Copyright infringement: pay ten dollars or go to court

The Los Angeles company Digital Rights Corporation (DRC) claims to monitor peer to peer sites like BitTorrent and to take note of the IP addresses of anyone who downloads copyright protected music files. DRC then sends an email to the downloaders via their ISP’s that they can be held liable for copyright infringement, unless they pay ten dollars to compensate their copyright infringement. Downloaders who refuse to pay the compensation could be sued and their internet connection shut down.

According to DRC, the company’s mission is not to commercialize copyright infringement, but rather to raise awareness of the consequences of illegal downloading. With this approach, the company claims that the downloading of infringing music files has already decreased from 20,000 to 4,000 units in one month’s time.

It is not the first time that such a buy off system is used to battle illegal file sharing. Last year, American film producers tried to obtain compensation from a large group of people who downloaded their movies via BitTorrent without their consent. A big difference with the method from DRC is that the settlement offered by the film producers was significantly higher than the ten dollars offered by DRC.  

Last year, civil rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) showed concern about the fairness, the right to a fair trial and individual justice due to the massive amount of individual copyright lawsuits against internet users. It is interesting to see whether EFF will also raise questions about the comparative situation with the DRC settlements.

It’s unclear if DRC has received many settlements. However, the company hasn’t sued any individual yet. The company did sue two ISPs for refusing to forward the company’s email to downloaders of infringing files.

References: Webwereld, Techdirt, Paidcontent.org

By: Karen Groen