{"id":9339,"date":"2006-07-25T17:48:59","date_gmt":"2006-07-26T00:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/07\/25\/a-law-suit-too-far.html"},"modified":"2006-07-25T17:48:59","modified_gmt":"2006-07-26T00:48:59","slug":"a_law_suit_too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/25\/a_law_suit_too.html","title":{"rendered":"A law suit too far"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MPAA has been busy filing law suit after law suit on folks they accuse of “pirating” — defined as downloading (illegally uploaded, to be sure) films off the Internet.  Most times they offer to settle for a hefty fee, but one a lot lower than going to court would cost.  Most times those offers are taken, regardless of guilt or innocence<\/em>, because the hapless kid, parent, or grandma doesn’t see much choice.<\/p>\n

Most times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Last November, Shawn Hogan received an unsettling call: A lawyer representing Universal Pictures and the Motion Picture Association of America informed the 30-year-old software developer that they were suing him for downloading Meet the Fockers over BitTorrent. Hogan was baffled. Not only does he deny the accusation, he says he already owned the film on DVD. The attorney said they would settle for $2,500. Hogan declined.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s embroiled in a surprisingly rare situation \u2013 a drawn-out legal fight with the MPAA. The organization and its music cousin, the Recording Industry Association of America, have filed thousands of similar lawsuits between them, but largely because of the legal costs few have been contested and none have gone to trial. This has left several controversies unresolved, including the lawfulness of how the associations get access to ISP records and whether it\u2019s possible to definitively tie a person to an IP address
\nin the age of Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

Hogan, who coded his way to millions as the CEO of Digital Point Solutions, is determined to change this. Though he expects to incur more than $100,000 in legal fees, he thinks it\u2019s a small price to pay to challenge the MPAA\u2019s tactics. \u201cThey\u2019re completely abusing the system,\u201d Hogan says. \u201cI would spend well into the millions on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The problem with being a bully is that, sooner or later, you run into someone who can actually fight back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MPAA has been busy filing law suit after law suit on folks they accuse of “pirating” — defined as downloading (illegally uploaded, to be sure) films off the Internet. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-moguls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6629,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/11\/hulk_smash_inte.html","url_meta":{"origin":9339,"position":0},"title":"HULK SMASH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWYERS!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Aug-04 9:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"A much more detailed look at the competing cases of the [Incredible] HULK [Hogan] suit. So \u2013 how can two Hulks exist? Simple \u2013 if you're talking about the Marvel...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8868,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/01\/at_least_we_don.html","url_meta":{"origin":9339,"position":1},"title":"At least we don’t have to worry about a Kim Possible\/Rainbow Brite cross-over","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Apr-06 1:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Disney evidently owns much or all of the old DIC stable, but is now divesting itself of it. I don't shed much a tear at Disney no longer being associated...","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133671,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/13\/trump-has-a-third-emoluments-ethics-law-suit-filed-against-him.html","url_meta":{"origin":9339,"position":2},"title":"Trump has a third emoluments \/ ethics law suit filed against him","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jun-17 10:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This one is from nearly 200 Democratic congresscritters, arguing that they have been unconstitutionally prevented from ruling whether Trump can accept various economic benefits from foreign governments. Trump's unilateral decision as to what he needs to do to act in an \"ethical\" fashion (retain ownership of everything, but have his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12521,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/03\/it_malpractice.html","url_meta":{"origin":9339,"position":3},"title":"IT Malpractice?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Apr-08 10:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting article here on Waste Management suing SAP based on promises broken. Which is leading some to think that \"IT Malpractice\" suits are just around the corner. Which, honestly, might...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133109,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/20\/a-ballsy-law-suit.html","url_meta":{"origin":9339,"position":4},"title":"A Ballsy Law Suit","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 20-Mar-17 2:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Costco has preemptively asked a federal court to rule whether Titleist's accusations (which they haven't file suit on ... yet) of copyright infringement and false advertising hold any water.The irony here is that, if they are of a reasonable quality, 99.99% of all golfers won't be able to tell the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5557,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/21\/ch_ching_4.html","url_meta":{"origin":9339,"position":5},"title":"Ch-ching","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 21-Feb-04 10:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Got my check from the CD anti-trust law suit. $13.96. I'm tempted to go out and buy a CD with it ......","rel":"","context":"In "Media Moguls"","block_context":{"text":"Media Moguls","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-moguls"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}