The battle is won for those accused of pirating the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," but the war is far from over.
News is breaking that the United States Copyright Group, a gathering of attorneys with a bumpy history working towards identifying and prosecuting alleged pirates, has effectively dropped its cases against defendants accused of illegally downloading and sharing "The Hurt Locker."
According to a legal motion filed by plaintiff Maverick Entertainment Group et al and procured by TorrentFreak, the numerous plaintiffs seeking judgment against thousands of John Does for pirating "The Hurt Locker" and other films have decided to cease legal action - though not without a caveat.
"Plaintiff is not conceding that the court does not have jurisdiction over the IP addresses it seeks to dismiss, only that plaintiff does not wish to pursue any of those IP addresses as named defendants in this Court at this time," reads the notice.
Basically, the studios retain the right to pursue future prosecution on a person-by-person basis if they so choose.
Making waves last summer when it went to bat for "The Hurt Locker" producers, the USCG followed up with the questionable practice of offering unnamed defendants settlement offers, which are very similar to the amnesty fines that have drawn recent criticism.
Ironically, the firm faced some copyright infringement accusations of its own and was also the target of a class-action lawsuit brought by the over 4,000 people it was prosecuting.
Later in the year, the group hit road bumps in another case it was pursuing against people charged with pirating the movie, "Far Cry." There, the USCG was essentially told by a judge to "sh*t or get off the pot" according to one colorful lawyer thanks to its repeated calls for extensions.
Just last month, the group started re-filing cases against defendants in both "The Hurt Locker" and "Far Cry" piracy cases.
It's doubtful this is the last we'll hear from the USCG. (Via TorrentFreak)
