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NEWS: All But 1 Defendant Dropped From Funimation's One Piece Lawsuit


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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14744
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:04 am Reply with quote
ajr wrote:
It appears at first glance that the court/judicials aren't too keen on supporting the defense (although they are, of course, supposed to be neutral); I'd be interested to know on what grounds the texas case was dismissed.


In his FUNimation order severing 1,336 of the 1,337 defendants, Judge Ferguson objected, saying that the defendants had nothing material in common. "There are no allegations in Plaintiff's Complaint that the Defendants are in any way related to each other, or that they acted in concert or as a group in their allegedly infringing actions… Indeed, it seems that the copyright infringement claim against each Defendant is based on the individual acts of each Defendant."

Simply saying that everyone used BitTorrent isn't enough to join defendants, and the judge notes that each defendant "will also likely have a different defense." He then cited a judicial decision from West Virgina in which a judge took an axe to a host of P2P porn cases filed there last year.

If Stone wants to pursue file-sharing litigation, he can do so—but only by filing "individual complaints against those Does" in the next 30 days. That means a $350 filing fee per defendant, plus mountains of paperwork for each case.


In other words, even though the defendants acted identically, they still acted individually. Funi could still go after any number of them - they just have to pay for each separately.


ajr wrote:
If copyrighted works aren't defended, I think the copyright can be declared void or null.


No, that's trademarks, not copyrights.


Richard J. wrote:
The way things are going, I'm sure we'll see a lot of new laws regarding the Internet in the next few years that will make us all look back at this case and laugh. Or cry. People don't understand just how screwed up the entire system really is.


COICA is coming:

Today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was all about COICA, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act. The bill would give the government legal tools to blacklist a "rogue" website from the Internet's Domain Name System, ban credit card companies from processing US payments to the site, and forbid US-based online ad networks from working with the site. It even directs the government to keep a list of suspect sites, even though no evidence has been presented against them in court.

Everyone loves the idea. Democrats love the idea (well, except for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who said it was "like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb when what you really need is a precision-guided missile"). Republicans love the idea. And rightsholders really love the idea.

In other words, Google could be sued for returning infringing results from The Pirate Bay. In fact, every file-sharing site in the world would have to comply with US law or risk being blackballed from Google, Bing, Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T (who aren't about to risk billions of dollars in potential legal exposure just to provide access to such foreign sites).

Even sites already declared legal in other countries—such as Spain's Rojadirecta—could suddenly find themselves curtailed from ad networks and credit card processors, and their domains blocked in the US.

Rightsholders won't get everything they want, but it looks increasingly like they'll get something. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) opened the hearing by saying, "I am confident that we will pass legislation to target rogue websites this year. I want to hear from all sides as we move forward, but I refuse to accept that addressing the problem is too difficult because people who want to steal will always find a way."

Even Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), an ardent champion of net neutrality and a foe of media consolidation, supports COICA—though he has some concerns.

"We need to work together to make sure that any legislation that is introduced this Congress is narrowly tailored and will not unwittingly lead to the blocking of legitimate speech that is protected by the First Amendment," he said. "We also need to make sure that we are giving legitimate US businesses and domestic blogs sufficient due process protections before their sites are suddenly shut down."

And when it comes to ISP domain name blocking, he said, "I also think it is essential that we move cautiously before we create a structure that will direct Internet service providers to block content at the domain name level."

Still, COICA looks set to advance out of committee, much as it did last fall on a 19-0 vote.
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SonicRenegade84



Joined: 04 Apr 2010
Posts: 630
Location: Atlantis!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:11 am Reply with quote
Well, nice try, Funimation. But people will be not-so-nice-people and torrent whatever they like. The internet has plenty of spots to torrent anime from. And that's the sad thing.
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taster of pork



Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Posts: 593
Location: My House
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:34 am Reply with quote
Maybe Funimation should start asking for donations so they can take all 1,336 people to Court. Love to see how the public would react to that. Laughing
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Melanchthon



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
Posts: 550
Location: Northwest from Here
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:07 am Reply with quote
Oh! Who called it? I did! I said way back when this first happened that these joint lawsuit always get thrown out. The judges won't let you sue a thousand random people at once. Man, sometimes I hate being right all the time.

Sorry 'bout that Funimation. You have every right to sue people who violate copyright law. But people have rights too. You just can't just mass sue the internet.

/Must suck to be Doe 1 right now
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person of awesomeness



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 4
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:58 am Reply with quote
Man, I so lucky don't download One Piece, or else i'll be in big trouble, because I see the ISP I use on the list...
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PetrifiedJello



Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 3782
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:17 am Reply with quote
Melanchthon wrote:
Oh! Who called it? I did!

I'm quite sure Techdirt, Ars, EFF, Slashdot, and many other sites called it long before you did.

On topic now:
LOL @ posts in this thread.

Some of you need to be slapped upside the head for even thinking about allowing copyright to be a criminal offense.

Rue the day cops ever bust down my door for allowing a group of anime fans to watch my purchased BD on my 60" TV just because the group consisted of 6 people.

Yeah, that's in copyright. Perhaps you actually read the thing before you make such foolish statements.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2332
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:09 am Reply with quote
I'm kinda glad that I haven't used a P2P program for over a year now. Haven't had a single virus since quitting.

Not that I plan to toss the dvds I made before my hard drive crashed a year ago, of course. That's just silly.
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noobiesnack



Joined: 29 Sep 2009
Posts: 34
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:46 am Reply with quote
on the topic of COICA,

I cannot wait for them to pass it, even though I doubt it will pass. reason being: because the wording of it means sites like Google, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, hell even Amazon could be targeted. I want to see the worlds reaction to all of those sites getting backlogged by the government because of copyright claims. I wonder which crazy geek will suicide bomb a government office first when the Internets get taken away from him.

