Copyright Infringement Litigation
Between September 2010 and September 2012, Patrick Collins Inc. filed approximately two hundred lawsuits in federal district courts throughout the United States. Most of these suits alleged that unnamed defendants, denominated "John Does", illegally downloaded movies to which Patrick Collins Inc. held the copyright via BitTorrent. The complaints identify the "John Does" by IP address. Patrick Collins Inc. has sought judicial enforcement of subpoenas compelling internet service providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, to disclose the names of the subscribers associated with those IP addresses.
In denying relief to Patrick Collins Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York noted:
“This course of conduct indicates that the plaintiffs have used the offices of the Court as an inexpensive means to gain the Doe defendants’ personal information and coerce payment from them. The plaintiffs seemingly have no interest in actually litigating the cases, but rather simply have used the Court and its subpoena powers to obtain sufficient information to shake down the John Does.” In Re BitTorrent Copyright Infringement Cases (Docket No. 2:11-CV-03995)(E.D.N.Y.)(GRB)(May 1, 2012), quoting Raw Films Ltd. v. Does 1-32, 2011 WL 6182025 at *2 (E.D.Va. Oct. 5, 2011).
Read more about this topic: Patrick Collins (director)
Famous quotes containing the word infringement:
“The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the infringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)