Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Shawn Hogan Motion to Dismiss, Based on Defective Copyright Registration, Now Fully Briefed

You may recall that in Universal Hogan, an MPAA case, the defendant moved to dismiss on the ground that the plaintiff didn't actually own the copyright, since it had sold the rights to the movie two months before filing its copyright registration:

Motion to dismiss complaint*
Declaration of Seyamack Kouretchian in Support of Motion to dismiss complaint*

The MPAA has put in its opposition papers, and Mr. Hogan has filed his reply papers, making the motion ripe now for a decision or oral argument:

Opposition Memorandum*
Opposition Declaration of Thorland*
Opposition Declaration of Villalobos*
Reply Memorandum*

* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation

Keywords: digital copyright online download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs

7 comments:

BasicTek said...

I see reading the court papers that shawn is being accussed of being a member of "elite torrents" the big private site busted in spring of 2005. This is valuable info I was looking for. So in most, possibly all MPAA cases, people (defendants) being sued were members of elite torrents, a private bittorrent community that maintained detailed log files and forced users to share for excessive amounts of time. The MPAA also stated they were able to download the movie from the defendant's IP. What's missing is did they download every piece of the movie from the defendant? or just some of it (the rest from other IP's). Either way this is good to know.

They also fail to mention if Shawn was a seeder or leecher? If the elite torrent logs are evidence being used to prove he downloaded the movie or just the fact that they downloaded it from him like the RIAA does with Kazaa files.

I knew this case would be important...

raybeckerman said...

Thanks for your insight, basic.

BasicTek said...

No problem Ray. I've broken it down further on slyck.

http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=369270#369270

raybeckerman said...

Dear Basic,

I'm not very happy with the level of 'dialogue' at Slyck, where 1 or 2 users -- including the one with whom you are presently in dialogue on the Hogan case -- are continually permitted to 'flame' me with false statements, completely irrelevant to whatever subject is at hand. I would visit the site more often if it were an open forum rather than a place where unsubstantiated personal bullying is freely permitted. Slyck has rules against such conduct but doesn't enforce them.

On a site like Slashdot comments like the ones I'm referring to would have been moderated down as 'trolls', 'flamebait', and 'offtopic', to a point that no one would be reading their stuff anyway.

In any event, the present thread to which you refer so far hasn't included any ad hominem attacks on me... yet. So let's hope it stays focused on the facts.

None of my above venting is about you personally, as your comments have always been on topic.

Best regards,

Ray

Anonymous said...

I'd like to pose a question here on typical proceedings. If the FBI raided the server in may of 2005, would the MPAA even have the access to that evidence if it is going to be used to file criminal charges. If not, how does the MPAA have anything from those servers unless they had them first.

Is he being sued on the evidence from the ET server logs, or by the evidence Media Sentry has? Is it normal for a private corporation to have server logs confiscated in a FBI raid? If that is the case anyways. The MPAA is known for paying hackers, even against large bittorrent sites so it is interesting where these logs came from. Any insight into this would be appreciated.

BasicTek said...

Is he being sued on the evidence from the ET server logs, or by the evidence Media Sentry has? Is it normal for a private corporation to have server logs confiscated in a FBI raid? If that is the case anyways. The MPAA is known for paying hackers, even against large bittorrent sites so it is interesting where these logs came from. Any insight into this would be appreciated.

According to Page 2 paragraphs 4,5

4. Under the direct supervision of Loeb & Loeb LLP, using records from the database from the EliteTorrents server, consultants for Plaintiff's trade organization, the Motion Picture Association of America ("MPAA), identified files which lexically matched the names of various motion pictures, and which were being offered for download by others on the EliteTorrents website.
5. The EliteTorrents database showed that on March 26,2005, Meet the Fockers (the "Motion Picture"), which had not yet been released on home video or DVD, was being distributed by a user whose Internet Protocol ("IP") address was 68.121.192.21 The MPAA's consultants downloaded the associated torrent files (i.e., both the .torrent metadata file and the files it made downloadable). An MPAA employee, working under my direct supervision, then verified that the digital file downloaded was an actual copy of Meet the Fockers by viewing the motion picture downloaded.


and Page 3 paragraph 8

8. In its response to this subpoena, dated October 25,2005, SBCIS identified Defendant as the individual using the IP address obtained by Mediasentry at the time of infringement. A true and correct redated excerpt of this subpoena response is attached hereto as Exhibit "C."

It would appear that they were given access to the FBI seized servers at some point. They used a combination of both the logs and data obtained from mediasentry. Although 1st they state the IP was obtained from the ET database, then later say it was obtained from mediasentry. That's a bit contradictory I'd say...

BasicTek said...

RE: Slyck I have to agree there are still a few angry people due to their hero getting trashed but for the most part there isn't a slew of posters attacking you for no reason anymore. I don't post there as much anymore but they still reach a wide audience of mostly young people, so when I see something important I try to spread the word to those most affected by it.