Hawaiian attorney Kerry Culpepper has made a habit of putting pressure on key players in the piracy ecosystem.

Representing the makers of films such as “Hunter Killer,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” and “London Has Fallen,” he’s gone after individual file-sharers, apps such as Popcorn Time and Showbox, and pirate sites including YTS.

Most recently, Culpepper and his clients expanded their reach to VPN services. Last month, they filed lawsuits against LiquidVPN and VPN.ht, accusing the companies of promoting and facilitating online piracy .

VPN.ht and Popcorn Time Lawsuit

Generally speaking, VPN providers are neutral services. However, these VPNs allegedly crossed a line by explicitly encouraging people to use the service for unauthorized activity. VPN.ht, for example, advised people to use the piracy app Popcorn Time with a VPN “to avoid getting in trouble.”

These allegations have yet to be backed up in court but, before VPN.ht responded to the complaint, the movie studios moved for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to freeze the company’s PayPal funds.

The rightsholders believe that this measure is warranted as VPN.ht’s alleged operator, Mohamed Amine Faouani, previously dissolved another company after it came under fire in a Canadian Popcorn Time lawsuit . They believe that the same could happen with “Wicked Technology,” which currently owns the VPN service.

Freezing PayPal Funds

In an order released late last week, Virginia District Court Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. agrees that this is indeed likely. As such, he granted the motion to freeze VPN.ht’s PayPal funds.

The court concludes that jurisdiction is appropriate and mentions that Popcorn Time poses a significant threat to the copyright holders. And without a restraining order, VPN.ht could indeed move its PayPal funds outside of the court’s reach.

“Plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed absent a TRO because Defendants would have the incentive and capacity to transfer their assets from any account within the United States, depriving Plaintiffs of the ability to obtain monetary relief,” Judge Alston Jr. writes.

No Harm?

According to the court, there is a strong likelihood that the movie companies will win this case anyway, which weighs in favor of granting the request. At the same time, the VPN provider isn’t really harmed by this decision, the order notes.

“Defendants are unlikely to suffer any cognizable harm from the TRO as they will merely be prevented from profiting from past infringement and moving their funds beyond the reach of the Court.”

While the court suggests otherwise, seizing the assets of a company can seriously impede its operation. That said, PayPal is just one of the payment options used by the VPN and several other alternatives remain available.

Discovery and Locked Domain Name

In addition to freezing the PayPal funds, the court also allows the movie companies to request further information from PayPal, Cloudfare and GitHub. This could help to find out more about VPN.ht’s operation as well as the Popcorntime.app software, which is part of the same lawsuit.

Finally, the court also signed off on a request to order Google or its reseller to lock the Popcorntime.app domain name, so that it can’t be transferred outside of the court’s reach.

At the time of writing VPN.ht remains online and the operator has yet to respond in court. The pressure on Popcorntime.app appears to have paid off, however, as the domain now redirects to a “goodbye” message on Medium.

Meanwhile, the movie companies have just requested yet another temporary restraining order, this time keeping it away from public view. However, it is likely that the copyright holders want to freeze additional funds or assets.

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A copy of the order issued by Virginia District Court Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Every year, thousands of “Doe” defendants are sued for allegedly sharing pirated videos via BitTorrent.

Most of these lawsuits follow a common pattern. The copyright holders track down an infringing IP-address, uncover the associated account holder through a subpoena, to then offer this person a settlement.

Defendants who ignore or deny the settlement offers will often be named. And if they fail to respond after that, the copyright holder will ask the court to issue a default judgment.

More Than an IP-address

In recent months Hawaii-based attorney Kerry Culpepper has, on occasion, broken with this pattern by bringing in additional evidence. For example, he went after several users of the torrent site YTS, after the site’s operator shared database information to resolve his own legal troubles.

In a case filed at a federal court in Texas last week, Culpepper continues down this path. While this case doesn’t rely on YTS information, it is connected to a previous lawsuit where ‘additional’ information surfaced.

Phone Store Lawsuit

Earlier this year, we reported that the company behind the movie Hunter Killer filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Verizon retailer VICTRA . According to that complaint, employees of the phone store promoted the use of pirate apps including Popcorn Time and Showbox.

The claim was backed up by testimony from a VICTRA customer who stated that an employee named Ms. Boylan recommended and helped him to install Popcorn Time to watch free movies. This case was eventually dismissed after a few months, likely following an out-of-court settlement. However, it wasn’t without consequence for the employee.

In the complaint filed in Texas last week, Hunter Killer writes that Boylan was fired by VICTRA for promoting and distributing movie piracy apps. While that must have come as a big hit, the movie company isn’t showing mercy.

