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Piracy Movies Television

Amazon Sues Online Stores Selling Pirated DVDs 71

Posted by BeauHD from the cease-and-desist dept.
Amazon has filed a lawsuit against a group of online stores that sell pirated DVDs of key titles such as "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" and "The Peripheral." TorrentFreak reports: In a complaint filed at a California federal court, Amazon accuses seven websites of selling pirated discs. These sites, including dvdshelf.com.au, dvds.trade, and dvdwholesale.co.uk, are presumably operated by the same group, using a variety of companies. For the public at large, it may not be immediately obvious that these discs are pirated. However, since Amazon doesn't produce or sell DVDs for these Prime Video series, there is no doubt that they are created from illicit sources.

The piracy operation consists of at least seven websites and these all remain online today. According to Amazon, the sites ship to customers in the U.S. and abroad, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, resulting in mass copyright infringement. Before going to court, investigators conducted more than twenty test purchases of pirated DVDs. After these orders arrived, Amazon sent the discs to the Motion Picture Association which independently confirmed that they were all pirated.

The complaint lists Yangchun Zhang as a key suspect. This person presumably resides in China and obtained the 'DVD Shelf' trademark in Australia. In addition, Zhang is also listed as the registrant of several of the domain names involved. The complaint accuses Zhang and the others of both copyright and trademark infringement. Through the lawsuit (PDF), Amazon hopes to recoup damages, which can run in the millions of dollars. Another key priority is to shut the sites down and Amazon asks the court for an injunction to stop all infringing activity.
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Amazon Sues Online Stores Selling Pirated DVDs More

Amazon Sues Online Stores Selling Pirated DVDs

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  • Lucky (Score:5, Funny)

    by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @09:21PM (#63792528)

    They should feel lucky that anyone is willing to watch LOTR, pirated or otherwise.

    • worse, these silly pirates missed that amazon is where you go to *sell* pirated stuff, not a source of worthwhile content . . .

  • sorry what (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    >key titles such as

    I'm sorry, could someone help me get back to my original Earth? I clearly fell into an alternate.

  • I have never got any thing from amazon that was not a counterfeit.

    • Yea Amazon is made they aren't going through their store to sell them to get a cut.

    • I got some counterfeit ink recently. The packaging was perfect - no wrong fonts or anything. But they were stupid enough to copy the color-shifting ink sticker without using color-shifting ink. If not for that, I wouldn't have caught it until I opened or tried to use it.

  • Bullshit. NO ONE would pirate rings of power (Score:5, Funny)

    by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @09:31PM (#63792550)

    Because NO ONE would pay anything for it.

    Holy shit, we tried soooo hard to like that show. Watched it way past where we would have turned off anything else. It got every chance.

    Amazon should pay those guys a marketing fee if they can get anyone to pay money to see that show. That's a jury I'd want to be on to send a message.

    • Because 'real' shows can't beat fantasy.
      You can't make up such drama.
      Here are some of my favorites :
      'Real housewives from Atlanta'
      'Slag Wars : The next c_ck destroyer'
      'Real love & Hiphop Winsconcin'
      'Real housewives of Auckland'

    • Re:Bullshit. NO ONE would pirate rings of power (Score:5, Informative)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @10:13PM (#63792600) Homepage

      Most of the "original programming" from the major streaming services is rather heavily pirated because there are many people who don't want to subscribe to Netflix just for Stranger Things, or Amazon for LOTR, or Disney Plus for Star Wars, Paramount+ for Trek, etc.

      Of course, in this case what happened is that Amazon ignored the potential market of people who, for whatever reason, want a copy of their shows on physical media. Maybe they live out in BFE and don't want to pay for Starlink. Considering that Redbox is still a thing, I really can't blame the pirates for filling a niche market that Amazon refuses to cater to.

      • Yes, I generally agree with your broader statement but I feel strongly about making an exception for ROP. I assume you've seen it? C'mon, was it not agony?

      • Piracy of streaming content is so rampant even people that worked on the shows will pirate it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Outside the US we often can't subscribe even if we want to. Or the app isn't available for your hardware.

