A federal class action lawsuit claims porn studios are extorting BitTorrent and other file sharing service users by demanding they pay $1,000 to $5,000 for downloading copyrighted pornography without their permission – even though the users didn’t – because they know the victims will be too embarrassed or shamed to defend themselves in court. The class action lawsuit accuses the porn producers of racketeering, fraud and defamation.

Here’s how the alleged racketeering scheme goes down: porn producers sue IP addresses detected to have allegedly and unlawfully downloaded copyrighted porn without permission. Judges will then order Internet service providers to reveal the identities of the account holders of the ISP. This allows the porn producers to shake down the IP address owners without any proof they actually downloaded copyrighted pornography, the class action lawsuit says.

 

According to the class action lawsuit:

“Once they obtain contact information, the pornography purveyors begin to shakedown these individuals by telephone. The tactics of the pornography purveyors clearly indicate that they are not convinced that the individuals they accuse of downloading pornography from the Internet have actually done so. This is true because they often shake the individuals down for $1,000-$5,000. The pornography purveyors know that this amount of money is less than the cost of defense would be if suit were filed. They also know that individuals such as the Plaintiff in this matter are embarrassed to have their names associated with pornography, and therefore, are susceptible to being shaken down. In fact, if the individuals could be proven to have downloaded the pornography unlawfully from the Internet, the pornography purveyors could collect civil statutory damages of $150,000 for a willful infringement such as they allege, yet they settle for $1,000-$5,000.”

 

The class action lawsuit continues: “In effect, the pornography purveyors have developed a new business model using the court system to extort money from individuals who are merely identified by IP address and with no proof whatsoever that they downloaded copyrighted materials from the Internet. By extorting settlements of $1,000-$5,000 the pornography purveyors have developed a model whereby they can unlawfully gain more money than they can by selling access to their pornographic videos.”

The class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of all U.S. individuals who have been subjected to the unlawful extortion attempts of the Defendants from July 1, 2007 to the present. It is seeking damages, interest and more for RICO violations, fraud, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unjust enrichment, and more.

A copy of the Porn Studio BitTorrent Shakedown Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Jennifer Barker v. Patrick Collins, Inc., et al., Case No. 12-cv-372-CRS, U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky, Louisville Division.

 

 

Updated July 24th, 2012

 

All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions