Five Men Indicted For Uploading Movies, Then Extorting 'Pirate' Downloaders (torrentfreak.com) 24
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted five men for running an operation that uploaded movies to the internet and then extorted cash settlements from the BitTorrent users who downloaded them. One of the men is former ultramarathon runner Kevin Lin, who founded a copyright consultancy company after graduating from law school in 2020. According to reports, Lin's company enticed users to download the torrents, tracked their IP addresses, and then filed copyright lawsuits in an effort to profit from cash settlements. Lin said that due to his support for the opposition government and his criticism of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the investigation against him is politically motivated.
In May 2021, licenses were obtained from Vie Vision Pictures Co. and Applause Entertainment Ltd, which led to 18 movies being uploaded to BitTorrent networks, to tempt users into downloading them. After capturing their IP addresses, Lin's company obtained their identities from ISPs and sued them. The goal was to obtain out-of-court settlements. Since August 2021, Lin's company filed 937 lawsuits for copyright infringement. In just 25 of those cases, the company managed to "extort" settlements of $29,207, FocusTaiwan reports. In addition to Lin, several other people have also been indicted for their part in the operation.
In May 2021, licenses were obtained from Vie Vision Pictures Co. and Applause Entertainment Ltd, which led to 18 movies being uploaded to BitTorrent networks, to tempt users into downloading them. After capturing their IP addresses, Lin's company obtained their identities from ISPs and sued them. The goal was to obtain out-of-court settlements. Since August 2021, Lin's company filed 937 lawsuits for copyright infringement. In just 25 of those cases, the company managed to "extort" settlements of $29,207, FocusTaiwan reports. In addition to Lin, several other people have also been indicted for their part in the operation.
If they make a film of this, and I pirate it... (Score:1)
This is like, your first hit is free. (Score:2)
Re: This is like, your first hit is free. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: This is like, your first hit is free. (Score:2)
Re: This is like, your first hit is free. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Because curly quotes are correct for people communicating in writing. Straight quotes should be reserved for coder.
Re: (Score:3)
Sounds familiar... (Score:3)
Sounds like the Prenda Law [wikipedia.org] saga.
the real pirates (Score:3)
Lin's company obtained their identities from ISPs and sued them. The goal was to obtain out-of-court settlements
how would anyone obtain anyone's identity without a court order? i assume some of those other indicted work for those isps.
anyway, flamboyant copyright white knight turns out to be just another scammer. what a surprise ...
Re: (Score:2)
Just goes to show you when you are going to do anything illegal on the internet at least use a VPN. Not a 100% protection but keeps you from being "low hanging fruit."
Re: (Score:3)
Idk, but in addition to Indicting they should find it as "Copyright Abuse", And utilize the Remedy of Voiding all Copyrights that were abused in this manner which that entity had been authorized to enforce by the Rightsholder.
That would set the needed example to prevent future extortion scams.
torrents? (Score:2)
Deluded asshole (Score:2)
Lin said that due to his support for the opposition government and his criticism of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the investigation against him is politically motivated.
No, douchebag, the investigation is motivated by the fact that you entrapped and extorted people. Not to mention that you uploaded copyrighted material for that purpose and then tried to use "punishing copyright violators" as an excuse. I hope you rot in jail.
"Politically motivated" (Score:3)
Lin said that due to his support for the opposition government and his criticism of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the investigation against him is politically motivated.
Taiwanese here. Just popping in to say that this is a claim that the opposition party throws out a lot. Like whenever they've been caught not paying tax on their 3rd or 4th property or not reporting said property when applying to run for a government position, or when they get investigated for plagiarism [focustaiwan.tw] (which, usually they accuse the other party of doing. Famously accusing our current president of not having graduated from London School of Business when the university put out a public statement of "Yes, she did.") or, most infamously, when a certain mayor was so bad [taiwannews.com.tw], that the city recalled him by having more than a quarter of a city show up to vote AND those same number of votes was more than the opposition vote. [taiwannews.com.tw]And that's after collecting signatures for a petition of 1% of all eligible voters(which they surpassed) of the city AND THEN get verified signatures of 10% or more of all eligible voters (again, which they surpassed pretty easily) [taiwannews.com.tw]
So yeah, statements like these are very often unfounded.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the background although IMHO you don't need to be Taiwanese to know that saying 'politically motivated' is often the defence you make when you can't argue the facts.
Re: (Score:1)
Or when you live in a corrupt country and the charges *are* politically motivated:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny
Re: (Score:2)
Besides, I just want to make sure people know that this statement the guy is making is false and no one here beli
already (Score:2)
It takes two (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"In May 2021, licenses were obtained from Vie Vision Pictures Co. and Applause Entertainment Lt", so it's only contraband once someone else downloads it.