        The other issue is the sound. Ahsoka was okay but the sound mixing was shit. The speech was too quiet and the action too loud. Even with the volume up, speech was mumbled. Because I downloaded a torrent I was able to mostly fix it with ffmpeg, but you can't do that if you use the app. So these days I subscribe and then just torrent the episode anyway, and if I remember I stream it again in the background

        • The speech was too quiet and the action too loud.

          I see this complaint so much these days and I want to say "get a soundbar" but I can't speak authoritatively on if it's just people with bad TV speakers. Because while I'm not a big consumer of TV/movies, when I do it's on an entry level atmos setup and I've never had a problem with dialogue.

          I would like to know if it's actually a 7.1 downmixing problem. When I was setting up a TV for a relative I noticed that the TV was advertising itself as a DTS-HD capable device and was offering to decode the full quali

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I have a soundbar, although it's an older one, not Atmos. It could be a downmixing problem with the dialogue, but I have tried to tweak that.

            The real issue is the amount of dynamic range. If you set the volume loud enough to hear the speech, the action scenes force you to reach for the remote control. Never everyone has a soundproof theatre to watch in, and not everyone wants to be audibly assaulted anyway.

      • I think it's very clear what the reason is.

        there are many people who don't want to subscribe to Netflix just for Stranger Things, or Amazon for LOTR, or Disney Plus for Star Wars, Paramount+ for Trek, etc.

        The price of a season box set is usually around the price of a few months access via streaming. If you want permanent access you'd have to be dumb to rent a single show for $10/mo. or more forever.

    • >"Holy shit, we tried soooo hard to like that show. Watched it way past where we would have turned off anything else. It got every chance."

      I feel exactly the same way. For me, "Galadriel" just ruins it completely. And I tried SO HARD to overlook it and several other issues. But I just can't. And the LOTR movies were one of my favorite- have watched them in theaters, then bought the DVD's, then the BluRays. Even the Hobbit movies were good. But this stuff, it just doesn't cut it at all.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mysidia ( 191772 )

      Because NO ONE would pay anything for it.

      There are about 20 persons who would: Amazon's own investigators.

      Before going to court, investigators conducted more than twenty test purchases of pirated DVDs. After these orders arrived, Amazon sent the discs to the Motion Picture Association which independently confirmed that they were all pirated...

      You know it would be funny if they actually went to court, and it became a fact shown that the ONLY sales of those particular DVDs were to those 20 investigators, An

      • Lmao, yes that would be truly entertaining but I doubt they have a sufficient sense of shame to drop the suit at that point. They'd want to charge 20 violations.

  • eBay (Score:3)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @10:18PM (#63792608) Homepage Journal

    There are some good overseas eBay sellers that have educational content that isn't available for sale in the US (e.g. 90's training content) .

    I don't see any harm because noone is victimized by such sales - I cannot buy if I want to.

    People who make subscription apps in related fields claim otherwise but eBay seems to allow it.

  • Amazon refuses to make content available in a specific format, so someone else does and people buy it. I thought Amazon's MO was to buy out successful businesses and use their ideas? Oh wait they're in China and can't be bought out. LoL Speaking of... Someone in China stealing other peoples intellectual property rights. That's a first right? /s

    • Re:So, let me get this straight... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Thursday August 24, 2023 @01:16AM (#63792752)

      >"Amazon refuses to make content available in a specific format, so someone else does and people buy it"

      Exactly. Like, "hello?", if there is a demand, fill it. I have very little sympathy for companies that lock up their media in some proprietary or cloud-only format and then complaining like this. Sure, give it 6 months or a year or something, but then release it on physical as well.

    • If they can't collect rent on it, they won't sell it. For the same reason that some cars have an option for heated seats but you have to pay $18/mo. for it.

      But consumers seem to like it? Look at Spotify. Do you know how many people pay for Netflix just to be able to watch old episodes of The Office? Did you see the outcry when Netflix tried to drop licensing for it?

  • Only amazon can sell illegal products. Like products that don't have saftey certs but are sold with a label.

    • What do you mean?

