Comcast Standing up to Pornographers in BitTorrent Shakedowns
Anyone who shares out copyrighted files via Bittorrent deserve any lawsuit they get- provided that the lawsuit is filed in their jurisdiction where they violated copyright law, and that the entire scope of due process and lawsuit defense is allowed for the defendant. I do not think that copyright holders should be allowed to strong-arm defendants to confiscate money from them without the benefit of a fair trial. Now Comcast doesn’t think so either.
From Torrentfreak here:
Comcast has run out of patience with the avalanche of BitTorrent lawsuits in the United States. The ISP is now refusing to comply with court-ordered subpoenas, arguing that they are intended to “shake down” subscribers by coercing them to pay settlements. Copyright holders have responded furiously to Comcast’s new stance, claiming that the ISP is denying copyright holders the opportunity to protect their works.
In recent years more than a quarter million alleged BitTorrent users have been sued in federal courts. Most of the lawsuits are initiated by adult entertainment companies, but mainstream movie studios and book publisher John Wiley and Sons have also joined in.
These copyright holders request a subpoena from the court to order ISPs to identify the alleged BitTorrent users through an IP-address. They then contact the account holder with a request to settle the case in return for a sum of money.
Instead of handing over subscriber info, Comcast asked the court to quash the subpoenas. The ISP argued that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction over all defendants, because many don’t live in the district in which they are being sued.
Comcast accuses the copyright holders of a copyright shakedown, exploiting the court to coerce defendants into paying settlements.
“Plaintiffs should not be allowed to profit from unfair litigation tactics whereby they use the offices of the Court as an inexpensive means to gain Doe defendants’ personal information and coerce ‘settlements’ from them,” Comcast’s lawyers write.
“It is evident in these cases – and the multitude of cases filed by plaintiffs and other pornographers represented by their counsel – that plaintiffs have no interest in actually litigating their claims against the Doe defendants, but simply seek to use the Court and its subpoena powers to obtain sufficient information to shake down the Doe defendants.”
Comcast has had such a bad reputation for customer service for so many years that they had to change their name to Xfinity. But its nice to see them stand up to smut peddlers who use subpoenas to essentially “shake down” end users. But it also goes to show that the pecking order of disdain in America goes “comcast, then RIAA, then MPAA, then pornographers.
More comcast posts here.
