Hurt Locker producer sues 5,000 file sharers

As announced last month, Voltage Pictures has sued 5,000 file sharers accused of pirating a movie months in advance of its U.S. launch date, which could have hurt box office numbers.

The lawsuit accuses 5,000 BitTorrent users of copyright infringement, but it's unknown how the unlucky five thousand were chosen by the movie studio.

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Voltage, which isn't a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) copyright group, has chosen to work with the U.S. Copyright Group to sue file sharers.  The film was good enough to rack up six Oscar wins, but made a minuscule $16.4 million while in theaters in the United States.

Each accused pirate can pay $1,500 to avoid going to court, or face up to $150,000 in penalties (plus legal fees) if found guilty in court.  The current list of 5,000 is expected to balloon further in the future, but it's unknown when a new round of lawsuits will be filed.

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Voltage only has the IP addresses of the file sharers, but they are expected to file legal action to unveil the identity of each file sharer.  Most ISPs are unwilling to just hand over the information, but will do so once ordered by the court.

"A defendant's distribution of even one unlawful copy of a motion picture can result in the nearly instantaneous worldwide distribution of that single copy to a limitless number of people," according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Washington D.C.  "The plaintiff now seeks redress for this rampant infringement of their exclusive rights."

News of the lawsuits first surfaced last month, with the producer of the film later calling pirates "stupid" for pirating the movie.  It's likely that thousands more Internet users will be sued in the coming months, as producer Nicolas Chartier is on a warpath to punish the people he deems responsible for preventing the movie from becoming a box office hit.

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