      Like they allow people in their marketplace to sell things in areas that should meat standards for that target but don't?
      For example, selling food in the US that specifically states it meets FDA, but doesn't?

      Or do you mean like, the fact that Amazon is multi-national, and things happen, such as selling something that might be okay in some areas but ends up visible(and purchasable) in other areas and requirements aren't met?

      I hadn't heard anything specific about this, and the statement is ju

      • Did I miss some big news?

        Only if you count finding someone acting like a complete hypocrite "news".

        For me, not so much. It's almost like being shocked coming across a narcissist when that is now a well-respected and highly rewarded profession. Of course they're everywhere now.

        (And if we're still wondering where all the arrogance came from, hypocrisy is merely a side effect of being blinded by narcissism. So naturally we're coming across more and more of it.)

      • I hadn't heard anything specific about this

        How is the fact that you haven't been paying attention relevant to the rest of us?

        There's been so many stories about Amazon selling garbage phone chargers that are basically gift wrapped house fires that we have all become fatigued by them to the point of indifference. We were talking about this here years and years ago.

      • Not FDA, UL. You can buy power supplies (and usb chargers) all over amazon that can kill you and they say they won't. UL certs are supposed to be enforced on a retail level, but they aren't at amazon.

        • UL certifications aren't legally required. However, if you want your homeowner's policy to cover your house burning down you need a real UL listing. Insurance companies are the U in Underwriters Laboratories.

    • They should really rename themselves to ChineseFraudazon already. Truly amazing how much plain old fraud goes on there and no one does shit about it.

  • If you are going to start a copyright and trademark infringing business don't bother with filing for your own trademark.
  • I dont have any sympathy for people stealing copywrighted works and selling them as a business model. I honestly cant believe anyone would be so blatently stupid about it but thats the low hanging fruit that theyre going to catch-so be it.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • It isnt "stealing", nothing has been stolen. Thats the wonderful thing about digital data, copying is easy. To steal something you have to deny it's use to the original owner. "Steal an idea" might come to mind, but thing is you cant steal the idea itself, but you did steal the credit for having had it.

      It's a stretch of the imagination to apply that to digital data. Just like it's a stretch to equate copying with attacking ships and boats.

      Copyright infringement is what it is.

      The solution is to fill the g

      • Ultraviolet, which morphed into moviesanywhere, is way better than it used to be, but there are still a few asshole studios that don't participate, but the ones that do transfer between apple, google, amazon, and vudu.
      • If someone took your sweat equity and sild it for a profit, I doubt you would be so generous or willing to justify it. But thats what our entitled society believes- I deserve this for _______ reasons so its mine. As I stated, I dont really care but profiting from it is greed so do what you want, however you want. Probably never created a single thing of any value so you have no idea what Im saying.
    • I have no problem if the work is oop or region blocked, both of which are anachronistic as fuck in 2023.

  • to Amazon: "Yeah we'll get right onto that!"

  • That's rich that Amazon is complaining about OTHERS selling fake stuff. In other news, Jeff Bezos complained loudly about people that have way, way too much money...

  • It took me about a minute to see that this is one Indian guy, Nirmal Singh, operating from his home in Southall.

  • Lord of the O-Rings 27 will probably always be my favorite.

  • Shameful (Score:3)

    by MysteriousPreacher ( 702266 ) on Thursday August 24, 2023 @04:53AM (#63792908) Journal

    Being caught pirating Rings of Power is up there with being charged for stealing expired food from the bins of a Dollar Tree.

  • Amazon should release their stuff as DVD... (Score:3)

    by DigitalSorceress ( 156609 ) on Thursday August 24, 2023 @07:49AM (#63793086)

    The key here to me is
    """since Amazon doesn't produce or sell DVDs for these Prime Video series, there is no doubt that they are created from illicit sources. """

    OK, Amazon, if you released them officially you would then find the pirates would not bother ... literally these bootlegs exist solely because there is a demand you are not filling

    However, I get it - you're looking to maximize profit and keep people paying for Amazon Prime so you have little incentive to sell the DVDs and the suing actually about protecting that prime subscription base and not really about the specific DVD / series

    The whole buisness model is set up to squeeze money out of people in "recurring payments" monthly

    Funny enough I have paid for Aamazon Prime for years not for video access but just for the prime shipping and such - it's worth it to me for that ... I hardly use Prime Video except the rare times when a series is Amazon Prime Only - funny thing is I'm old and salty - I prefer physical media so while I might watch an original series on Amazon when it comes out - if I like it, I'd actually pay for the DVD to have on my shelf - so they can't "1984" it at some point.

