Guilty until proven innocent is the modus operandi of the copyright lawsuit industry, and after "catching" a 70-year old grandma downloading porn last month, this month's target is the visually impaired.
Imperial Enterprises v. Does is the case, and he is Doe number 2057. He has been accused of downloading the porn video "Tokyo Cougar Creampies" (please, do not look it up on Google), the only problem is that he has no interest in porn videos, or any videos for that matter, as he is legally blind.
"To be honest, it’s a little ridiculous. My movie-watching ability is nonexistent. My kids watch movies, but they are 4 and 6, so they don’t watch porn either. Well, hopefully they don’t," the Doe 2057 revealed to the Village Voice Media.
He is one of many that have been "caught", asked to pay a settlement fee in the thousands, or face the risk of going to court and losing more. And, in Doe 2057's case, it was probably an unsecured router that allowed his neighbours in what he referred to as a "very upscale building" to steal his connection and download the Japanese porn. An act that Doe 2057 admits was a mistake - his wife had purchased and set up the router, which was easy to install, but not as easy to secure.
But will Doe 2057 fight it in the courts, a battle he is sure to win? Unfortunately, no. "The sad part about this entire porn thing is it will cost more to go to a judge ... At the end of the day, I’ll probably settle and pay the fee to make this go away."
And that, ladies and gentleman, is why copyright "sue-for-settlement" lawsuits are so successful.
Do you think there ought to be some kind of regulation or sanction against law firms practicing these kinds of "sue-for-settlement" operations? Post your opinion in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/f145/first-grandma-now-its-blind-accused-downloading-porn-videos-95126.html
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