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Accused Movie Pirate Couple End Up in Court After Profane TiradeErnesto Van der Sar, 29 Sep 10:01 PM Piracy warnings come in all shapes and sizes. W

Accused Movie Pirate Couple End Up in Court After Profane Tirade Ernesto Van der Sar, 29 Sep 10:01 PM Piracy warnings come in all shapes and sizes. While some notices have no teeth, others should be handled with extreme caution. Typically, alarm bells should go off when a letter is sent by a lawyer who knows who you are. One such warning was sent to Mrs. Parks in early June, both by first class mail and e-mail. The Arizona woman is one of the people whose personal details were shared by the torrent site YTS, an issue we addressed in detail earlier. Exposed by YTS Database Info This YTS database ended up in the hands of anti-piracy attorney Kerry Culpepper, who's actively exploiting it. The lawyer represents several movie companies and has used the information in the database to request out of court settlements from pirates. Mrs. Parks, who allegedly downloaded the film "Lost Child," was given the chance to resolve her case for $1,000 in four separate payments. If the first three payments arrived on time, the final $250 would be waived. This same tactic is being used on dozens if not hundreds of alleged YTS users. It's not clear how many people settle, but Mrs. Parks and her husband Mr. Dabney initially seemed willing to take the deal, which was confirmed over the phone and via email on June 8. Agreement to Settle for $1,000 After this initial agreement, communications stopped for a while. Parks and Dabney never sent back the signed settlement agreement and a reminder on August 31 remained unanswered. This course of events was written up in a complaint filed at a federal court in Arizona yesterday. The plan was to resolve the matter outside of court, even after the same IP-address shared another movie last week. "On or about September 21, 2020, after still having received no communication from Defendants, Plaintiffs' counsel determined that the same IP address Defendants used to download the torrent file for Lost Child (47.216.212.227) was used to download and share copies of the motion picture Saving Christmas," Culpepper informs the court. The complaint lists both Mrs. Parks and Mr. Dabney as the defendants. They are accused of using one and the same YTS account and allegedly downloaded the film "Lost Child" last year and "Saving Christmas" a few days ago, after which the attorney sent another settlement request. "On September 21, 2020, Plaintiffs' counsel sent Defendant Dabney a demand by email for the full $1000 of the settlement agreement and an additional $750 as damages for infringing the motion picture Saving Christmas," the complaint reads. Husband Responds With Tirade After weeks of silence, Mr. Dabney responded to that request. He was not open to any settlements, however, and accused the lawyer of being "a fraud and a scam," threatening to take action against the lawyer and his "fake law firm." The movie companies' attorney responded by confirming that he would indeed file a lawsuit, reminding the alleged pirate that he wouldn't get far in court with such scandalous language. That didn't change the man's tone, however, on the contrary. "Look here. You will NOT get a dime out out [sic] me. You think that language was bad you ain't seen sh*t fa**ot. That's not a threat that's a f*ckin promise. Put that in your records f*ckin bitch ni**a. Dude with a girls [sic] name. Get the f*ck out here and leave me family alone," he replied. In a follow-up email, Mr. Dabney further urged the attorney to "…stop looking at [his] IP address…" while accusing him of "…watching [his] 3 year old through the camera…" Case Goes to Court Instead of backing off, the attorney quoted these emails in the complaint he filed at the US District Court of Arizona. Representing the owners of the films "Lost Child" and "Saving Christmas," he accuses the two defendants of both direct and contributory copyright infringement. In addition, the complaint also includes a "breach of contract" allegation against Mrs. Parks, who allegedly failed to honor the settlement agreement that was agreed on earlier. In court, the husband and wife now face damages claims that may end up being substantially higher than the original settlement. In addition to the damages claim, the complaint also requests compensation for legal costs and attorneys' fees. — A copy of the complaint, filed on behalf of Santa Files Productions LLC, and Laundry Films Inc is available here (pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Plex Sues Streaming Service That Will Run Blockbuster Movies Before Theaters Andy Maxwell, 29 Sep 11:51 AM Soon after the latest blockbuster movies hit cinemas, pirated copies are available for download from the Internet. It's a problem that