Time Warner Facing Copyright Infringement Charges?

US Copyright Group, in the process of suing of more than 50,000 BitTorrent users, accuses the ISP of “contributory copyright infringement” for protecting the identities of the accused, and therefore giving the appearance that it’s a safe haven for file-sharers.

The US Copyright Group, the DC-based venture combining the efforts of technology companies and a conglomeration of intellectual property law firms, is locked in a biter dispute with Time Warner over the thousands of subpoena requests it’s submitted to the ISP in order to learn the identities of people it accuses of illegal downloading.

This past March the US Copyright Group announced that it was suing more than 50,000 BitTorrent users for illegally distributing one of the following independent films: “Steam Experiment,” “Far Cry,” “Uncross the Stars,” “Gray Man,” or “Call of the Wild 3D.” It classified each as a distributor being that, in its opinion, “every ‘node’ or peer user who has a copy of the infringing copyrighted material on a torrent network must necessarily also be a source of download for that infringing file.”

Too bad the amount distributed can be as little as a few MB in some cases.

A few weeks ago the Academy Award-winning movie “The Hurt Locker” was also added to the mix, the films producers angry that it didn’t enjoy the level of box office success they felt the film deserved. They hope to remedy that by taking as much money from as many file-sharers as possible.

So the US Copyright Group, suspected IP addresses in hand, soon found that Time Warner would not be the willing and passive ISP it had hoped it would be. In addition to limiting discovery to no more than 28 per month, “because that is the outer limit of what the ISP says it can reasonably handle,” it also wants  the US Copyright Group to to pay a separate filing fee ($32.50) for each.

It pointed out in a court filing that prior to contact with the US Copyright Group it received an average of 567 IP lookup requests per month, virtually all coming from law enforcement, and some being “emergency requests in which death or serious physical injury are at issue.” This includes things like suicide, child abduction, and terrorist activity, things of far greater importance than of who downloaded a copy of the horrible movie “Far Cry.”

Time Warner says that Thomas Dunlap, one of the US Copyright Group’s lead attorneys, initially agreed, but later reneged, in one subpoena alone demanding the identities of some 809 IP addresses in 30 days, with subpoenas of 398 and 224 delivered soon thereafter.

In response, Dunlap countered in a court filing that Time Warner had no “outer limit” to what it can “reasonably handle” being that it had over $4.6 billion in revenue during the first quarter of this year alone. He also noted that it pays its employees’ salaries regardless of whether or not they have to respond to his subpoena requests.

He also suggests that by not turning over the names of suspected file-sharers fast enough Time Warner might therefore be complicit in their activity.

“TWC highlights the fact that it is not a party to this case, but it appears that TWC is utilizing that fact to garner public support for its position and possibly in an attempt to gain more subscribers who would value TWC’s efforts to protect the privacy of demonstrated copyright infringers,” he says. “To the extent TWC’s tactics are just that — letting the public know that TWC is a good ISP for copyright infringers because TWC will fight any subpoenas relating to infringers’ activities — TWC exposes itself to a claim for contributory copyright infringement.”

That last line is the real kicker. Dunlap is making the case that by not delivering the names as fast as possible it’s somehow telling subscribers that it’s a safe haven for file-sharers. I don’t think anybody, the accused included, believe that for a minute.

It’s a desperate effort for Dunlap because he has 50,000 people to sue and no time to spare if he wants to get it done in this lifetime. So far he’s delivered at least 1431 IP addresses to Time Warner which means, at a process rate of 28 per month, they all won’t be done for at least 51 months (4+yrs) — and that’s just with Time Warner!

If Dunlap is going to put a “pay up sucker” letter in the hands of all those people he has a lot of work ahead of him. Convincing ISPs that they should drop everything, like the more pressing concerns of law enforcement investigations, is not a suitable plan.

As the Electronic Freedom Foundation noted before, “Copyright should not line the pockets of copyright trolls intent on shaking down individuals for fast settlements a thousand at a time.”

Exactly.

Stay tuned.

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