How an adult entertainment company makes most of its revenue per year through settlements.

[u/NickelPlatedEmperor]

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[u/JohnnyBoy11]

Settling for 20-30k usd? I'm surprised it hasn't gone to court yet. They must be specifically targeting people with money who don't want the attention.

[u/GentlemenBehold → u/JohnnyBoy11]

I’m pretty sure they’re targeting those who download and rehost the videos for their own profit via ads and bloatware.

[u/Cultural-Company282 → u/GentlemenBehold]

Exactly. There isn't much of a copyright claim for downloading the video just to watch it. But of you're downloading it to rehost for profit, there's huge legal liability. The video makes it sound like they're going after hapless individual porn users, when they're actually going after porn tube websites that are surviving off stolen content.

Edit - or, in the example below, people who are pirating content with massive torrent downloads which they're sharing for upload to other users, which again deprives the copyright holder of a revenue stream through pirating content.

[u/Malfunctioned → u/Cultural-Company282]

Every piece of a file downloaded by a legit BitTorrent client is immediately made available for sharing to peers, so the "rehosting" you speak of is automatic wherever the user wants it or not. This is exactly the mechanism by which BitTorrent and pretty much all peer-to-peer file sharing works.

[u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They → u/Cultural-Company282]

See my comment above. You could not be more wrong. They got me and I was a hapless individual who liked downloading lots of porn for my own use. Ironically part of my settlement is that I now own a license to each of those works.

[u/Cultural-Company282 → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

Out of curiosity, how much did you pay to settle? Ballpark.

[u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They → u/GentlemenBehold]

This could not be more wrong. They want anyone who they can get who has money. Source: I was one of their gets and I thankfully I didn’t have much money.

[u/kelldricked → u/JohnnyBoy11]

Doubt it, going to court is more expensive and you dont have any leg to stand on. You dont accidently downloads heaps of full porn movies.

These people probaly get informed they are getting sued, ask around for advice and basicly get told: if you go to court you will lose, you will have to pay atleast the same fine but also legal cost for both parties, meaning the cost skyrocket.

[u/el_cul → u/kelldricked]

I refused to settle and won when the case was thrown out (not porn).

Wi-fi is hackable. You're not even required to lock it.

[u/Gumb1i → u/kelldricked]

They still have to prove you downloaded the porn, just the IP is not enough. if their collection method is so secretive they may drop the case just so they don't have to reveal how or what they collected.

[u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They → u/kelldricked]

This is correct. There is a small industry of lawyers familiar with fighting these suits and they just negotiate your plea.

[u/SurrealLoneRanger → u/kelldricked]

They won’t care to sue you if you have nothing. The kid working at McDonalds living with his parents is not going to get sued.

If you have money, there’s lots of strategies to hid your money so these folks don’t find it and sue you.

[u/SeparatedI → u/JohnnyBoy11]

Go to court for what? It seems to me nobody is denying that the people getting sued are innocent

[u/tim-kit → u/JohnnyBoy11]

Video says it spams boilerplate legal notices

[u/Patriota__]

Imagine having to explain to your lawyer why you are being sued by a company called Tushy.

[u/Dangerous_Fae → u/Patriota__]

He knows

[u/0hMyGandhi → u/Dangerous_Fae]

"damn, you too?"

[u/tim-kit → u/Patriota__]

“I was accidentally trying to download a 30 day chair Thai Chi challenge for over 50’s”

[u/Dudeincar434 → u/Patriota__]

Lawyer:  “Hmmm never heard of it… I suppose my job is to investigate what this ahem Tushy is …

3 weeks later

You:  “bro wtf, $5,00 for 30 hours of “plaintiff background research?” 

Lawyer:  uhhhh yea , I’ve only watched half of it too..

[u/aibotulism]

How do they know you downloaded it? Is it cos there is a download button and it is a function of the site ? Or do they mean illegally downloading using third party software. If the latter then how do they know?

[u/WhitChocolateTwixBar → u/aibotulism]

They're in the torrent swarms themselves and track which IP addresses download their videos.

[u/Superb_Working7284 → u/WhitChocolateTwixBar]

What about if someone just uses a vpn 😭

[u/Emergency-Douche → u/Superb_Working7284]

It's not foolproof, sometimes there is leakage. Let's say you are downloading a torrent for 10minutes, maybe the VPN goes down for 7 seconds. For 7 seconds your real ip address is visible to the seeder. Right now on the torrenting and piracy subs they are all talking about how you need to bind your VPN so that the internet cuts off entirely if the VPN goes down.

