The Palm Beach County grandmother whose 14-year-old grandson set up her Wi-Fi system didn’t have sophisticated online pornography downloads in mind.
“She says she doesn’t know Wi-Fi from hi-fi,” said Bradford Patrick, the Tampa lawyer who represents her.
But that didn’t stop her from being named in a lawsuit filed by an adult film studio, one that could cost her up to $150,000.
Mass lawsuits naming tens of thousands of viewers are winding their way through courts as adult film studios go after those who downloaded blue movies without paying. Freshly filed Broward County and Miami-Dade County circuit court cases alone name more than 1,300 viewers, including those in Palm Beach Gardens, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Jupiter, Delray Beach and Boca Raton.
Critics say it’s a business model masquerading as law – a quick buck for producers who can make much more money through the courts than from selling individual copies of skin flicks. Faced with the threat of a $150,000 copyright infringement judgment – and the embarrassment of being publicly identified with a sketchy film – viewers are coughing up four-figure settlements for what might be a $20 movie.
“It’s done with the express intention of shaking down individuals,” Patrick said. “Send out the demand letters, sit back and count the money.”
“What would you do if so much of your property was being stolen?” responded Miami lawyer M. Keith Lipscomb, who filed suits on behalf of studios operating in Amsterdam, California and Dominica . “You have to fight.”
Who’s actually watching?
Of course, these huge lawsuits would not be possible unless someone had downloaded a movie without paying for it. But who? The Internet addresses being used to identify viewers are linked to a computer or other equipment, not a person.
Anyone with access to the computer, even a neighbor tapping into another home’s Internet service, could have downloaded the movie, not just the person on the receiving end of the lawsuit.
In another instance, the Internet address didn’t link to a computer at all, but to a printer, which Patrick says illustrates the scattershot approach being taken by the film distributors.
Not every movie involved is pornographic. The Expendables, a 2010 action flick starring Sylvester Stallone, is the subject of a lawsuit naming thousands of viewers. Indie filmmakers have banded together to sue in some instances. But much of the current crop of lawsuits focuses on low-rent fare such as Stripper Academy and others – another reason viewers are likely to settle before a lawsuit makes their film preferences public.
“What’s the alternative? The risk of money damages if you lose is very substantial,” said Corynne McSherry, intellectual-property director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based legal advocacy group. “In the meantime, your name is being connected with pornography.”
“A perfectly designed extortion scheme,” summed up Lory Lybeck, a Washington attorney who has represented defendants from Pensacola to Miami.
Internet service providers such as Comcast are expected to identify the names and street addresses of customers linked to the Internet addresses. They may give customers a month to fight the release of personal information. Once the film distributor gets the names, it typically mails letters seeking settlements, some threatening legal penalties of up to $150,000.
Others are getting more than letters. Kerr said certain defendants in the Florida cases have received harassing phone calls, even threats of criminal prosecution if they don’t pony up. Out of embarrassment or fear, many pay. Settlements range from $1,000 to $6,000, he said.
Is this legal, or simply a new form of illegal extortion? It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Thanks to PAT BEALL and the Palm Beach Post, and
thanks for “listening”
Howard
The Neu Facebook
