CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Funi, taking out their Fractale frustration on torrenters. Source

ANN wrote:The North American anime distributor Funimation filed a copyright infringement complaint against 1,337 "John Does" over the 481st episode of the One Piece television anime on Monday. According to the suit filed in the Northern District of Texas, the unidentified defendants "collectively participated, via the Internet, in the unlawful reproduction and distribution" of the episode "Ace Rescued! Whitebeard's Final Order!" via the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. The suit lists defendants by their host IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and Internet service provider. The alleged incidents of copyright infringement took place between January 9 and January 12.

The lawsuit identifies three of the sites where the defendants allegedly found the BitTorrent reference descriptor files for the One Piece episode. The suit also notes that users in a BitTorrent "swarm," by the inherent nature of the technology, are simultaneously downloading parts of the file and distributing parts of it to others. Funimation believes that the identities of the current 1,337 defendants and "additional infringing parties" will be revealed during the pre-trial discovery phase of the lawsuit, and it will then amend the suit to include their names.

Funimation asks the court to stop the defendants from infringing on Funimation's copyrights for this episode and any other videos now or in the future. If another request in the suit is granted, defendants "shall destroy all copies of Plaintiff's [videos] that Defendant has downloaded onto any computer hard drive or server without Plaintiff's authorization and shall destroy all copies of those downloaded [videos] transferred onto any physical medium or device in each Defendant's possession, custody, or control." Funimation also seeks compensation for damages and legal costs.

ANN is awaiting Funimation's response to a request for comment.

Apparently downloading fansubs (or raws...who knows) is illegal. "We're gonna getcha, Does. We're gonna getcha." Let's set aside moral questions. I know Funi is legally in the right, but the timing just makes it seem like they are looking for a punching bag or at least an easy target in order to curry favor with team Fractale..

No surprise here, though I really wish that companies would learn from the music industry's endeavors that you don't beat piracy through lawsuits. You beat it by making use of the market that is clearly there for you to make money off of.

This won't end piracy, of course, but it does hold the potential to make you lots and lots of money without angering your consumer base.

1. I can't believe Funimation would happen to sue exactly 1337 people and it baffles when I try to guess at what they were thinking.
2. There is a hilarious irony in suing pirates who were pirating an anime about pirates.

More seriously, this seems like a huge misstep. We've already seen what happens when entertainment conglomerates take legal action against individuals. Just read about the last decade of RIAA/MPAA legal action.

Here is what will happen. In one case, this thing has no teeth and nothing comes of it. Subpoenas will be fought and courts will once again rule that IP addresses are, in fact, not people.

In the other case, something does come of it. People will get caught. The aforementioned fact that IP address are not people will mean that completely innocent people will also get subpoenaed and chances are good that it'll be a two-year old or an 80 year-old grandmother or a cat and Funimation will suffer even more humiliation. Again, I note that these are all things that have already happened in RIAA cases.

Finally, someone will obviously get caught. Will they go to trial? A favourite tactic of the RIAA has been to pressure people into paying hefty settlements, since they know people can't afford protracted legal battles. Will Funimation do the same? It should be noted that it's this tactic that turned public opinion heavily against the RIAA and galvanized the RIAA's opponents.

And then there's the case where someone has the will to fight the court battle, in which case Funimation is not guaranteed a win. Copyright law is a very tricky thing and so far, very few of the RIAA suits have made it this far. Those are still in contention, and this will likely face the same situation. It's a huge gamble for Funimation and it's obvious that they're hoping the people they've sued will just fold.

History shows that the only outcome of this is increased opposition and a turning of public opinion against Funimation. The difference is that the RIAA has much, much more money and is in a far better financial situation than Funimation is.

Curious: what exactly are the "damages" Funimation has claim to? As far as I know, I can't buy a DVD of One Piece episode 481, so where are the damages? Where are their losses? You can't say "Theoretically one day in the future we might sell this episode so we're losing money IN THE FUTURE" because legal claims do not work that way.

Also, why 1337? Why that number? That's just weird.

EDIT: And another thing. Why go after the people on the torrent? Why not go after the subbers? It seems to me it'd be way easier for the legal department and whatnot to go for the people subbing it in the first place rather than the downloaders. But then, I have a feeling that perhaps some of the subbers aren't based in the US, and so Funi can't go after them, so this is their next best option.

Also, let it be known. If you torrent anime by stealing someone else's wi-fi signal, THEY get in trouble and you're completely untouchable! That's why suing people by IP address IS COMPLETELY STUPID IS YOUR COMPANY RUN BY MORONS FUNIMATION? I mean did they never hear of the RIAA lawsuits or what? Have they been living under rocks for the past ten years?

It might be a huge trolling effort. I mean, the whole 1337 thing and the whole suing people for pirating an anime about pirates reeks of lulz to me.

Furthermore, subpoenaing IP addresses relies on ISPs to cooperate with divulging the information behind the IP addresses, which ISPs are not legally required to do, nor is it in their best interests as a common carrier to do so. In fact, there have been cases where ISPs have filed to have the subpoenas quashed because of this.

*Obligitory post questioning the veracity of ANN and whether their article is based in fact.*

1337 is leet. This seems to be a troll joke on ANN unless someone can produce documentation.

There's a case filing, but you need to pay to get access to the specific documents.

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txndce/3:2011cv00147/202741/

Nate (post: 1454428) wrote:Curious: what exactly are the "damages" Funimation has claim to?

Ad revenue from the sponsors of the simulcast.

