MPAA International Piracy War Yields Two Key Wins

The plaintiffs wrote in their claim: “Defendants ' operate, distribute, and promote a service which they know is provided for the sole purpose of enabling acts of copyright infringement. ' In fact, Popcorn Time has no other legitimate use other than enabling acts of copyright infringement.”

Interestingly, the plaintiffs also noted the size and ease of use of Popcorn Time in the complaint, calling the website and its associated mobile app a “more advanced and polished application.” The lawsuit also noted the extensive marketing done for the app by the founders, the PayPal website they had set up to solicit donations, and even the trademark application Lemarier had submitted for Popcorn Time in the United States.

In New Zealand, the timeline was similarly expeditious for YTS, the MPAA reported. The MPAA filed on Oct. 12 in the High Court of New Zealand against the operator of YTS for facilitating and encouraging massive copyright infringement. Days later, the court issued the injunction that resulted in the website's closing.

The MPAA noted that YTS may have been an even bigger victory, sitting as the 584th most-visited site on the Internet according to Alexa, with over 3.4 million unique visitors in August 2015 alone according to comScore.

For lawyers, combatting movie piracy is increasingly common. In March, Torrentfreak cited a study from Matthew Sag, professor of law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, that found that IP litigation in U.S. district courts increased every year between 2009 and 2014. Notably, though, most of the growth occurred through “John Doe” copyright suits, targeting users that share copyrighted works illegally under pseudonyms. This is the second wave of these suits, Sag's paper said, following an RIAA crackdown that peaked in 2006.

“John Doe litigation in the second wave appears to be aimed primarily, if not exclusively, at monetizing infringement ' i.e., creating an independent litigation revenue stream that is unrelated to compensation for the harms of infringement and unconcerned with deterrence,” the paper said.

However, speaking with the CBC, David Silverberg, Editor-in-Chief of DigitalJournal.com,'said that the movie industry is looking to learn from the music industry's efforts in fighting piracy online, but it may find a rough road ahead.

Zach Warren writes for Legaltech News, an ALM affiliate of Entertainment Law & Finance.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently announced that two major piracy websites, Popcorn Time and YTS, were shuttered following pro-MPAA court rulings in Canada and New Zealand. Taken together, the MPAA said, the two sites represented “copyright infringement worldwide on a massive scale.”

“By shutting down these illegal commercial enterprises, which operate on a massive global scale, we are protecting not only our members' creative work and the hundreds of innovative, legal digital distribution platforms, but also the millions of people whose jobs depend on a vibrant motion picture and television industry,” former Senator Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the MPAA, said in a statement.

These closures represented a quick turnaround for the MPAA, as complaints against both parties were only issued in October 2015. As to PopcornTime.io, the MPAA and several of its motion picture partners served VPN.ht, as well as Popcorn Time founders David Lemarier, Robert English and Louie Poole with a claim in Ottawa, Ontario Federal Court. That was quickly followed by a successful injunction against the site. Between: Paramount Pictures Corp. and Lemarier, T-1679-15.

The plaintiffs wrote in their claim: “Defendants ' operate, distribute, and promote a service which they know is provided for the sole purpose of enabling acts of copyright infringement. ' In fact, Popcorn Time has no other legitimate use other than enabling acts of copyright infringement.”

Interestingly, the plaintiffs also noted the size and ease of use of Popcorn Time in the complaint, calling the website and its associated mobile app a “more advanced and polished application.” The lawsuit also noted the extensive marketing done for the app by the founders, the PayPal website they had set up to solicit donations, and even the trademark application Lemarier had submitted for Popcorn Time in the United States.

In New Zealand, the timeline was similarly expeditious for YTS, the MPAA reported. The MPAA filed on Oct. 12 in the High Court of New Zealand against the operator of YTS for facilitating and encouraging massive copyright infringement. Days later, the court issued the injunction that resulted in the website's closing.

The MPAA noted that YTS may have been an even bigger victory, sitting as the 584th most-visited site on the Internet according to Alexa, with over 3.4 million unique visitors in August 2015 alone according to comScore.

For lawyers, combatting movie piracy is increasingly common. In March, Torrentfreak cited a study from Matthew Sag, professor of law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, that found that IP litigation in U.S. district courts increased every year between 2009 and 2014. Notably, though, most of the growth occurred through “John Doe” copyright suits, targeting users that share copyrighted works illegally under pseudonyms. This is the second wave of these suits, Sag's paper said, following an RIAA crackdown that peaked in 2006.

“John Doe litigation in the second wave appears to be aimed primarily, if not exclusively, at monetizing infringement ' i.e., creating an independent litigation revenue stream that is unrelated to compensation for the harms of infringement and unconcerned with deterrence,” the paper said.

However, speaking with the CBC, David Silverberg, Editor-in-Chief of DigitalJournal.com,'said that the movie industry is looking to learn from the music industry's efforts in fighting piracy online, but it may find a rough road ahead.

Zach Warren writes for Legaltech News, an ALM affiliate of Entertainment Law & Finance.