loop hole, too fucking bad.
It doesn’t matter if the cam of this movie made it as big as it is, the guy recording it broke the law. It also doesn’t matter that the firm wants the identity of this individual, that would be breaking the law. I don’t know specifics about Norwegian law but from the above comments I can glean that they can at least enjoy the basics of privacy and free speech.
BIOS, I totally agree. Max Manus has blatently committed many copyright violations with his ILLEGAL newspaper and has willfully violated the legal copyright of Goebbels, Himmler and Herr Hitler many times.
But there is more: He also blew up ships belonging to the legal government at the time and murdered innocent German soldiers.
I think that Max Manus should therefore be considered a pirate, a vandal and a murderer and should be hung from the highest tree.
(Neotrolls who do not understand this story, though luck!)
If the Norwegians go down this route then they MIGHT AS WELL have stayed with Nazism, which this film allegedly is against!
Norrmän, acceptera INTE detta! Kämpa in i det sista och se till att starta ett piratparti ni också!
Ingen jäkla copyrightdiktatur i Norden. Stå på er!
I hope they don’t follow the US in this and go with the industry. It is hit or miss here depending on the judge, some can be bought, others cannot. I think even some jury members here are questionable. The industry will pay whatever it has to to win, they have to because to say they are wrong is unthinkable to them. All the time they spent fighting it could have been money coming in if they had just been smarter, now they have other companies that were smarter and no place to jump in. Hopefully the courts over there will not bedn over for the industry people. That movie getting leaked was probably the best thing that happened to it.
I watched the movie for a while in Youtube. Seems interesting enough to actually download it!
Thats a joke.. Industry is probably losing this case aswell..
Hold on, how can they identify which official copy of the film was used for the pirated version? Are all official copies for the theatres marked in some way? Steganography or something?
There’s a really, really easy way to get around this in a free country – vote! If you believe your government is not protecting your rights, vote them out! Keep voting through as many people as you have to until it gets the job done. The government belongs to you and is there to serve your interests, not the other way around.
Sorry, this post is just for me to have a play around with the xhtml that TorrentFreak allows.
Please ignore it.
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