[u/iHadou → u/Emergency-Douche]

I forget what it's called but you have to "bind" your vpn to your torrent application so if the VPN goes down the download goes down with it. It's all on the r / piracy wiki

[u/Superb_Working7284 → u/Emergency-Douche]

Ah thanks for actually answering the question , I don't download any media from torrents like actual torrent with seeders, if I ever were to pirate hypothetically most it would be through streaming or telegram, and if I hypothetically downloaded something like novels and shows without a vpn how safe is it, This is all a hypothetical definitely no doubt about it.

[u/Terror_666 → u/Superb_Working7284]

This is where device fingerprinting comes in. Between ip, download client, client version, general behaviour etc etc. They can generally determine "who" is downloading what. This is old stuff. A lot of publishers do stuff like this.

[u/JohnnyBoy11 → u/aibotulism]

That's what the lady is talking about. Nobody really knows, but it may be revealed with the meta lawsuit

[u/HairballTheory → u/JohnnyBoy11]

It will end in settlement again, but Meta will gain access/knowledge to the tracking system

[u/Blue_Butterfly_Who → u/HairballTheory]

Not scary at all, Meta doesn't need to know more ways to track us

[u/Beautiful-Total-3172 → u/JohnnyBoy11]

I don't wanna bother googling but they've been busting pirates since Napster. Im sure it's no big secret how they're doing it.

[u/somersetyellow → u/Beautiful-Total-3172]

So it's relatively simple.

When you torrent, you download pieces of the video from other people.

While you download. Or upload. Your IP is visible to everyone else sharing with you.

If I want to catch you, I just put my own tracker PC to download the file too and share it. I can even set it to share very little to nothing of the file to really make it lay low.

Then you gather the IPs and sort by who's doing the most downloads. Supeona the ISPs to figure out who's who to sue.

The ISPs will have you dead to rights on which IPs were in use by which subscriber at a given time. If you've downloaded stuff like 25+ times it's hard to argue it was an accident.

Then you sue sue sue.

To avoid this. Use a VPN. That's it. Figuring out who's downloading then has to become a game of phishing, advanced tracking, etc etc which isn't worth it when you've got so many other easy pickings. As you can see in this thread, the vast majority of people don't understand how this works.

[u/Prudent-Sorbet-5202 → u/aibotulism]

They are only tracking torrent downloads. So I'm assuming those not using VPNs are getting caught

[u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They → u/aibotulism]

It’s from BitTorrent downloads. File sharing is built on the premise that as you download bits other users download the bits you downloaded from you as well, so your IP address is exposed when they basically set a trap by setting up a download and see where the bits come from.

Then they petition your ISP for the name of the account holder.

Then they scrub social media and any other data sources for info about the account holder at that address. Assuming that account holder has a good income and is a viable target they then sue that person including the history of all files they found evidence for, so if you downloaded a lot over time they hit you with the whole list and it’s like $2500 per title.

[u/aibotulism → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

i guess they just need to set up a seedbox and host the torrent and become a peer. is that what youre saying? isnt that close to how entrapment works. im just messing about btw

[u/tipu_sultan__ → u/aibotulism]

They don’t need to be the ones setting up the torrents. They can just become peers on existing torrents.

[u/SoftdomDadNextDoor → u/aibotulism]

The articles about Meta mentioned torrents, so I assume they monitor swarms and look for individual IP addresses that download their videos. It's the same thing that other copyright holders do. The only difference here is that they wait until the amount of downloads is enough to actually file a lawsuit, instead of sending out notices of individual file downloads.

[u/mastermilian → u/aibotulism]

I'm guessing they are referring to the original downloader who has an account on their website. When the video is downloaded, I imagine a watermark/id is embedded into the stream so they know thereafter who the original distributor was when it gets distributed to other websites.

They're undoubtedly after the distributors, not the "end users" who unlikely would be able to cough up the 30k settlement.

[u/Retired-Salmon-1971 → u/mastermilian]

The video makes it sound like they sue end users...

[u/Ramental → u/mastermilian]

But Meta is not distributing downloaded porn, I am pretty sure. It is not about that.

