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Monday, March 4th, 2019
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| 10:34a | Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/04/19
This week we have one newcomer in our chart. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the most downloaded movie. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts. This week’s most downloaded movies are:
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11:41a | Notorious ‘Copyright Troll’ Outfit Hands Over its US Operations to New ‘Joint Venture’  Every year, many thousands of BitTorrent users find themselves targeted for alleged copyright infringement. Many will get a strongly-worded letter from their ISP asking them to stop downloading and sharing copyrighted content. Others, targeted by so-called “copyright trolls”, aren’t so lucky, since the letters they receive contain a demand for cash, if they are to avoid a costly legal process. While the names of content owners are clearly listed in court documents as plaintiffs, there is an industrial-scale system run by a company called GuardaLey operating behind the scenes in many such cases in both the US and Europe. Perhaps most famously, GuardaLey was behind the record-breaking The Hurt Locker and The Expendables lawsuits in the US but make no mistake, the company is the engine behind cases targeting many thousands of individuals all around the world. GuardaLey (and close partners) provide the tracking data, business structure, and experience to enable these lawsuits to go ahead, actively monitoring file-sharing networks then approaching content companies with an offer to help generate revenue from alleged pirates. Despite its scale, GuardaLey operates somewhat silently, rarely making the headlines itself. It was a surprise, therefore, to see a new announcement from the company that it had entered into a “joint venture” early February with American Films, Inc. “This is a significant opportunity for American Films, Inc. given our team’s knowledge in the data and film industry, we bring great synergies previously unavailable to this territory and industry,” said American Films CEO John Carty. The “joint venture” just announced is somewhat intriguing. Firstly, American Films, Inc, “will own 100% of this joint venture company” which will “take over the USA” operations of GuardaLey. Secondly, given the name, American Films doesn’t appear to have any films, at least as far as its GoDaddy website-builder page shows. “American Films Inc. is an emergent entertainment industry company focused on opportunities for equity investors,” its promo material reads. “In an industry environment that is historically unfavorable to equity participation, American Films seeks to create alternative investment participation vehicles that provide That said, according to Bloomberg data, “American Films, Inc. does not have significant operations” and was previously involved in a research project being “conducted at NYU relating to DNA Nanotechnology.” Despite not appearing to have any experience in the file-sharing market, American Films (Pink Sheets: AMFL) will join GuardaLey in a joint venture that will work with an all-new “strong setup of prestigious law firms across the nation” to “provide education” to copyright infringers. “The partnership with American Films will combine the resources of GuardaLey and American Films, to monitor peer-to-peer It’s open to speculation why GuardaLey needs a partnership with American Films and why it would hand over 100% ownership of the joint venture to the company. Until recently, MarketScreener.com listed American Films Inc. as “a shell company whose sole purpose is to locate and consummate a merger or acquisition with a private entity.” In 2017, American Films acquired social media platform
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9:16p | Court Sanctions Anti-Piracy Lawyer for “Willful Disobedience”
Two years ago, Strike 3 Holdings had never filed a single lawsuit, but today the company has thousands of cases on its record. These lawsuits were filed across the United States, targeting people whose Internet connections were allegedly used to download and share copyright infringing content via BitTorrent. In the case of Strike 3, this refers to adult videos which are made available via the Blacked, Tushy, and Vixen websites. The company’s legal campaign has kept the courts busy and contributed to the record-breaking breaking number of piracy lawsuits that were filed last year. Many of these cases were handled by veteran lawyer Lincoln Bandlow, who’s a partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild LLP. While the attorney, who’s also a visiting professor at USC, has plenty of experience it turns out that handling dozens of cases at once can be quite a challenge. Last November, Bandlow was slapped on the wrist for failing to meet the court’s deadlines. The attorney explained that this was due to calendaring issues or incorrectly reading the court’s orders. He apologized and promised to take steps to prevent similar issues going forward. However, it didn’t take long before more deadlines were missed in two dozen cases at the Eastern District of California. This time the attorney forgot to submit status reports. Again, the court requested clarification, asking Bandlow why he shouldn’t be sanctioned for failing to follow its orders. In this reply, Bandlow attributed the failures to a variety of reasons including technical issues such as an overactive email spam filter, as well as a lack of personnel over the holidays. The attorney also highlighted his track record by noting that he was never sanctioned in 25 years. This reply didn’t convince the court. In an order issued last week, US Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney wrote that Bandlow’s excuses and explanations are unavailing, especially since he was already reprimanded just weeks earlier. The technological ‘issues’ are no excuse, the Judge writes, noting that people were already practicing law long before there were computers. “The practice of law predates the computer. Computer and technological problems do not justify failing to comply with court-ordered deadlines, especially under the specific circumstances of these cases. “Once Mr. Bandlow became aware of his technological problems, he could have—and indeed should have—manually calendared and tracked all deadlines,” Judge Delaney adds. In addition, Strike 3’s attorney’s explanation that 19 out of the 24 cases with missed deadlines were the result of inadequate staffing, is both “unacceptable and inexcusable”. Especially since Bandlow explained that his law firm Fox Rothschild LLP employs 900 lawyers. Taken together, the Magistrate Judge concludes that the attorney’s actions are not mere mistakes, but willful disobedience of the court. “After he was reprimanded for failing to meet deadlines in related matters, Mr. Bandlow was on notice of problems with his calendaring procedure and he was explicitly warned to make sure that he properly calendared all future deadlines. “Instead of doing so, Mr. Bandlow failed to comply with court-ordered deadlines twenty-four additional times. Mr. Bandlow’s conduct constitutes willful disobedience of court orders, which is tantamount to bad faith,” Judge Delaney notes. So, after 25 years of practicing law Bandlow now has his first sanction.  The good news for the attorney is that the “bad faith” is not the worst of its kind. Also, the court believes that his apology is sincere. Nonetheless, this type of conduct is unacceptable, especially for an attorney with over twenty-five years of experience. As such, a $750 sanction is warranted. While this amount can easily be recouped via a single settlement against an alleged pirate, it’s not good for one’s reputation. In any case, Law.com quotes the attorney saying that the $750 will be paid “immediately.” Whether the massive volume of cases has anything to do with it is unclear. It wouldn’t be a surprise. However, Bandlow is not slowing down much in the new year and has already filed more than 100 new cases on behalf of Strike 3 in 2019. — A copy of Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney’s order is available here (pdf). Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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