We not once have we heard about how the various offices sent out mass letters requesting compensation for downloading copyrighted material. This time, two lawyers from the United States were chasing amateurs of porn videos from torrent network.
Interestingly, they did not represent any producer or the popular site where you can buy a premium account. Even I dare say that the producers of adult movies do not care about piracy. It is quite possible that they treat it as free advertising that increase the popularity of their services and the number of users. Someone may have doubts about the number of people paying for access to pornographic materials, which are available on torrent networks. However, several leaks have proved that the situation is different. Recently, such a situation occurred in September, when personal data of almost a million accounts have leaked to the network.
Lawyers extorted $6 million from people who have downloaded porn videos from torrent networks.
All the action took place in the United States, where Paul HansMeier and John Steele turned out to be the brains of Prenda Law. They played very dirty. First they bought the copyright to several pornographic films, then they uploaded these videos to several torrent sites. They even have produced some porn videos in order to be able to later assert their rights. Copyrighted videos were also distributed by the famous The Pirate Bay site. Because they uploaded these copyright materials, so they could easily obtain the IP address of persons downloading their porn movies.
Then the lawyers requested to Internet service providers to provide personal data of adult movies fans. They send requests for payment mention the penalties of $150 000. Of course, under a settlement much lower amount was proposed, namely $4 000. Unfortunately, most people underwent blackmail and paid lawyers. Those who decided to defend himself, avoided any cost because the lawyers were afraid to disclose their practices. Paul HansMeier and John Steele were arrested and accused of the total of 18 allegations of fraud, perjury and money laundering in the 2011 – 2014 years.
Source: Ars Technica