studios have been struggling to mitigate for decades but the practice of granting an exclusive theatrical window leaves a convenient gap for millions of pirates to exploit. Day-and-Date Movies Delivered to Living Rooms In an effort to service the market by offering more choice, several companies have publicized plans to bring first-run movies to the small screen, notably Napster co-founder Sean Parker and his company Screening Room. Over in India, local media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises has a similar project of its own almost ready to launch but is now facing legal opposition from the US. Set to go live on October 2, 2020, premium VOD service Zee Plex is primed to not only provide a legal alternative to day-and-date piracy but also offer a service to millions of customers who are currently unable to visit cinemas due to coronavirus restrictions. "We are very excited to bring this new offering to all the movie buffs across India and around the globe," Zee Studios CEO Shariq Patel announced earlier this month. "While we all love to catch the latest movies at the nearest theatres, we sensed the need for a solution like Zee Plex, which gives the consumers flexibility and convenience, to catch their favorite films in the comfort of their homes, along with friends and family. We have received great interest from producers and are looking forward to release a strong slate of blockbusters across languages." The big launch day will feature the new blockbuster movie Ka Pae Ranasingam featuring local superstar actor Vijay Sethupathi but not everyone is pleased by the move. Plex, Inc. Says Zee Plex is Trading on its Good Name With roots as a freeware project to port XBMC (now known as Kodi) to Mac OS X in 2007, OSXBMC quickly took a different direction to XBMC and renamed itself Plex. In 2009, Plex, Inc. was founded to carry the Plex project forward commercially and over the next 11 years established itself as one of the most recognizable brands in the media player space. According to Plex, Inc., Zee Plex operator Zee Entertainment Enterprises is illegally trading off that hard-earned goodwill. "Plex, the popular global streaming media platform for all your favorite media, today announced it has taken legal action against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited for trademark infringement," Plex, Inc. announced last evening. "In September 2020, Zee announced it was launching a competing video service, titled Zee Plex, in an obvious attempt to trade off of the Plex brand and global goodwill. Available to consumers globally, Plex is taking measures to defend its intellectual property, and specifically, in this case, to protect its trademark and brand." Plex is Not Just a Media Player – It's a Streaming Service Too Plex is often associated with piracy due to some users utilizing the software to organize pirated media to create their own personal Netflix variants. As a result, it has been slammed as a "dangerous digital player" by content industry lobbyists for not doing enough to police users' behavior. However, to dismiss Plex as "just another media player" is only telling half the story. Last year the company revealed it had been forging deals to offer large libraries of licensed movies to its users and it now looks set to continue moving forward as a legitimate software and content distributor. This brings it face-to-face with various entities looking to trade on the Plex branding. Trademark Breaches Are Common Speaking with TorrentFreak just a few months ago, Plex told us that it was in a game of "whack-a-mole" trying to fight back against people using the Plex trademark for nefarious purposes. These breaches take many forms but at least one company had set up a VPN service claiming it was run by Plex, Inc. That software has now disappeared from Google Play but problems clearly still exist. Plex, Inc. holds live trademarks covering various aspects of its business including 'Plex' ("Downloadable computer software in the field of digital media management for use in playing, organizing, indexing, searching, and transcoding digital video, audio and images". Others that are "published for opposition" include Plex as "Downloadable computer software for use in streaming via the internet of ad-supported video on demand, subscription video on demand, transaction video on demand, music and podcasts and transmission of ad-supported video on demand, subscription video on demand, transaction video on demand, music and podcasts." Plex, Inc. says its lawsuit alleging trademark infringement has been filed with the High Court of India and papers have been served on Zee Entertainment Enterprises via email. The matter should come up for hearing the coming days, Plex concludes. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2020 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company