Man ordered to pay $1.5 million to porn company for sharing 10 movies on BitTorrent

New Delhi: In what is said to be the largest ever penalty awarded in a BitTorrent piracy case, a US judge ordered a man to pay $1,500,000 in damages to an adult entertainment company for sharing 10 of their movies via BitTorrent, reports TorrentFreak.

Defendant Kywan Fisher was asked by the US District Court Northern District of Illinois to pay Flava Works, known for producing gay erotic media, $150,000 per movie, the maximum possible statutory damages under US copyright law. The total for 10 movies that Fisher was found guilty of illegally sharing calculates to $1.5 million.

Fisher and several others were sued in 2011 by Flava Works for illegally sharing videos on BitTorrent, that according to Flava was downloaded thousands of times. The videos were traced back to Fisher through a code embedded in the videos. Fisher was given a guilty verdict because he failed to appear in court.

The $150,000 penalty per movie is the maximum possible statutory damages under US copyright law.

Flava says the videos shared by Fisher were downloaded 3,449 times and therefore the $1.5 million penalty calculates to $435 per alleged download.

Also See

• No access to content leads to piracy: Google's Gautam Anand
• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak slams US piracy case
• Websites need not block piracy: EU court

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