    (referring to what Amazon did to 'unauthorized' e books fof 1984 not to the actual story itself for those who don't know look it up - it was .. ironic to say the least)

    As a lover of niche/ecclectic films, I have a pretty big collection of "box office flops" that I hold very dear (Tampopo, Bagdad Cafe, Harold and Maude, Logan's Run, A Boy and his Dog, .. you get the idea - lots of stuff that was not really big blockbuster and yet are arguably "classics" ... and which if I hadn't bought the DVD when they were available would likely be utterly inaccessible to me as those often also get discontinued.. I had to hunt hard to get the complete collection of LEXX (and one could argue fairly that I'm insane for even wanting it but don't judge me - I like my quirky stuff...)

    Anyway, point is that with streaming services they have no incentive to release DVD/BluRay/4k of their shows - they would rather you keep the service every month - except they break the social contract in my opinion by arbitrarily removing series - so you get a great series and have access then one day it just goes... and you've got no choice

    so YAY for the pirates because if I wanna watch say "Max Headroom" TV series what other choice do I have ? (bad example that one actually finally DID make a release but I had long since bought a copy someone TiVo'ed off The SCI-FI channel or whatever way back

    There was this web site named for tales of the golden Monkey or somethig that had a bunch of these - they specialized in cult shows that had never been officially released on DVD - when a show released they'd stop selling their pirate versions - was a good model - probably sued out of existence ... dont know..

    still I get shit from my partner about how many DVDs I have taking up space in the bookshelves in the rec room, but at least I can watch Dark Star whenever I want without worrying if I have a current sub to "whoTheHellEverWantedToWatchThat.com" :)

  • They can wish all they want (Score:3)

    by mysidia ( 191772 ) on Thursday August 24, 2023 @10:51AM (#63793426)

    Amazon hopes to recoup damages, which can run in the millions of dollars.

    Lol... Suing websites operated by someone in China. What do you think is going to happen? Most likely there will be no answer to their suit, then they will get a "default win", and an Uncollectable judgement for however much money they wanted.

    Another key priority is to shut the sites down and Amazon asks the court for an injunction to stop all infringing activity.

    I'm sure the courts will help them out with that - if they get a default judgement, they can get Injunctions, But I wonder why they aren't getting the FBI etc involved? A US-Issued Civil injunction aimed at the .AU and .CO.UK domain registries Is probably a non-starter Unless they the case approved and the order accepted by courts in those countries.

    GL and given how many websites they're already having to target... Isn't what almost always happens that they can get the permanent Injunction, but whoever's doing it will make a new clone on a new domain spring up shortly afterward?

    Perhaps they should Instead um.. Figure out why pirate DVDs are even selling, and you know... Provide a product for sale, so those customers can get legitimate DVDs?

  • There are a lot of people on this thread talking about Amazon like it's one thing. But the arm of the company that's responsible for dealing with the legitimacy of products for sale on the platform has nothing to do with the arm that looks after intellectual property rights in their media division. Addressing them as a single entity is a gross oversimplification.

    "How dare you protect your property rights... I see somebody is selling a counterfeit power adapter on your site AS WE SPEAK!" - Nonsense.

  • Fake flash drive: okay. Fake chips: okay. Fake SSD:okay. Might get in trouble with the MPA: do something!

    • They don't care about the MPA - that's why it's only their titles.

      I was going to say they ARE the MPA but they are not a member. Those are currently:
      Paramount Pictures
      Universal Pictures
      Warner Bros.
      Walt Disney Studios
      Sony Pictures
      Netflix

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