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]It seems as though One Piece has suffered from bad luck from the moment it's touched down here in the US.[/color][/SIZE][/font]

I'm reading more about this. Some comments:

"The MPAA prompted the courts to decide that they have to take the trial to the state in which the person committed the illegal downloading, which is one of the reasons the copyright suits slowed down. I don't think Funi's going to get away with demanding all these people come to them." (Funimation filed this lawsuit in the Texas courts, meaning that it might only affect people in Texas and everyone else will get thrown out and Funimation will have to file separate lawsuits for other states, which gets expensive.)

">All the downloads occurred on 1/9 or later
>My face when I downloaded that torrent on 1/8."

"Q: How was copper wiring created?
A: Two Funimation Execs fighting for a penny."

Apparently also, the suit is for the total of 150,000 dollars, which roughly breaks down to about 112 dollars a person would have to pay if they were found guilty. If the suit held for all 1337 people, which as stated, probably won't happen because of the whole only suing in Texas thing.

Also, DDLs aren't even on there, as tracing downloaders through Megaupload and Mediafire is a bit more involved. So the lesson here is if you're downloading a licensed series, use direct download, not torrents. And the funny thing is, most people who are scared by this ARE going to start using direct downloads. And that's not even counting the people who torrent and use an IP masking program of some sort.

Yeah. I really don't see this going anywhere. Just scare tactics, they may frighten away a few people who are new to computers and paranoid, but most people are just going to go "Pssh whatever" and life goes on. It's really a pointless gesture, and can only serve to turn fans against them. But, hey, their right I suppose.

EDIT:

Ad revenue from the sponsors of the simulcast.

Unless I'm mistaken, the ads don't work on a "you get paid this much if someone views an ad" thing. I was pretty sure it was like TV advertising, where a company says "We'll pay you money to run our ads during your shows," so the payment is not contingent on a hit counter or number of views. If this is the case, then ad revenue cannot be claimed as damages, because they already got their money for this.

If I'm wrong and the ads on the simulcast DO work on a "per view" basis, then okay, that's legitimate. Otherwise, nope.

mechana2015 (post: 1454443) wrote:*Obligitory post questioning the veracity of ANN and whether their article is based in fact.*

1337 is leet. This seems to be a troll joke on ANN unless someone can produce documentation.

xD this is what I was thnking actually...huh, how ironic?

As far as I understand, intellectual property suits in general (not just copyright, but trademark and patent cases too) are filed in Texas because it's the court most likely to rule in favour of the plantiff (see Visto v. Research in Motion or i4i v. Microsoft).

Funimation is based in Ft. Worth, Texas.

I'm really glad now I don't use torrents or download anime. 0.o

Side note: 1337 was the number of a Spartan in Halo: Legends.

Curious: what exactly are the "damages" Funimation has claim to? As far as I know, I can't buy a DVD of One Piece episode 481, so where are the damages? Where are their losses? You can't say "Theoretically one day in the future we might sell this episode so we're losing money IN THE FUTURE" because legal claims do not work that way.

Isn't One Piece being Simulcast on-line now? If thats the case, then I think I can see where they're coming from; they would want people to watch the episode on their official website, (where its Free mind you!) instead of downloading it through a torrent.

Downloading an anime that isn't licenced or is out of print in your region is one thing, legality issues aside. But it is kind of dumb that people are still downloading an illegal torrent of a show that they could already watch for free legally to begin with.

[quote="Rocketshipper (post: 1454542)"]Isn't One Piece being Simulcast on-line now? If thats the case, then I think I can see where they're coming from]
One Piece is only licensed for streaming in America. There are (many) countries in the world that speak English that are not America as well as large segments of populations in non-English speaking territories that do speak English.

It cracks me up that they are suing 1337 people. Are they trying to draw nerd-fire and DDoS attacks from angry torrent fans? I mean, suing people to prove that you are "leet" is about as deliberate of a hacker insult as is possible.

One Piece is only licensed for streaming in America. There are (many) countries in the world that speak English that are not America as well as large segments of populations in non-English speaking territories that do speak English.

yeah thats true. But aren't the people being sued in this situation Americans? They wouldn't have that excuse.

Rocketshipper (post: 1454548) wrote:yeah thats true. But aren't the people being sued in this situation Americans? They wouldn't have that excuse.

No, what's being subpoenaed are a list of IP addresses, which, as I've mentioned before, is not the same as a list of names. It is entirely possible that the individual corresponding to an IP address is not located in America, whether it's because the IP block doesn't actually geographically correspond correctly or if they're using a proxy through an IP address that somehow corresponds geographically to some American location for whatever reason.

Since I feel like all Funimation did was probably fire up a torrent program, download the torrent, and then look at the peer list and write down some IP addresses, I know at least uTorrent has a nifty feature where the IP address has a flag of its country beside it. In that case, I would hope that they at least only wrote down the ones with a US flag beside it. But I'm too lazy to download the leaked list of IP addresses from the lawsuit and track them all to see if they really are all from the US, so I have no clue if they are or not.

All I have to say is:

Sigh. Really?

IF you are torrenting One Piece, you deserve to get sued for watching such a bad anime.

Happyfeet (post: 1455161) wrote:IF you are torrenting One Piece, you deserve to get sued for watching such a bad anime.

Happyfeet wrote:IF you are torrenting One Piece, you deserve to get sued for watching such a bad anime.

...says the person with an Inuyasha avatar.

you think One Piece is a decent anime?

You think Inuyasha is a decent...anything?

Let's not bring this thread down to that level, shall we? XD Return to the topic, please. XD

Hahaha, you two

This thread was on another site and yeah, it does seem pretty funny.. Funi suing 1337 pirates for torrenting an anime about pirates, eh xD;?