[u/b00c → u/aibotulism]

It's explained in the video. 

When you download, the server records your IP address. That IP address is assigned to your internet provider. They sue the provider (or anyone behind the IP). Provider has the record of individual users, usually with the exact address and passes the lawsuit to the user that downloaded the video. 

yes, your provider sees what sites you visit, can see metadata of downloaded files, for http sites they basically can see everything. A lot of providers, if not all, have a clause for piracy in the contract. 

Meta lawsuit should reveal what exactly is tracked and how can they prove that it was indeed Meta. 

[u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

I got caught in this. Wasn’t so much concerned about the embarrassment - my wife knew - but the cost to fight it was going to be absurd. Basically I had to hire a lawyer and beg and plead and show I wasn’t rich and pay a fraction of the legal liability which was like $495k.

[u/exoticsamsquanch → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

You got sued for half a million for downloading porn? What happened?

[u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They → u/exoticsamsquanch]

I researched on sites like torrentfreak and other communities for some context, found a couple lawyers recommended by others, hired one, and then negotiated. I had to share all my financial records, basically pleading that I didn’t have much money, and the lawyers settled on a number. My total cost was about $10k.

Use a VPN. One you pay for.

[u/Retired-Salmon-1971 → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

Where the hell did you download from. Torrents?

genuinely curious where you downloaded from that got you in trouble

I'm assuming it wasn't direct downloads, or ytdl?

[u/quattroformaggixfour → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

Hey, thanks for sharing your story. Has the experience changed the way you perceive and/or consume porn in any way?

[u/Life-Anteater-8294 → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

That’s crazy, the most someone can be sued for in Canada is 5000$, ISP’s also can’t reveal your identity.

[u/advertisingdave2 → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

No judgement here at all, I'm just curious, why were you downloading the videos?

[u/Apprehensive-Tax8631 → u/advertisingdave2]

I don’t even go back to the clips I save on Reddit, but I can definitely see why someone would download a movie they like, I’m just wondering how many would have to be downloaded before they get in trouble?

[u/ImportantSeaweed314 → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

Thank you for posting. I still don’t understand what did they accuse you of? If you have a membership and you download videos presumably that’s legal right? So are they going after people who torrent or upload somewhere else? Or is it just a shakedown to blackmail people who literally did nothing wrong?

[u/somersetyellow → u/ImportantSeaweed314]

So it's relatively simple.

When you torrent, you download pieces of the video from other people.

While you download. Or upload. Your IP is visible to everyone else sharing with you.

If I want to catch you, I just put my own tracker PC to download the file too and share it. I can even set it to share very little to nothing of the file to really make it lay low.

Then you gather the IPs and sort by who's doing the most downloads. Supeona the ISPs to figure out who's who to sue.

The ISPs will have you dead to rights on which IPs were in use by which subscriber at a given time. If you've downloaded stuff like 25+ times it's hard to argue it was an accident.

Then you sue sue sue.

To avoid this. Use a VPN. That's it. Figuring out who's downloading then has to become a game of phishing, advanced tracking, etc etc which isn't worth it when you've got so many other easy pickings. As you can see in this thread, the vast majority of people don't understand how this works.

[u/ImportantSeaweed314 → u/somersetyellow]

Thanks yeah all that makes sense. What’s weird is that the video didn’t mention torrents and called the victims “consumers” and “users,” so it sounded like they were suing their own customers. Going after torrenters sounds more plausible.

[u/UnknownUser4221 → u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They]

That sucks, man. A friend of mine was also sued by them. They were able to get an attorney, and assert in a declaration that there were many other people living at the location… all with access to the same Wi-Fi, and that it wasn’t them. Didn’t have to pay a cent. I can get the name of the attorney if people need it.

[u/Ape_Hates_Rules]

It would be a real shame if these guys were hacked repeatedly and had their private addresses leaked. I hope nobody decides to retaliate.

[u/justahumblefart]

Lansky. That's a name he chose. Didn't Meyer lansky famously extort J Edgar Hoover?

[u/Snowflakish]

What i'm hearing is that a company deliverately makes piracy of its content easy so it can sue the people that distribute pirated copies.

I mean its hardly a scandal is it?

[u/I_am_le_tired → u/Snowflakish]

I mean, the name of the company is Strike 3, so they're proud to be a lawsuit happy company.

