{"id":52434,"date":"2020-11-20T09:01:48","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T09:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=52434"},"modified":"2020-11-20T09:01:48","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T09:01:48","slug":"torrent-site-admin-and-uploader-cant-be-sued-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=52434","title":{"rendered":"Torrent Site Admin and Uploader Can\u2019t Be Sued in US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hellboy\"Last year, the makers of the superhero film \u201cHellboy\u201d (HB Productions) filed a lawsuit against torrent site MKVCage<\/a> at a Hawaii federal court.<\/p>\n

The movie company accused the site and its operator of promoting and distributing pirated copies of the movie while demanding an end to the activity.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit had an almost immediate effect as MKVCage became unreachable soon after the case went public. At the same time, the uploader stopped pushing torrents to other sites as well. This meant that part of the plan had succeeded, but HB Productions wanted more. <\/p>\n

Hellboy Demands Piracy Damages<\/h2>\n

The company argued that the torrent site caused irreparable damage and demanded compensation from the alleged brains behind the operation, a Pakistani man named Muhammad Faizan.<\/p>\n

Since Faizan didn\u2019t show up in court, the movie company\u2019s attorney Kerry Culpepper requested a default judgment. First, he demanded $270,000 but after the court raised questions about the calculation, this figure was lowered to $150,000<\/a>. However, the amount wasn\u2019t the only problem. <\/p>\n

The Hawaii federal court also questioned whether the defendant, who didn\u2019t put up a defense, could actually be sued in a US Court. According to Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield, this is not the case. <\/p>\n

Can MKVCage\u2019s Operator be Sued?<\/h2>\n

In a recommendation to the court, issued in September, Mansfield concluded that the filmmakers failed to show that MKVCage\u2019s activities were expressly aimed at the United States. In addition, the defendant\u2019s contacts with the US were insufficient to invoke nationwide jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Hellboy\u2019s attorney objected to this conclusion, listing the many connections between the site and the US. For example, MKVCage used the services of companies such as Namecheap, Twitter and Cloudflare, targeted ads at US visitors, and has a DMCA policy that is rooted in US law.<\/p>\n

This week, US District Court Judge Michael Seabright had the final say in the matter. Based on the arguments presented, he concludes that a US court doesn\u2019t have jurisdiction over the Pakistani defendant.<\/p>\n

US Courts Don\u2019t Have Jurisdiction<\/h2>\n

\u201c[T]he court concludes that Plaintiff failed to demonstrate that Defendant\u2019s activities were expressly aimed at the United States or Hawaii. Thus, Plaintiff failed to show that Defendant\u2019s contacts are sufficient to invoke nationwide jurisdiction,\u201d Judge Seabright writes.<\/p>\n

Hellboy\u2019s lawyer cited several cases where courts ruled that jurisdiction is possible in similar circumstances. However, Judge Seabright notes that those were issued before a recent and more strict<\/a> appeals court ruling. <\/p>\n

In that case (AMA v. Wanat), there were also several connections, including many US visitors. However, there was no evidence that the US was the \u201cfocal point\u201d of the website and the \u201charm suffered.\u201d The same applies in this case. <\/p>\n

For example, the website\u2019s advertisements may have been geo-targeted specifically at the US public, but the same also applies to other regions. The geo-targeting itself is not exclusive to the US. <\/p>\n

The fact that MKVCage used US companies is not sufficient either. Namecheap, Twitter, and other intermediaries have a global presence. People generally don\u2019t choose to use them because they want to target a US audience specifically.<\/p>\n

Uploads Don\u2019t Target US Specifically<\/h2>\n

Even the argument that the defendant uploaded many United States-produced movies onto his websites doesn\u2019t suffice, as American movies are popular all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff attempts to distinguish Wanat by arguing that Defendant, not website users, uploaded United States-produced movies onto his websites. But the global market for United States-produced movies renders Defendant\u2019s posting of content to his websites irrelevant for purposes of establishing express aiming.<\/p>\n

\u201cNor does Plaintiff allege any facts showing that Defendant specifically targeted the United States and\/or Hawaii in choosing to upload files of Hellboy, or that Defendant was physically present in the United States to upload his files.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, MKVCage\u2019s DMCA policy doesn\u2019t prove jurisdiction either. Hellboy\u2019s attorney argued that this showed that the defendant had a \u201cclear intention to protect his safe harbor\u201d rights under United States law. However, Judge Seabright counters this, noting that the site didn\u2019t have a DMCA agent listed, as is required by law.<\/p>\n

Judgment Denied, But Not All is Over Yet<\/h2>\n

Based on the evidence provided, the court can\u2019t conclude that the defendant expressly aimed his infringing activities at the United States or Hawaii. As a result, the request for a default judgment including $150,000 in damages is denied. <\/p>\n

Judge Seabright didn\u2019t end the case completely, however. Because the denial is in part based on new jurisdiction, Hellboy is allowed to file an amended complaint next month. If that doesn\u2019t happen, the case will be dismissed.<\/p>\n

Hellboy\u2019s attorney Kerry Culpepper hasn\u2019t decided yet what the next step will be. Amending the complaint is an option, but the Appeal Court as well, as there\u2019s a related case<\/a> with a similar outcome which he would like to fight as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are considering amending the complaint or requesting leave to immediately appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals jointly with 42 Ventures, LLC since the issues of these two cases are related and open a potential black hole for all intellectual property holders,\u201d Culpepper says.<\/p>\n

MKVCage, meanwhile, remains offline and the similarly-named uploader has abandoned his accounts on other torrent sites as well.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

A copy of the order from Chief US District Court Judge Michael Seabright is available here (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, the makers of the superhero film \u201cHellboy\u201d (HB Productions) filed a lawsuit against torrent site MKVCage at a Hawaii federal court. The movie company accused the site and its operator of promoting and distributing pirated copies of the movie while demanding an end to the activity. The lawsuit had an almost immediate effect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}