Attorney Steve® BitTorrent Litigation Defense Essentials - Proving your innocence and staying anonymous
Introduction
Our firm has handled hundreds of torrent defense cases and we are a leader on the West Coast, particularly in California federal courts (Southern, Northern, Eastern, and Central).
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC brings hundreds of lawsuits each year attempting to collect piracy fees for illegally downloading and sharing their adult pornographic videos through the "swarm."
To help them accomplish this, they use very good geo-location technology tools. However, their case is not always solid. Mistakes are made, and innocent people are pursued. I know this first hand.
If you have not read my blog on common defenses to Strike 3 infringement allegations, you should read this.
At any rate, when we have an innocent party, they will not just "take our word for it." They will usually want us to produce "exculpatory evidence." There are a few approaches to this - one is offering up your computer or laptop for an immediate forensic examination (typically, they won't do this due to costs, but they should if they want to get at the truth), and another approach is to offer a "declaration" or "affidavit" of non-infringement. A third approach is to fight them in court, file a countersuit seeking declaratory judgment of non-infringement and seek your attorney fees if you can prevail.
This blog focuses on the affidavit or declaration approach.
Common affidavit requirements
If Strike 3's copyright lawyers allow you to do an affidavit to prove your innocence (and dismiss the case with prejudice), here are some of the typical representations they may be seeking - this can differ depending on the case:
PLEASE PROVIDE A REPRESENTATION UNDER OATH AS TO EACH OF THE FOLLOWING:
A list of all the computing devices used in residence (all laptops, servers, etc., capable of downloading or sharing content)
Represent there are no Strike 3 downloads on any of these devices
Indicate whether or not your router or WiFi was password-protected;
Provide the make, model, and serial number for the router (they will want to confirm whether or not these come set with password protection as a default setting)
Represent that you have not seen anyone else download Strike 3 porn films
List all persons and tenants that reside on the property, including their name, age, occupation, and duration of time lived there (obviously, if you have tenants, you need to think twice before divulging their personal information).
A statement that the Client has not used BitTorrent (or any other Torrent client) in any form for any improper purpose (ex., to infringe on a third party's copyright, leak an unreleased movie, etc.).
If a torrent client is installed on any electronic devices, identify the type of software client and what you use it for
Represent that you have not infringed on any Strike 3 Holdings works in the past, such as Vixen, Tushy or Blacked videos;
Represent whether or not you have any information regarding the identity of any person who may have used your IP address to infringe on Strike 3 adult porn videos.
Add any other exculpatory evidence you may have.
This is just an example of what you might see.
There may be other defenses to have examined
Will your name be held private and anonymous?
Contact a BitTorrent Litigation Counsel
Unicourt.com has identified Vondran Legal® as the NUMBER ONE copyright infringement defense law firm in the UNITED STATES (regarding the number of litigation cases handled) in 2020 and 2021 and is poised to THREE-PEAT in 2022. In this complicated niche area of IP law, there is no substitute for experience, and we have settled MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in Strike 3 Holdings Settlements.
We strive to grind out the best deal possible and keep you anonymous where possible. Call us for a free consultation about your case.
Please have your case number handy. You can also leave us a message through our contact form.
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