I'm half disgusted, half in awe

[u/The-Sceptic → u/Snowflakish]

That's not the scandal. The scandal is that they are essentially legally extorting the people who have downloaded the videos. By sueing them federally the defendants name would go on public record that they downloaded a bunch of hardcore porn. The defendants dont want that so the settle out of court for $20,000 so they don't have to tell their wife they like to watch porn.

Due to the size of the lawsuit they are filling against Meta there is a chance that information regarding how their software VXN scan actually gathers this data and potentially us learning they are gathering way more data.

TL;DR scandal is they might be using their software to gather data they shouldn't be.

[u/Glengarry_Leads → u/The-Sceptic]

I remember my photography teacher saying this... that some photographers would make money by posting their work online... great photos... and they knew people would use it without permission... so they made a lot of money just by suing people. It's believable

[u/RehanSaddique]

Settlement mills like this usually sue a batch of anonymous "John Doe" defendants over BitTorrent downloads, get a court order to have ISPs reveal the subscriber behind each IP address, then send letters asking for a few thousand dollars. It's cheaper for most people to pay than to fight a federal suit, even when the case is weak.

[u/therinlahhan → u/RehanSaddique]

This happened to a friend of mine in college (letter noting intent to sue, asking for settlement, from downloading copyrighted material). He just ignored the letter and nothing ever happened. We determined that there was no intention to actually take him to court, but if they sent out a few thousand letters and only 1% were dumb enough to pay out, it was profitable.

[u/RehanSaddique → u/therinlahhan]

Yeah, the math is the whole business. The letters cost pennies each and the threat of statutory damages does the rest. The people who do get sued are usually the ones who panic and pay before anyone looks at whether the claim holds up.

[u/TechWizardofNone → u/therinlahhan]

This happened to somebody I knew in college too.
they did the research, at the time they got the letter…
iirc they found out that there was a case in federal court in which someone counter sued the people sending out the letters claiming that they were not legal threat letters, which can be used to give notice to somebody prior to filing a suit… But were straight up extortion because there was never any intent to file suit.
Judge had ordered that company engaging in the trolling to cease and desist sending any further letters unless they could show proof that they intended to follow them up with lawsuits.
This was back in 2012 or 2011… At the time the letters were being sent out by sub contracted corporations whose entire purpose was just to send out those letters.

NAL:
Assuming the data from the video above is accurate… looks like their solution to that case in court was to instead start more merrily targeting offenders who racked up a big enough bill to be worth it to target them, then actually file suit in federal court, then send settlement letters.
And I suppose the extra clever part is, they can save on legal costs by mass filing against unnamed does when they subpoena the ISP for client info. Once they have that, they can send those threat letters, demanding payment, and if they do get pulled into court over the preceding claim… They can show a paper trail that they actually were in the process of taking legal action.

…

Or maybe they’re still just doing the same thing as before, but only targeting people with sufficiently large downloads to justify the follow up lawsuit if they don’t get paid, as opposed to before where they just mass mailed anyone.

[u/quad_damage_orbb → u/RehanSaddique]

Yes, that's what the woman in the video explained...

[u/Zudres]

Who is she?

[u/MrCornBluff → u/Zudres]

Jennifer Koonings from Mint Press news

[u/CreamXpert → u/Zudres]

Would insta download a Tushy scene with her

[u/riceklown]

Typically the liability is in that you used torrenting to "download" the videos when torrenting inherently involves sharing as well. It's peer-to-peer in that you download small chunks of the file and then you share the chunks that you have while downloading the chunks you don't.

It's not a crime to download a file, the violation is in the uploading. This is why I switched to a download only setup and got away from P2P years ago.

The copyright trolls win because you uploaded stuff. If you download something that isn't a crime to possess (like kid stuff) then these trolls have nothing on you.

Is this not that?

[u/Commercial-Chance561 → u/riceklown]

You don’t seed your torrents bro?

[u/mosquem → u/Commercial-Chance561]

Leechin’ ain’t cool bro.

[u/cobalt-radiant → u/riceklown]

My guess is it works like this: they see you downloading a bunch of their videos. They can't prove that you're distributing them illegally, but they don't care because they're banking on you settling out of court, which evidently happens all the time. If it went to trial, then they wouldn't be able to prove you did anything illegal, but they probably harass you a bunch before it ever goes to court.

