Movie Companies Sue YTS Users Who Ignored Settlement Demands

[shamu726]

Several movie companies have filed a new lawsuit targeting three users of the popular torrent site YTS. The alleged pirates were identified based on data that was previously provided by the site's operator. The three were initially approached for an out-of-court settlement but, according to the rightsholders, they failed to respond.

 

 

In recent years, YTS.mx has become one of the most-used torrent sites, serving millions of visitors a day.

 

The site can be used without registering an account. However, those who sign up get some extra features, such as an option to bookmark titles. These added benefits can be handy but a few months ago we learned that having an account also comes with risks.

Movie Companies Target YTS site and Users

At the start of the year, a group of movie companies filed lawsuits against alleged YTS users. In doing so, they relied on information that appeared to come directly from the YTS user database, including email addresses.

 

The timing of these lawsuits was interesting. The complaints were filed around the same time the alleged operator of YTS signed a settlement deal with the same movie companies, agreeing to pay a substantial settlement fee.

 

We later learned that, in order to resolve the matter, YTS had shared information from its database with the movie outfits. While it was a one-time handover, there was enough information to go after a long list of users. Today we can report on the latest development in this saga.

Shared User Data Triggers Settlement Demands

As reported earlier, the YTS user data ended up at the makers of films such as “Hellboy” and “Rambo: Last Blood,” and “London has Fallen,” who used it to their advantage. In addition to filing lawsuits, they also approached alleged file-sharers with settlement demands directly.

 

With the threat of potential legal action, several users are likely to pay up. However, not everyone does. A few days ago, a dozen movie companies sued three alleged YTS users who failed to respond to these out-of-court settlement demands.

 

In a complaint filed at a federal court in Colorado, the copyright holders accuse the defendants of sharing pirated copies of titles including Hunter Killer, Rambo V: Last Blood, London Has Fallen, Hellboy, and Mechanic: Resurrection.

 

The legal paperwork identifies the three, who are all Colorado residents, as Stephen Moody, William Nelson, and Ty Tidwell. They all signed up with YTS using email addresses linked to Microsoft, which presumably shared information with the movie companies through a subpoena.

 

“Defendant William Nelson entered the name ‘William Nelson’ and the state ‘Colorado’ when initially registering for his email address ‘[redacted]@hotmail.com’ on September 26, 2000,” the complaint reads, adding that he registered for an account with the YTS website using that same email.

 

The same defendant also used a VPN on several occasions. According to the copyright holders he did so “to conceal his illicit activities,” however, that offered little help.

Sued YTS Users Ignored Settlement Demands

With the IP-addresses, email addresses, and download records from YTS, paired with information gathered from public torrent trackers, the movie companies reached out to the three men with a settlement offer. We believe that this is similar to the letters we reported on in the past, where a settlement of around $1,000 was proposed.

 

The three defendants didn’t respond to the offer, according to the complaint.

 

“Defendant [name] has ignored repeated communications from Plaintiffs’ counsel requesting him to cease and desist his unlawful activity and pay a portion of Plaintiffs’ damages,” it reads.

 

The three defendants are all accused of direct and contributory copyright infringement by sharing the various films. The movie companies request actual or statutory damages as compensation for the losses they suffered.

 

In addition, the three men also allegedly violated the DMCA by distributing content with altered copyright management information. According to the complaint, distributing files with words like “YTS” added to the title could induce others to pirate these films. For this, the movie companies want to be compensated too.

 

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A copy of the full complaint, filed on behalf of Plaintiffs: Fallen Productions, Hunter Killer Productions, Rambo V Productions, LHF Productions, Millennium Funding, HB Productions, Stoic Productions, Voltage Holdings, Gunfighter Productions, SF Film, Definition Delaware, and After Productions, is available here (pdf)

 

 

Source: TorrentFreak

[red666]

So VPN doesnt really do much?

[halvgris]

17 hours ago, red666 said:

So VPN doesnt really do much?

well not if you login and use an account which you registered with your actual name and location.

 

had he used fake emails and tags he would have been safe with a vpn. however this case is extreme, never in my life seen a torrent owner that gave away downloader details.

 

this is why the torrent community cut ties with yts.

 

if you have used real name and non-exposeable anonymous email close the current account and set up a new grand all fake one. use vpn or sedboxes if possible.

[GRiM]

19 hours ago, red666 said:

So VPN doesnt really do much?

 

Yes it does a lot.   One thing it can't do is cure a public tracker users retardation.

 

 

[straycat19]

On 9/24/2020 at 7:07 PM, red666 said:

So VPN doesnt really do much?

