Hurt Locker producer will sue thousands of downloaders: furious about comments

A producer of the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, plans to sue 20.000 downloaders with the help of the aforementioned U.S. Copyright Group. A critic disagreeing with this action, announces to boycot the producer and gets a fiery responce.??

The producers are particularly crossed about the disappointing grosses of the film: 16.4 million U.S. dollars in the U.S. and 40 million dollars worldwide. The film was already available on BitTorrent six months before the release of the movie in the U.S. movie theaters. Many potential moviegoers will have downloaded the film for free, instead of paying for a movie ticket. ??

These grosses make The Hurt Locker the lowest-grossing movie ever to win an Oscar for Best Picture. It reportedly cost 15 million U.S. dollars to make the film. This means a profit of 1.4 million dollar, of which a section is usually already reserved for investors. Seeing these figures, makes the rage of the producers al lot more understandable. ??

In reaction to these reports about this on the blog BoingBoing, someone commentated that he had no appreciation for this type of action and will therefor boycott the films of the production company and producer. The critic did understand the need to defend the companies intellectual property rights, but found it inhumane to sue individual downloaders. ??

The producer of The Hurt Locker gave the critic a rather emotional reply:

"Hi Nicholas, please feel free to leave your house open every time you go out and please tell your family to do so, please invite people in the streets to come in and take things from you, not to make money out of it by reselling it but just to use it for themselves and help themselves. If you think it's normal they take my work for free, I'm sure you will give away all your furniture and possessions and your family will do the same. I can also send you my bank account information since apparently you work for free and your family too so since you have so much money you should give it away... I actually like to pay my employees, my family, my bank for their work and like to get paid for my work. I'm glad you're a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference. Until then, keep being stupid, you're doing that very well. And please do not download, rent, or pay for my movies, I actually like smart and more important HONEST people to watch my films”.

Although it is seems wise to wait until your emotions are a bit more composed before writing a response, the producer of The Hurt Locker also has a point: when you steal a set of DVDs from a shop and get caught, you take the risk of being summoned to appear in court and/or getting a fine for your unlawful actions. Is it then "inhumane" to sue someone who has illegally downloaded movies?

The answer to that question party depends on the severity of the damages sought. Also putting weight into the equation is the fact that America has a system of statutory damages. In a 2009 lawsuit by Virgin Records Jammie Thomas Rasset was sentenced to pay a monstrous penalty of $ 1.92 million in statutory damages for downloading 24 individual songs ($ 80,000 per song). The statutory damages for copyright infringement actually allowed for range of $ 750 to $ 150,000 per infringement.??

Perhaps it is not so much the summoning of downloaders where these and other critics have a problem with, but how high the statutory damages are claimed.??

A few days after the last lawsuit Thomas Rasset received a settlement offer of $ 25,000. She refused.

19 May 2010