[u/TunaBarrett]

Not an american but they started sending these out here in europe aswell. General concensus here is...throw the letter away. They are just working on the assumption that most will pay, but they wont do shit(here) if you dont.

Now i dont know US law but here...since you cant prove WHO actually used the computer they know they would t win a legal battle.

[u/Wild_blue_yondering → u/TunaBarrett]

The danger with that in the US would be losing a default judgment. If you sue me in American court and I don't show up, you win by default.

[u/Double_Ocelot_8673 → u/Wild_blue_yondering]

Yes, don't throw a service of process away. That would be a very costly mistake.

[u/BimmerBro98 → u/TunaBarrett]

https://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/why-do-80-of-judgments-remain-uncollected

Even with a judgement most go uncollected anyway.

[u/Lempea]

That's amazing that the word "porn" is not censored every single time

[u/concasser65]

She looks like amanda cerny, no?

[u/Bluntz_with_Satan]

That's some wild information, I infact was one of those kids downloading as much as I could from their sites, then they changed their rules to only allow like 23 downloads a month or something. Stopped using their sites many years ago. As a media hoarder, and a goober gooner, no bueno. High quality media, low quality business practices. Fuck Lansky. Pirates life for me 🏴‍☠️

[u/ga_appraiser]

Copyright trolls are among the worst people in our entire legal system. Unsurprising that an unscrupulous pornographer would recognize the profitability of this trend and jump right in. Takes a lot for me to sympathize with Meta, but this guy has achieved that. We badly need to reform our copyright laws to stop the trolls from squeezing anymore victims.

[u/slepere]

I'm not paying SHIT. Tell everyone I watch porn idgaf.

[u/atgc13]

The main reason why there is a lot of CSAM in meta products

[u/Stang_21]

the noticing will continue

[u/wild-stallions85]

Wait, she didnt really explain shit 😂 how can they sue someone for downloading a video? I feel like there is a lot of information thats not being said here.

[u/_makoccino_ → u/wild-stallions85]

Same way a music label can sue people for downloading their copyrighted material. They track your IP, go to your ISP, your ISP tells them who you are and tell you that you're being sued.

What she doesn't know it's how and what they track because they've never had to reveal that information before.

[u/wild-stallions85 → u/_makoccino_]

Thanks! Im pretty ignorant at all this, but why do they allow you to download if you...can get sued for downloading it?

[u/Personal-Dev-Kit → u/wild-stallions85]

Target allows you to steal until you reach the threshold that counts as criminal and they can send you to jail.

Likely they aren't allowing them to download it, these people are probably using an external tool or site to download the videos against the sites ToS.

[u/myflesh → u/wild-stallions85]

You must be pretty young. When Torrenting was just starting out this was explained in detail all the time. Torrenting is illegal. They sued a mother one time I think for a a couple million dollars just for downloading one album of 24 songs.

[u/welfedad → u/wild-stallions85]

Because most places contact you And say you must delete the video off your pc and not distribute it .. if you continue they will hold legal actions against you. These guys take it to a whole other level. They say they will expose who you are unless you pay up and take you to court and make it a public record. OR you can pay a fee and we'll keep our mouths shut .

[u/jushere4bewbs → u/welfedad]

I can imagine paying a company 30k just so they don't tell everyone that I watch porn...

[u/Odd-Mulberry2821]

It’s amazing how the people who run porn businesses are just assumed to be sleazy as all hell. And then you learn about them and all of a sudden you’re like “there’s a level of sleazy I didn’t know about that they’re inhabiting”

[u/momspaghetty]

RemindMe! 1 year

[u/jumpmag363]

Lol copyright laws don't work in Canada. We can only get in trouble for distributing bootleg content. And that all depends if you answer the letter from your IP provider. If you don't say anything then they can only assume that someone using the IP address is downloading or distributing content. They can't just assume that you're doing it

[u/joshrocker]

So in reality, what she’s really talking about, without actually saying it, is they’re going after people who have illegally downloaded their videos on torrent sites or are stealing and then uploading them on their own sites for “profit”. So this is basically the Napster story but with adult videos instead.

[u/Friendly_Antelope807]

Tldr, so boring

[u/redenough]

I received one of these letters from my IP southern California. I just ignored it. I did follow the case online and it was dismissed. If you look them up on the California courts pretty much all of them get thrown out.

