Warner Bros. Studio Tells Pirates to pay $20 per Infringed Title or $150,000 per Infringement in Civil Penalties.

In recent years, Warner Bros. has become one of the most aggressive Hollywood studios on the piracy front. Now, the company is experimenting with a new test program.

The studio is targeting certain Internet service provider customers who have been identified as trading copyrighted works without authority and giving them each an opportunity to settle a potential copyright infringement claim for $20 per title infringed.

At the moment, the individuals being given these settlement offers have service with ISPs not participating in a "Copyright Alert System" that has been dubbed the "Six Strike Policy," thanks to its graduated system of alerts. Customers who use Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner get warnings and some even have their bandwidth throttled when identified as being a possible copyright pirate.

But now those who use Charter, CenturyLink, Cox and other alternative ISPs not participating in the Copyright Alert System are facing scrutiny.

Warners' involvement in the $20 settlement offer was first detailed by TorrentFreak. A rep for the studio confirms to THR the accuracy of the report.

A Los Angeles-based firm called Digital Rights Corp. is responsible for finding the alleged pirates. According to a 2011 PaidContent story, Rights Corp. acts as an agent for copyright holders and monitors peer-to-peer file sharing sites like BitTorrent, collecting IP addresses and instructing ISPs to send settlement offers to subscribers.

According to a notice seen by TorrentFreak, an accused pirate will get this advisement:
                          “Your ISP has forwarded you this notice. This is not spam. Your ISP account has been used to download, upload or offer for upload copyrighted content in a manner that infringes on the rights of the copyright owner. Your ISP service could be suspended if this matter is not resolved. You could be liable for up to $150,000 per infringement in civil penalties.

Then, comes the carrot:
                    “If you click on the link below and login to the Rightscorp, Inc. automated settlement system, for $20 per infringement, you will receive a legal release from the copyright owner."

Rights Corp. is also reportedly working with other companies such as BMG Rights Management, which administers rights for artists such as David Bowie, Kings of Leon and Will.i.am.

The TorrentFreak article notes that because ISPs are handling the notice, Warner Bros. and Rights Corp. don't know the identity of the accused pirate, and as a result, might have trouble following up with a lawsuit for those who ignore settlement demands. Of course, it's important to note copyright holders can pursue identification via subpoenas, something that many independent film and adult film companies have attempted to exploit in recent years.

Read More... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-bros-ramps-up-war-564799

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Enemies Arrested, Piracy Gang Busted in Bollywood

The crime branch has busted a piracy gang and arrested two persons for their alleged involvement in pirating Hollywood and Bollywood movies. They have been booked on counts of Copyrights Act, Cinematography Act at the Bhanwarkuan police station.

The group was operated by these two Indore school drop outs who were costing the Bollywood industry loss to the tune of crores of rupees.

The police have identified the arrested duo as Tinu and Rupesh. They were arrested on Monday after crime branch sleuths acted on some specific tip off.

They revealed the modus operandi as capturing the full-length video of fresh releases on first-day first-show basis from Indore cineplexes, namely Velocity and Satyam Cineplex, and then selling the same on Internet to potential buyers across the world. According to crime branch sleuths, the duo used hi-tech mobile HD camera having a USB extension for recording the fresh releases.

For this, they would charge an amount ranging between Rs 25, 000 to Rs 3,00,000 depending upon the video quality.

"On April 26, DIG (Indore) Rakesh Gupta was contacted by legal officer of motion pictures association (Mumbai) Satya Banerjee, who reported that new Hollywood and Bollywood releases were being shot in movie theatres in Indore and subsequently being served to the pirated movie markets," SP (Indore police HQ) Rudolf Alvares informed on Monday. "Subsequently, the crime branch headed by the two ASPs Manoj Rai and Jitendra Singh was pressed into action to crack the case. Acting on specific tip off, the duo running the shoot and selling pirated movie racket, were arrested on Monday," Alvares added.

According to police, they had recorded Iron Man-3.

Read More... http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MP-IND-bollywood---s-biggest-enemies-arrested-from-indore-piracy-gang-busted-4250905-NOR.html