The Hurt Locker Producers Sue First 5,000 File-Sharers

Voltage Pictures, the production company behind 2008's Oscar-winning Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, today sued 5,000 people who illegally downloaded the movie over BitTorrent. Quoting CNET: "Attorneys for Voltage wrote in the complaint that unless the court stops the people who pirate The Hurt Locker then Voltage will suffer 'great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money.' Voltage has asked the court to prevent those who downloaded the movie without paying for it from downloading its movies ever again, and order them to destroy all copies of The Hurt Locker from their computers and any other electronic devices they may have transferred the film to. As for monetary damages, the movie's producers want those found to have pilfered the movie to pay actual or statutory damages and cover the costs that went into filing the suits." According to the complaint (PDF), the 5,000 infringers are known only by their IP addresses at this time.

Sued by your IP...

[LostCluster]

...that hurts.

Cannot fully be compensated or measured in money?

[rmckeethen]

I assume this means they're suing for an a full and immediate apology, right?

Re:And no doubt...

[OrwellianLurker]

Word is that 127.0.0.1 was the first to be sued.

No thanks...

[Itninja]

I prefer my pirated War movies to be like Saving Private Ryan: all white, all the American soldiers are noble and good, all the Germans are monsters, and all the deaths are stunningly dramatic.

IP addresses

[Anonymous Coward]

Who wants to bet that the first 5000 downloads came from 192.168.1.0/24? The guys on that network would steal from their own mothers.

Re:Not this again...

[Tikkun]

Are there already good alternatives for bittorrents?

Yes, IRC and USENET.

The irony

[johncadengo]

One of the few times an anonymous coward wouldn't want to be first...

With apologies to Ms. Streisand...

[ixtapa]

I missed the movie, and thus don't really get all this fuss. It must be good if people are still talking about it. I guess it's off to TPB for me.

I blame IPv4

[Anonymous Coward]

the 5,000 infringers are known only by their IP addresses at this time.

If we had stuck with IPv1, they could only have sued 256 infringers.

Re:The first movie

[Miseph]

That sounds very much like long-term business thinking. That has no place in modern American business.

By the way, here's your papers... you've been served.

Sincerely,
                The ##AA

Re:Even better

[SiaFhir]

??? what kind of library do you speak of? Dynamic Link Library files don't contain movies... libraries are lists of parameters to run a program. Don't see how I can get a movie from them, free or otherwise. OH! I know, maybe a library file to run a bittorrent program? Is that what you're talking about?

Re:Not this again...

[Spatial]

Sure, but only if you promise to distribute my creative works without my permission.

It would be much easier to download them rather than visiting my house though - I already give them away for free on the Internet at my own expense.

Re:"Well it wasn't that good anyway"

[ArsonSmith]

I agreed with your post right up to the point where you replied to your own posting. Now I think your entire post if full of crap and not very good to begin with.