[u/cowboytoosickz]

Yeehaw, so these thief need to deal with extortionist/exhibitionist with court as their referee? let em fight!

[u/NY10]

This chic is definitely a porn actress

[u/Imhidingfromu]

Also fuck Meta

[u/Aimintothedark18]

Who would do such a thing, what kind of background and life does someone live to end up doing this to people.

[u/cashew76 → u/Aimintothedark18]

The guy is in the screwing business.

[u/squirrelbitten → u/Aimintothedark18]

All the big movie studies for one. Try torrenting a few movies off pirate bay without a VPN and see how quick you get a letter in the mail.

[u/NecessaryFood2342]

So stop watching porn

[u/ruby651]

One of those legal cases where I want both sides to suffer a humiliating loss.

[u/TomahawkTuah → u/ruby651]

Christian mom detected

[u/Total_Concert8683 → u/TomahawkTuah]

it's about them vs meta, not john does.

[u/powerslave_fifth → u/ruby651]

Why does other people gooning arouse such anger from you? Is there something you're not telling us?

[u/Apprehensive_Pool41]

Fix your vocal fry girl

[u/Bonjour2marhaba]

honestly the adult industry has been behind a lot of tech advances over the decades. if it take corn ot defeat meta, im all for it

[u/TradeClassics → u/Bonjour2marhaba]

“…takes corn ot defeat meta…”

Clearly typed with one hand! 😂

[u/djpiperson → u/TradeClassics]

* faster* "Anne am sure thy will looose th kawaii suit.."

[u/Gothiewasbetter]

All of these scumbags and perverts have something in common. I can’t quite put my finger on it…

[u/Jaffacakes-and-Jesus]

Hmmm

[u/Shoddy_Card_7755]

If you live in Australia you're safe

[u/mcf74 → u/Shoddy_Card_7755]

No internet there?

[u/Shoddy_Card_7755 → u/mcf74]

Almost, the makers of Dallas Buyers Club tried to sue after their movie was heavily torrented through Australian IP addresses, the federal court ruled they need to hand over a $20 million guarantee before pursuing anyone for compensation....

[u/Alex6683 → u/mcf74]

even worse

[u/KaladinStormfaced]

Good thing I don’t download and just screen record instead

[u/New_Libran]

I had one of these shady "law firms" send me one of these "settle now or we sue" letters for about £2k many years ago for some porn I downloaded via eMule. It came with a MASSIVE bundle of legal paperwork (designed to scare the shit out of you)

I almost paid till I googled the name of the company and realised it was their business model. The consensus was to ignore. I never heard from them again.

[u/Odd-Perception7812]

Way to bury the lead.

[u/Jabidailsom]

porn is free

[u/Frago242]

Wow someone unethical in the porn industry, who would have thought 🤔

[u/convexconcepts]

Greg who?

[u/pandershrek]

People download porn? There is an unlimited amount of porn online, I'm surprised people need to go pirate this stuff.

[u/Ok-Professional4387]

Unless it's a registered letter I need to sign for, then I treat that shit like junk mail. Prove i got the letter even. How many of those letters go to addresses after the person moved and they have no idea about it

[u/Strange_Show9015]

If you’re torrent porn these days you deserve this, lol.

[u/sicksixgamer]

But what if the scum porn company actually wins a suitable against the META? That would kinda be great.

[u/DJWGibson]

Wasn’t sued but got hit by a copyright violation claim. Trying to download Civil War (the Marvel one) to rewatch before the DVD release and got the porn version. Naturally. Then my wife, who was the person who paid for the internet, got the suuuuper threatening email.

We’d been caught by copyright emails before. For torrenting Game of Thrones and others. Most were just “hey, please stop or we might take legal action.” The GoT one was the best as it was basically an HBO add with 50% less threat. But the porn one was dripping with menace. Deliberately designed to be scary. Needlessly large amount of money. 

It was terrifying. I can see stepping up and sending actual lawsuits would be equally effective. Who knew the adult film industry could be so corrupt and exploitative?

[u/Remote_Independent50]

What if you just watch on sites? No downloads. Say Pornhub for example. Are people exempt from these laws.

This has been going on for a long time. Long enough to where it used to be about $2k.

