Hurt Locker Producers Sue BitTorrent Downloaders

Those who have downloaded the Oscar-winning movie "The Hurt Locker" via BitTorrent may soon find themselves in a world of  hurt, as the film's producer has now filed a lawsuit against 5,000 BitTorrent users.

The Hurt Locker emerged from obscurity this past March when it won several commendations at the 82nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow. The film, which is based on the travails of a fictional American bomb squad stationed in Iraq, beat out favorite and top-grossing movie of all time, Avatar.

Low Turnout Attributed to Piracy

By contrast to Avatar, only a handful of people bothered to see The Hurt Locker when it was in theatres. However, its incredible success at the Oscars has prompted much demand for the movie in DVD and Blu-ray form, with many others interested in the film turning to piracy.

Given that The Hurt Locker had such little box office success -- about $17 million -- it makes some sense that its producers, Voltage Pictures, have taken exception to its popularity amongst pirates. Analysts suspect that Voltage sees a link between the pirated copy of the film, which was made available six months before the official U.S. release, and the poor box office showing.

Thus, they recently filed a suit in the Columbia District Court against 5,000 BitTorrent users, accusing the latter of copyright violation. (Source: tgdaily.com)

Accused Identified by IP Address

"The plaintiff has identified each defendant by the IP address assigned to that defendant," Voltage's attorneys noted in a recent statement. "The plaintiff believes that information obtained in discovery will lead to the identification of each of the defendant's true name." (Source: cnet.com)

To date, this is one of the biggest lawsuits ever launched against individuals.

None of the defendants have been named, but reports suggest they'll be invited to pay $1,500 to settle the suit against them or go to court, where costs could be ten times as high in order to pay copyright violation fines and legal fees.