QUOTE said:Director Uwe Boll is "on a mission" to recoup the money he believes he's lost as a result of illegal file sharing of his film Far Cry. Could you be next?
Through a law firm called Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, Boll has filed a federal lawsuit against 4,577 "John Does" in a DC court -- all of whom were accused of sharing Far Cry, the helmer's adaptation of the videogame of the same name.
According to Ars Technica, this seems to be an "entrepreneurial model for P2P copyright lawsuits [where] the goal appears to be monetizing infringement, and the cases are brought by a law firm that is actively recruiting clients." The firm also has repped indie filmmakers such as those behind Call of the Wild and The Hurt Locker.
Take the case of an anonymous woman (dubbed "Sabine" in the article). Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver recently sent her a letter saying that she had been ID'd as someone who had swapped Far Cry on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks back in March. She was told that she could pay $1,500 by early June and they'd call it even -- or $2,500 if she went past the cut-off date. If she didn't pay at all, the firm could take her to court where she might wind up owing as much as $150,000.
"No one in my household has ever heard of Far Cry," she says.
Sabine's situation hasn't been resolved yet, and as Ars Technica points out, it's unclear how many of the people in her situation will actually be taken to court since it seems as though this is more about trying to make a buck off of these folks than actually litigating… though Uwe does like a good fight, eh?
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/109/1093549p1.html
I'd really doubt that any one of those 4,577 people would have paid money for this film, the only reason they'd grab it would to see how bad it was. That is all.