The Motion Picture Association of America is gonna wish they didn’t bring suit against Shawn Hogan, because unlike most of their victims, Hogan is not going to settle and the suit will be brought to court. (wired.com article)
Hogan, a 30-year-old multi-millionaire, has been accused of illegally downloading, via BitTorrent, Meet the Fockers. He’s denied this, stating that he owns the DVD and he didn’t download the movie. What makes Hogan so special is that he will be the first person (that I can recall anyway) that did not accept the offer to settle the suit for $2,500. He will now take the suit to court where he will most likely incur over $100,000 worth of legal fees. From the wired.com article…
… [Hogan] thinks it’s a small price to pay to challenge the MPAA’s tactics. “They’re completely abusing the system,” Hogan says. “I would spend well into the millions on this.”
About. Fucking. Time. Since the boom of internet file sharing (most notably the first version of the music-sharing application Napster and the following all-purpose file sharing application Kazaa), the MPAA and its music industry counterpart (the Recording Industry Association of America) have brought suit against thousands of Americans who they claim have infringed on their clients’ copyrights. With the cost of litigation so high, Average Joe and Average Jane can’t possibly foot the bill to effectively fight these giants, so the result is usually a settlement. This time, the MPAA went after someone with the capital to fight back, and, as I’ve said before, it’s about fucking time.