You might ask why all those sites can be targeted by the the new COICA bill? Simply because all that is required by the bill is for a site to have the possibility to cause piracy and for a company to claim copyrights against that site. No questions asked, the site will get taken down in a matter of 'guilty before proven innocent'.

You may also ask, 'why the hell would anyone suicide bomb over the internet?' Simply because people are crazy. The internet has become a huge place and those websites are some of the top sites. Those sites getting taken down by the government will spring up anger against the government and may cause some crazy geeks who have no lives other than the internet to feel its an attack on their live and will attempt to defend it by any means. (even if it means setting an example by means of explosions)

Now, you might think im crazy, but you cannot deny that people have killed and blown up things over less. You piss off a person with a brain, bad things are bound to happen. At the least, even if that stuff doesnt happen I almost guarantee there is going to be a mass march on the Capitals involving millions of people in protest once people realize just what these laws can accomplish.

As for me, I cant wait to just sit here and watch as things happen. There are plenty of productive things I can do while the internet is in Chaos thanks to the government becoming more controlling, just like dem communist that we spent 4 decades fighting against.

Oh well, im done now...
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:49 am Reply with quote
noobiesnack wrote:
I wonder which crazy geek will suicide bomb a government office first when the Internets get taken away from him.

I hope you are under the influence of powerful drugs, otherwise you have lost it. In the real world geeks do DDoS attacks, infect corporate network with worms, sign petitions, call their representative. Wait, maybe there is a chance, maybe some geek will implant a bomb in your neck and make you walk into a government building, that might do the trick.
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cyberbeing



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:31 pm Reply with quote
ANN's list of ISPs is missing a few entries. The full list had 50 ISPs, ANN's list only has 46?

The missing 4 appear to be:
Alaska Communications Systems Group
Everest Connections, LLC
GCI Communications
SureWest Broadband

Full list below:
Code:
Alaska Communications Systems Group     
ALLTEL Corporation                     
Armstrong Cable Services               
Atlantic Broadband                     
BellSouth.net                           
Bresnan Communications                 
CABLE ONE                               
California Institute of Technology     
CenturyTel Internet Holdings           
Charter Communications                 
Clearwire Corporation                   
Comcast Business Communications         
Comcast Cable                           
Cox Communications                     
EarthLink                               
Embarq Corporation                     
Everest Connections, LLC               
Fairpoint Communications               
FDCservers.net                         
Freewire Broadband LLC                 
Frontier Communications of America     
Gainesville Regional Utilities         
GCI Communications                     
Hawaiian Telcom Services Company       
Insight Communications Company         
Knology                                 
MetroCast Cablevision                   
Midcontinent Communications             
MIKR                                   
Morris Broadband, LLC                   
Northeastern University                 
Ohio State University                   
Optimum Online                         
Qwest Communications                   
RCN Corporation                         
Road Runner                             
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology     
SBC Internet Services                   
SoftLayer Technologies                 
Sprint PCS                             
Suddenlink Communications               
SureWest Broadband                     
TDS TELECOM                             
The Pennsylvania State University       
University of Michigan                 
Verizon Internet Services               
VPLS Inc. d/b/a Krypt Technologies     
Wave Broadband                         
WebNX                                   
WideOpenWest                           
Windstream Communications               
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staroconner



Joined: 17 Feb 2011
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:55 pm Reply with quote
It will be interesting to see how Funi reacts to this. In the ars interview with Stone (the lawyer representing Funi), Stone made it sound like Funi was experimenting with this lawsuit, which suggests they would pursue more suits if it worked. Will Funi consider the publicity from this case as a success?

The bigger question I wish someone (read:ANN) would ask Funi is: Given what happened with the RIAA/MPAA lawsuits why did you think this would stop piracy? More importantly, why do you think this will increase sales? Ending piracy does little good if sales don't increase.
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FanFicGuru



Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:13 pm Reply with quote
$350 filing fee X 1,336 defendants= $467,600 just to bring them all to court.

Yeah...no. Don't think that's going to happen. Unfortunately no company has the money to really go after all of the people who torrent and download this stuff illegally, especially not the anime industry (sadly...)

So what will happen instead is they will try to make an example of this one person as a cautionary tale for the individuals out there who continue to download anime illegally.

The cycle continues.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7978
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:25 pm Reply with quote
Otaku Teahouse wrote:
Kruszer wrote:
Ouch, I'd hate to be the lone 1337 singled out. They probably did financial checks on them and then picked the richest one of the bunch to go after.


I would be willing to bet it's the original uploader, though.


That also seems like a logical choice too.
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ZipZapZopTitania



Joined: 18 Sep 2010
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:46 pm Reply with quote
Oh gawd, Penn State is on that list. Shocked You naughty Nittany Lions. I punish you with my fail alliteration.

I always crack up when I hear that they sued 1337 h4ck325. Extra five points awarded to your house, FUNi, that was win~ Although it was a bit fail dropping 1336 of them, I'm interested to see how it plays out with that poor Kearny guy. (C'mon, guys, you know I'm on the industry's side. By "poor," I just mean he's all awone in da wawsuit...)
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Hiyugi



Joined: 04 Feb 2010
Posts: 59
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:50 pm Reply with quote
Kruszer wrote:
Otaku Teahouse wrote:
Kruszer wrote:
Ouch, I'd hate to be the lone 1337 singled out. They probably did financial checks on them and then picked the richest one of the bunch to go after.


I would be willing to bet it's the original uploader, though.


That also seems like a logical choice too.


He/She had it coming. He/She Knew they were the one uploading all that stuff. I wonder what kind of person that did that like occupation, background, any previous criminal acts and such.

Maybe it might be easier to narrow down those kindof people in the future that are most likely to upload files like that.
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