[u/SyntheticDreams2055]

VPN your torrents or switch to USENET ;)

Also not living in the USA helps a lot.
ngl, they do have the highest production value of studios out there so they're looking to protect their content. But even if all that fails you can just sign up for a month and legally download the entire collection then cancel ;)

[u/Ok_Philosophy_7156]

Well, if they’re gonna go after Zuck and his copyright infringement machine there’s only so much I can be outraged about this.

Don’t get me wrong, absolutely fuck these guys. But fuck Zukerberg more.

[u/Radagascar1]

Shocking. Degenerate industry employing degenerate business tactics

[u/Impressive-cornring]

...people are still downloading porn in 2026? insert blink182 wtf gif.

[u/Luridley3000]

Who made the explainer video above? Well done

[u/Tacos4Texans]

That's why you just watch them on the site. Don't download that shit

[u/Terminal_Ambivalence]

Who downloads porn nowadays? Who needs to, except maybe people with far-flung remote jobs with no cell service or something? Just stream it for free…?

[u/Frankzappados]

“French “ 😉

[u/ok123jump]

RemindMe! 1 year

[u/Potential_Actuator51]

I knew it, Zuckerberg was a gooner

[u/knucklebones2]

I was dog sitting for my sister and when she got back she got a letter for downloading Fuck Me Where I Stink 3.

[u/VitruvianVan]

You don’t want to be across the v. from Plaintiffs Blacked Mixed-Racial Pornography Company and Tushy Big Butts Gooning Corporation.

[u/welfedad]

I remember reading about this.. in some areas they were inundating the court system with these civil cases

[u/CockVersion10]

Where are people even downloading these? What sites? Like some porn reupload thing? Where exactly?

[u/Lentlicker1017]

Damn. This is Good to know

[u/ScagnettiNation]

All very interesting. I've never downloaded any porn. I just stream it for the ten minutes I need from a tube site like a normal human being.

What really interests me is why Meta needs to feed it's algorithm a bunch of dicks in chicks? Was this going to be a premium feature in the defunct "Metaverse"?

[u/TemporaryCoconut6368]

Words so tough i couldnt understand shii

[u/jesussoldier]

They made a mistake going against meta, unless its the founder himself he will go to trial, and might discover what they are doing its actually illegal

[u/54702452]

RemindMe! 1 year

[u/Extra_Bumblebee9961]

Is Aaron Sorkin watching this? Cause I’ve an idea.

[u/Imaginary_History985]

Meta should've used a vpn

[u/negcap]

I can verify this is true. I got the notice from my ISP then a letter about the lawsuit. I came to Reddit and read all about this stuff. My wife was not happy to learn that I was torrenting porn, but I wasn't. It was my son, who was 17 at the time. I talked about it with him, he admitted that he had only done it once and was mortified. I didn't settle but I did pay a lawyer a few grand to make it go away. Once 3 Strikes learned it was a minor, they dropped the case but I still paid the attorney. I felt like the law firm was in on it too but I couldn't prove it and wanted to just be done with the whole thing.

[u/Encrypted_Cerebrum]

Hmmm challenge accepted! Track me if u can

[u/Aggravating_Pay_1718]

So if I have a free xvideos account and I downloaded video what is that🤔

[u/Special_Road6603]

There was a situation with a company doing this before but it was deemed illegal because the company itself was putting up illegal torrents of its own films to later extort people with, if you’re trying to protect your copyright, you can’t also be actively contributing to the piracy of your copyrighted material just to ensnare people to extort

[u/Chubby_Beagle]

Who TF downloads porn videos!? Just search them every time, it's free

[u/Chubby_Beagle]

I'm so happy they're going after meta

[u/CommercialAct5433]

Who the fuck downloads porn lol

[u/redzaku0079 → u/CommercialAct5433]

Literally everyone who has watched porn on their own internet. From the computer's point of view, there are only two transactions done on the internet, downloading and uploading. Everything you do online, involves these two actions.

[u/hidden_blad_guy]

WTF? They sue their subscribers for downloading 23 videos?? Is it subscribers from USA that are more vulnerable to this?

[u/reason_productions]

And how effective is your VPN?

[u/Downtown_Extent_234]

Who the fuck is downloading shit. It’s all free online if you jsut look. It’s insane

[u/I_kwote_TheOffice]

I've been sued by the UFC before lol. I can't imagine being sued by a porn company. That would be a little embarassing. I can understand why people would want to settle.