Fired Employee Faces Piracy Lawsuit

On the contrary, Hunter Killer Productions accuses Boylan of both contributory and direct copyright infringement. The first allegation is related to the defendant’s promotion of Popcorn Time during her time with her former employer.

“Defendant Boylan promoted movie piracy apps at the VICTRA TX Store to her customers for the purposes of infringing copyright protected content,” the complaint reads, adding that she did so to increase sales and boost her compensation.

The allegation is backed up by the aforementioned testimony from a customer, who said that the defendant recommended and installed Popcorn Time on a newly purchased Samsung Galaxy tablet.

“Defendant Boylan promoted Popcorn Time by telling members of the general public, including Gerard Prado, that it could be used to watch ‘free movies’ at the TX Store on or around March 5, 2019.

“Defendant Boylan installed Popcorn Time on the tablet device of Gerard Prado while he was at the TX Store so that Gerard Prado could watch content in violation of copyright laws,” the complaint adds.

‘Defendant Also Downloaded the Film’

These allegations are just part of the picture. According to Hunter Killer, the defendant also downloaded and shared the movie herself. This claim is backed up by an IP-address that was observed sharing a pirated copy of Hunter Killer last December.

“Defendant Boylan downloaded, reproduced and shared copies of the Work under the file name ‘Hunter Killer (2018) [WEBRip] [720p] [YTS.AM]’ multiple times on December 27, 2019 from the IP address 174.237.5.2.”

The IP-address is linked to a Verizon cellular phone Internet service account in Boylan’s name. According to the complaint, this means that she likely downloaded the file herself.

In addition to Boylan, the movie company also accuses five John Doe defendants of direct copyright infringement by downloading the film. These people have yet to be identified through a subpoena.

Hunter Killer Productions hopes to recoup the damages these copyright infringements reportedly caused. In theory, this could reach $150,000 in statutory damages per person, but it’s likely that one or more defendants will settle out of court.

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A copy of Hunter Killer’s complaint against Boylan and the five Doe defendants is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. We have some good VPN deals here for the holidays.

Popcorn Time, the application that became known as the ‘Netflix for Pirates’, first appeared in 2014. It was a massive success and arguably paved the way for the dozens of similar piracy apps currently available on the Android and iOS platforms.

In its various guises, Popcorn Time itself managed to attract the negative attention of copyright holders who were determined to reduce the availability and visibility of the popular piracy tool. At the same time, others worked counter to these goals, either by creating their own forks of the software, distributing them, or producing guides and tutorials.

Arrests in Denmark and Guilty Verdict

Following a court order in June 2015, police in Denmark arrested two men in their thirties for operating two sites – Popcorntime.dk and Popcorn-time.dk. Neither linked to pirated content but instead provided guides on how to use Popcorn Time while providing information on where the software could be downloaded.

In 2018, the operator of Popcorntime.dk was handed a conditional six-month prison sentence after court ruled that by spreading information about Popcorn Time, he played a part in the infringements carried out by users of the software.

The defendant appealed the decision to the High Court but without success. The case was subsequently heard by the Supreme Court but that was no more effective, with the now 41-year-old man held liable for contributory copyright infringement last January. He was handed a six-month conditional sentence, 120 hours of community service, and a confiscation order for around $67,000 in advertising revenue.

Guilty Plea By The Operator of Popcorn-time.dk

Given the outcome in the earlier prosecution of the Popcorntime.dk operator, the man behind Popcorn-time.dk was left with few options to effectively fight his corner. According to a new announcement by anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, which was deeply involved in both cases, the man eventually took the decision to plead guilty.

The case was heard at the court in Odense, which ruled that in common with the operator of Popcorntime.dk, the person behind Popcorn-time.dk also contributed to the copyright infringements carried out by regular users of Popcorn Time.

“From August 2014 to August 2015, the 38-year-old on the website popcorn-time.dk recommended and guided users to download and use the illegal streaming service Popcorn Time. Defendants have also received about 10,000 kroner (US$1,565) in advertising revenue from Google for ads on the site,” Rights Alliance reports .

“Defendant confessed his complicity in the dissemination of the illegal streaming service and was thus convicted of complicity in the copyright infringements that occur using Popcorn Time.”

As a result of the confession, the 38-year-old was handed a conditional sentence of 20 days probation and subjected to a confiscation order to seize the advertising revenue generated by the site. The domain name popcorn-time.dk was also forfeited.

Rights Alliance says the differences in the sentences between this and the earlier case can be put down to the more detailed coverage of the Popcorntime.dk platform and the scale of the revenues it generated. Courts also tend to look more favorably on defendants who admit guilt rather than those who defend a case only to be found guilty.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.