TorrentFreak

It’s no secret that copyright trolls will go to extremes in their efforts to nail accused BitTorrent pirates. Prenda Law provides the latest shining example and in a new filing the firm stands accused of running a honeypot to lure in potential porn pirates. Following this revelation The Pirate Bay has handed logs to TorrentFreak which reveal that a user called “Sharkmp4″ is indeed directly linked to the infamous anti-piracy law firm.

Canadian anti-piracy company Canipre has been teaming up with film studios to hunt down and sue alleged BitTorrent pirates. They want to change people’s attitudes toward piracy and make a few bucks in the process. However, it appears that the attitude change should start closer to home, as their own website blatantly uses photos that have been ripped-off from independent photographers.

It is no secret that copyright trolls tend to use rather threatening language as they try to convince defendants to pay settlement fees, but the recent actions of the Prenda law reincarnation “Anti-Piracy Law Group” have reached a new low. In a letter sent to people accused of pirating pornographic material, the lawyers threaten to inform neighbors about the illegal conduct, and inspect defendants’ work computers.

Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and Cox are appealing a district court decision ordering them to reveal the identities of 1,058 subscribers accused of pirating movies on BitTorrent. The ISPs point out that their subscribers may not be the individuals who downloaded the copyrighted files in question, and warn that the decision creates a “great potential for coercive and unjust ‘settlements’.”

A Comcast subscriber from Washington State has been sued in three different lawsuits for downloading the animated kids movie Zambezia. In other words, the same IP-address is being sued thrice for the same alleged offense. Are the makers of the film trying to beat the odds by filing multiple cases for the same offense, or is it just another example of shameful sloppiness?

A horror film producer has slammed a copyright troll lawsuit which targets alleged file-sharers said to have downloaded his movie. The lawsuit, which takes aim at Internet account holders in the hope they’ll pay multi-thousand dollar settlements, has a serious error. It names completely the wrong movie, meaning that an innocent producer – who describes the action as “nonsense” – has been sucked into a controversy he has nothing to do with.

With a budget of $10 million and under $2 million in domestic grosses, the movie “Killer Joe” didn’t provide the box office successes its makers had hoped for. To make up for disappointing sales, movie studio “Killer Joe Nevada” is now turning to alleged BitTorrent users. The company sued a few dozen people at a federal court in Delaware this week, and aside from subscribers of residential ISPs their list of defendants also includes VPN users.