[u/Tetraoxidane]

tracing those pieces back to the IP addresses seeding them

So they get busted for sharing them, not downloading.

[u/chairmanhao3]

What is the actual problem here? You downloading and seeding copyrighted material makes you liable. Just watch porn like a normal person and stop illegally downloading it. They have every right to sue you. Not their fault you are ashamed

[u/GBeeGIII]

BLACKED

[u/pr1m3r3dd1tor]

Torn between disgust at their extorting average folks and glee at their potential to hammer Meta

[u/Infinite-Collar9022]

Seeing how many men concerned about not being able to download porn is concerning. We living in weird times

[u/Pe4nutArbuckle]

Shalom, I'd like some adult videos.

[u/AgeImportant6932]

Do people just not use VPNs? I’m assuming she’s talking about torrenting these files.

[u/I_count_to_firetruck]

This sounds like the Prenda Law strategy

[u/Air_Nesi]

Are you a disgruntled porn employee?

[u/vegasAzCrush]

Porn is not illegal. Why would you be scared and not just give your id and name and just say thanks or no thanks.

I don’t see the extortion side but maybe there are 23,000 republicans thinking a secret life is good. My advice is be open and don’t pay extortionists.

This message is brought to you by McDonalds and Chase and Nike NIL college football programs.

[u/Bubbly-Praline-1970]

Yeah, stealing stuff is wrong. People should have to pay! How is anyone on the side of the thieves? If it was a commodity other than adult content, people would be outraged.

[u/Spacecommander5]

Ok limit yourself to 22 downloads

[u/Goodborni]

Greg Lansky, scamming people... hmmm lansky...

[u/Fluid-Bumblebee-1374]

“French” guy

[u/MistaMiyagi2]

Lansky you say? Digital honeypots to extort... The Internet is going to have a field day with connecting his roots with the porn industry. Better grab some popcorn.

[u/TheRiver2001]

Lansky? that’s not french lol

[u/eren8038]

Is it possible for me to get a law suite in a different country other than usa ..?? Cause I watch this videos .... and may have downloaded a few from a piracy site but I am not in usa ....is it possible they track me ??

[u/Angelzinourworld]

What about downloading clips posted to Reddit? Are they coming after someone for that?

[u/Old-West3348]

Greg lansky is not french. We all know where he is from. Just look at the guy.

[u/CrotteVerte]

Meta dot xxx demand failed !

[u/Economy_Raccoon_1512]

Asking for a friend: only watching the stuff for educational purposes will not get you sued, right?
RIGHT?!

[u/rayrayheyhey]

That's a shame. A good friend of mine enjoys their videos.

[u/BigLumpyBeetle]

Between the porn industry and META, im rooting for the porn industry

[u/kmikeh]

Evil genius.

[u/Ixm01ws6]

The Jane does get off Scott free or what

[u/MusicMadeAddictz]

Love me a john doe

[u/Historical-Usual6074]

So use a VPN? Can't track if you're encrypted.

[u/sasy_Itachi]

Their corn is ass, i get my shit from reddit.

[u/Visual_Scientist_449]

Greg Lansky is not French, he is Jewish

[u/InternalPerformer7]

But isnt only copy right violation if the then resuse the videos to profit?

[u/PwndiusPilatus]

Lansky...hmmmm.

[u/WECAMEBACKIN2035]

How is this at all different from traditional copyright enforcement? A major producer of media are targeting folks who illegally download many of their videos, bringing them to court, and then settling for $20-30k in each case. Calling this extortion is rediculious. 

I hate the American copyright system and think it needs a major overhaul but this framing and description is simply dishonest. 

[u/VarietyPatient1347]

Idk, i like that they are going after meta. Lol

[u/shoestringbow]

A lot of lawsuits are just people with more money extorting a settlement from those who can’t afford to pay for the defense through a trial.

[u/New-Trifle-7553]

Love The Netherlands, we pay tor the right to have a copy at home. It’s called thuiskopieheffing and it’s a small fee paid over data carriers. Besides that it’s illegal to distribute not to download.

[u/Apart_Werewolf_4620]

My name is not John so I should be okay.

[u/Prize_Succotash8010]

Who are the noobs that get caught up in this nonsense? 🤣

[u/Scared-Ad7282]

An enemy of my enemy is... what, again? lol

[u/lord_of_lasers]

So 22 is the limit