 

VPN, Tor, and Bitcoins were all supposed to be untraceable which have proven not to be true.  My daughter is a bank secrecy investigator and all they do is track bitcoin transactions. Tor exit nodes have been compromised making it possible to track the darknet. And very few VPNs truly do not keep records or data on their users, and even those that don't can be forced to save the state of a connection at the current time which would allow the government to backtrack it.  The primary thing to always keep in mind is that if man invented it man can subvert it. The only truly safe individual is one who doesn't have an internet connection.

[mp68terr]

57 minutes ago, straycat19 said:

VPN, Tor, and Bitcoins were all supposed to be untraceable which have proven not to be true...
The only truly safe individual is one who doesn't have an internet connection.

And no credit card, no phone...

[steven36]

6 hours ago, straycat19 said:

And very few VPNs truly do not keep records or data on their users, and even those that don't can be forced to save the state of a connection at the current time which would allow the government to backtrack it.  The primary thing to always keep in mind is that if man invented it man can subvert it. The only truly safe individual is one who doesn't have an internet connection.

I been using a VPN since  2012  and not received one copyright notice .  Some  VPN  have been took to court and been proved to not keep logs  most recently the one TPB uses they couldn't  make them hand over something they didn't have. As far TOR browser  the Government buys exploits  to get peoples info , But it dont do no good the US alone buy $150 billion worth of illegal drugs a year. Sad thing is as soon they bust them the next day they setting up new ones on the dark market.  If the US  want to do something  productive to stop drugs   they should stop protecting the poppy fields  in Afghanistan  for big pharma  and let the Taliban burn them .

https://www.globalresearch.ca/drug-war-american-troops-are-protecting-afghan-opium-u-s-occupation-leads-to-all-time-high-heroin-production/5358053

I’m shocked and dismayed. I was totally unaware that since the war started Afghanistan has become the worlds biggest producer of opium. I’m sure the CIA and the drug companies have no idea that their opium is coming from Afghanistan.

Since the average person is more concerned about how Shakira did at half-time during the Superbowl than they are about world affairs, it is probably true that most Americans who are aware of this are a lot of old diehards like myself and my friends.

https://www.quora.com/Are-the-United-States-Americans-aware-that-their-soldiers-are-protecting-poppy-fields-in-Afghanistan-What-is-your-reaction-to-this-information?share=1

 

 

The CIA  were the one who brought LSD  to the USA  in the 1st place they thought the USSR was going to get it  1st  and use it to brain wash  people . So they bought up  loads of it and gave it to a DEA  agent that worked for the CIA and gave it out and  experimented  on people. That what caused all them hippies in the 60s  to be jumping off buildings and stuff . Then  the CIA  was helping the Contra Rebels sell Cocaine in the 80s .  The Contra Rebels learn how  to make crack and taught Americans  how to make it and that caused the Crack  epidemic. All the drug  dealers that helped Narcos in the USA  were trained by the CIA  they was Cubans  train to kill Castro after that failed they started helping Narcos sell drugs.

 

Did the CIA secretly dose people with LSD

https://www.history.com/news/did-the-cia-secretly-dose-people-with-lsd

 

The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html

 

 

Every Drug   epidemic  since the 60s the Government was  the cause of  it. Its all documented even  . So you need  to take that Pro FBI  Patriot BS somewhere else  because i dont buy into it.   You cant believe  nothing in the news  since 2014 no way you dont know if some Troll factory made it up or if  it real . The whole media has failed us. Both sides right and left the trolls play both sides. 

 

Back in 2016 the Trolls  were making up accounts  posing as reporters  on social  media some got  100s of thousands of followers  then the  press  started  thinking they was legit when  they posted there reports that said this person said this or that, fights broke out and everything  they had the left wingers  fighting  against each other. Come to find out it was  a group of trolls  under  one name in a troll factory that made it all up. The FBI  already warned the public its happening again. Last time they didn't tell people tell it was too late .  They use IPs  from the USA so social  media  cant detect them so your trying to tell me VPNs don't work? .Americans hate the truth  and they never believe  it , but they always believe  a lie  and the Trolls know this . And  the USA  was had by a troll factory  , 2 groups of state hackers  and Wiki Leaks  in 2016,  Is going to happen again this year ? 

https://www.filminquiry.com/agents-of-chaos-2020-review/

 

As far as YTS there day is coming the ACE done ask for there info from Cloudflare . They should hold this lawyer that bought the rights to to YTS trademark responsible for playing both sides of copyright by  him using it as a honeypot  to catch stupid users who use  there real info  to login. 

 

Also  VPNs are not fool proof   the connection  can drop and if you dont use a kill switch they can get your real ip .  And some vpns have tunnels  were you can set   whatever apps you want  to not use VPNs if you  dont have your browser setup to not use the VPN and just your torrent client uses a the vpn   they can get your real ip  if your log in.     But no body know how they got  there Ip ,It was most likely  the User's  error. They never  filed no court order to get no ips  from no VPN  , Google  or anybody else.