They've already snagged an Oscar. Now Voltage Pictures, makers of the 2010 Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, have another milestone in their crosshairs: the biggest file-sharing lawsuit of all time.
Voltage Pictures is trying to recoup money it says it lost from BitTorrent users that allegedly downloaded the award-winning film illegally. The suit was originally filed against about 5,000 IP addresses, but TorrentFreak is reporting that 20,000 additional users have now been added to the lawsuit, bringing the total number of defendants to a whopping 24,583.
According to legal documents obtained by TorrentFreak, IP addresses from 10,532 Comcast subscribers, 5,239 Verizon users, 2,699 IPs on Charter, and 1,750 with Time Warner comprise the huge group of defendants. After the initial filing, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, attorneys for Voltage Pictures, requested access to personal information tied to each IP address in question. Time Warner balked, saying that doing so would be too time consuming and would take away from other, more pressing legal issues.
Time Warner seems to be singing the same tune this time around, once again refusing to provide data for its customers that have been implicated.
But subscribers with other providers aren't as lucky. TorrentFreak says while there is no agreement with Comcast regarding subscribers' personal data, "Charter has promised to look up 150 IP addresses a month and Verizon 100 a month for all ongoing BitTorrent lawsuits."
This will no doubt be a very lengthy process, and it might never go to trial. It's expected that Voltage Pictures will offer to settle, seeking large cash payments from the alleged movie piraters. But so far, each defendant that has been subpoenaed has claimed innocence.
Previously, the largest file-sharing lawsuit was filed against 23,000 BitTorrent users for allegedly pilfering 2010's "The Expendables."