Filmmakers Awarded Millions in Copyright Lawsuit Win over LiquidVPN
A Florida Federal Judge has issued a default judgment for Filmmakers who filed a lawsuit against popular VPN Company LiquidVPN.
We want to know your thoughts in the comments below. What do you think of this lawsuit against LiquidVPN?
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As reported by TorrentFreak, the lawsuit alleged various copyright infringement actions including the “encouragement” of Popcorn Time.
Popcorn Time is a Streaming App that has garnered attention in the past for hosting content illegally and providing it to the public.
The lawsuit claims the VPN Provider, directly and indirectly, infringes on their copyright by promoting this service:
The LiquidVPN Defendants describe their VPN service as a tool to ‘Watch Popcorn Time without being detected by your ISP and P2P tracking software’ and promote it as a tool that can be used to pirate copyright protected content ‘without the risk of getting caught by your ISP or anyone else
Some of the infringed movies include popular titles such as Hellboy, Dallas Buyer’s Club, Angel Has Fallen, and Hunter Killer.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a VPN Company under legal pressure from Movie Companies.
Most recently, VPN.ht was also accused of promoting the Popcorn Time application and ultimately ordered to block torrent sites.
What’s most notable, however, is that VPN.ht was ordered to log and store IP Addresses of customers connecting to a server in the US.
VPN.ht Reaches Agreement to Block Torrent Sites & Log User Data
LiquidVPN Court Order
Similar to VPN.ht, LiquidVPN also received a court order, this time in the form of a default judgment.
After the company failed to respond to the lawsuit, the prosecution asked the court to execute a default judgment on the case.
This was initially denied, however, Florida Judge Beth Bloom has since granted the default judgment for many of the demands requested.
This includes the maximum statutory damages amount of $150,000 per title which totals nearly $10 million.
LiquidVPN must also fork over nearly $5 million for violating the DMCA by altering copyright management information.
Judge Bloom stated in her permanent injunction:
LiquidVPN Defendants have no safe harbor from liability because they fail to implement a policy for terminating repeat infringers and have not registered a DMCA agent with the Copyright office
You can read the entire default judgment below:
LiquidVPN Final Judgment & Permanent Injunction
In addition, the court granted the Hawaiian Law Firm 42 Ventures $250,000 in damages for trademark infringement.
42 Ventures owns the trademark for the Popcorn Time logo and successfully accused LiquidVPN of using the logo without consent.
What do you think of the court granting a default judgment against LiquidVPN?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
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