UK organization, Open Rights Group, is seeking financial help to block intellectual property protection firm, Golden Eye International’s, attempt to gain access to the identities of suspected O2 porn pirates.
Golden Eye owns the rights to numerous adult film copyrights including the Ben Dover Productions movies. This year the firm won a high court ruling granting the company permission to obtain the IP addresses of more than 9,000 O2 broadband customers suspected of trading movies on BitTorrent networks. However, consumer protections group, Consumer Focus, intervened with an appeal, as there were no grounds to pursue 6,155 of those listed, since Golden Eye didn’t own the copyrights those particular movies. The result of the appeal was that Golden Eye were permitted to obtain information on only 2,845 of the IPs listed and that the letter issued to those 02 customers was edited to avoid a threatening tone. Golden Eye has now appealed the case to get the details on the remaining 6,155, while Open Rights Group has filed court papers to counter the request and has asked for public donations to help cover the £5,000 in legal fees.
Golden Eye commercial director, Julian Becker, said that the challenge over obtaining details on the 6,155 is scheduled to take place in the second week of December and that the entertainment industry in general should regard it with interest as the outcome could hold repercussions for the protection of intellectual property going forward.
“The cases we are fighting have huge implications to the creative industry, both the large multinationals and the smaller independent producers from music and film who do not have the knowledge and financial resources to protect their property from online piracy,” he said.
Becker expressed particular offense that the group is reaching out to Britons to fund their support of piracy. “They are appealing for funding for their court costs, which having checked our bank balance recently has given me the idea to do the same,” he said. “The perception of pornographers outside the industry may well be filthy rich; however as anyone with an ability for rational thinking will appreciate any business whose core product has been decimated by piracy is experiencing a massive downturn in turnover and profitability.”
He continued, “Therefore any financial support, however small, that can be given will help the cause massively. If you can’t give then supportive messages also are appreciated if not lost in the deluge of personal abuse and threats from the faceless keyboard warriors.”
