Grandfather gets busted, grandson gets the ax

[Jorge]

A 67-year-old man who says he doesn't even like watching movies has been sued by the film industry for copyright infringement after a grandson of his downloaded four movies on their home computer. The Motion Picture Association of America filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Fred Lawrence of Racine, seeking as much as $600,000 in damages for downloading four movies over the Internet file-sharing service iMesh. The suit was filed after Lawrence refused a March offer to settle the matter by paying $4,000. "First of all, like I say, I guess I'd have to plead being naive about the whole thing," he said. "I personally didn't do it, and I wouldn't do it. But I don't think it was anything but an innocent mistake my grandson made." Lawrence said his grandson, who was then 12, downloaded "The Incredibles," "I, Robot," "The Grudge," and "The Forgotten" in December, without knowing it was illegal to do so. The Racine man said his grandson downloaded the movies out of curiosity, and deleted the computer files immediately. The family already owned three of the four titles on DVD, he said.

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[shawners]

welcome to corporate america.

[black_magiic]

if they own 3 then isnt it technically only 1 case of infringement?

[ratbag]

yeah this shit has to be stopped

[Signa]

$600,000?

where do they get that kind of figures for the lawsuit?

they may as well demand one hundred bajillion dollars. it makes just about as much sence and will end up being the same in the MPAA's pocket.

[Pathtek24]

Yeah, where do they justiy $600,000 for a possible 6 hours of total movies time...Thats the damn best hourly wage i've ever seen.

[kokanezub]

id run away to lebonon with a 1.000 $ ticket and 500.000$ b4 i give it to them and go to jail. FUCK YOU Corporate america!!!

[jakeism]

They need to find a better way for going about this all..

[mdvx]

$600,000? probably did not cost much more to make all four of those movies

[gaining]

They sue you, find out what the movies where and go buy them! Let them sue....fairuse anyone.

[Class316]

He's got balls to fight this. Most settle will be interesting to see who wins here.

[mountain_rage]

Its not fair use under current law because he didnt rip his own copies. Fairuse also doesnt allow him to upload the movies the millions of other people. The 600 000$ figure probably is just from their ability legally to claim 250 000$ per pirated movie. This is apparent if you read the warning at the begining of the movies.

Regardless of this fact the mpaa has just become bigger assholes then the riaa. The riaa fucked up your life but didnt make you go bankrupt the mpaa is going to ruin this guys life if they win.