Australian's version of mass copyright lawsuit may be over before it even starts, as Movie Rights Group's website is taken down, and VP leaves the company
After making a big splash back in October, Movie Rights Group (MRG), who threatened to sue tens of thousands of Australians for illegally downloading the movie 'Kill the Irishman', has stayed relatively quiet, even as ISPs signaled their intention to fight MRG's actions.
However, there may be reasons behind MRG's silence, as their website has apparently been taken down, and their vice president of sales and marketing has just left the company for reasons unknown.
Back in October, MRG promised to pursue up to 9,000 Australians for illegally downloading the film 'Kill the Irishman', or at the very least, ask them to pay up a settlement fee in the thousands of dollars in order to make the matter go away. MRG promised to force ISPs to match IP addresses and divulge customer data so MRG can proceed with the case.
But MRG's operations, dubbed "copyright trolling" by the wider Internet community, has been strangely silent since then, as some ISPs stated they will cooperate, while other ISPs such as Exetel saying they will resist MRG, and even making changes to their "core business systems" to make things more difficult for firms like MRG.
But this week, Gordon Walker, MRG's apparently former VP of sales and marketing, has been the firm's unofficial spokesperson throughout the recent media, has updated his LinkedIn profile to state he no longer works for the company, and coinciding with the removal of all content on the official company website, some are wondering if MRG have given up their operation.