'Hurt Locker' makers file new suit against downloaders
Months after wrapping up a copyright case against nearly 25,000 people who allegedly downloaded the Oscar-winning movie, Voltage Pictures files a new lawsuit against thousands of others.
After filing a lawsuit against 24,583 individuals who allegedly downloaded the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," movie studio Voltage Pictures is at it again. This time, in a new lawsuit, they've added about 2,500 other alleged BitTorrent users to its list, according to TorrentFreak.
Voltage Pictures, which filed the suit in Florida last week, says that all of those people downloaded "The Hurt Locker" illegally; as a result, it has lost millions of dollars in revenue. One of the studio's goals in this lawsuit is to get a subpoena to reveal the alleged movie sharers' identities via their ISP addresses, according to TorrentFreak.
An interesting coincidence in this case, TorrentFreak points out, is that all of the defendants supposedly downloaded "The Hurt Locker" in 2010 and they all share the same Internet provider -- Charter Communications.
Almost two years ago, Voltage Pictures filed its first lawsuit against alleged "Hurt Locker" sharers. After being drawn out for almost two years -- with ups and downs about whether it's legal to sue thousands of people and whether to reveal the identities of the alleged downloaders -- the case finally ended last December.
An undisclosed number of settlements were reached in this mega-case, but it's not known if it was financially worth it for the studio, according to TorrentFreak.
Although Voltage Pictures is leading the charge in targeting BitTorrent users, several other companies have gone after alleged online game, movie, and book sharers. According to TorrentFreak, more than 250,000 people have been sued in the U.S. for illegal downloading via BitTorrents.