Beware if you are downloading Jim Carrey’s ‘Dumb and Dumber To’ illegally, you may be sued
If you have downloaded or even thinking of downloading Jim Carrey’s latest blockbuster, Dumb and Dumber To, you may face legal action. At least US citizens who come under the purview of US laws will because DDTO Finance LLC has filed several lawsuits in Oregon against Comcast to reveal subscriber identities so that defendants can be pursued for damages for downloading the movie illegally.
Dumb and Dumber To is sequel to Jim Carrey’s 1994 hit Dumb and Dumber and stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as main protagonists who are reprising their roles twenty years after the events of the first film, and also features Laurie Holden and Kathleen Turner. The film tells the story of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne (played by Carrey and Daniels, respectively), who set out on a cross country trip to find Harry’s daughter who had been adopted.
The film, Dumb and Dumber To has been a offline as well as online hit with it being one of the top 10 downloaded movies currently on torrent networks.
In motions filed at the United States District Court in Oregon, DDTO Finance, LLC explains that it needs to obtain the identities of at least five individuals said to have downloaded and shared the comedy without permission. The plaint filed by DDTO states that, “The Doe defendant is a BitTorrent user, or ‘peer,’ whose computer is interconnected with others and was used for illegally copying and distributing plaintiff’s motion picture to others.” DDTO also adds,“Plaintiff is suing the Doe defendant for using the Internet, specifically the BitTorrent file distribution network, to commit copyright infringement.”
Though it has conceded that the subscriber may not necessarily be the actual infringer, DDTO Finance has called upon the Court to force Comcast to reveal the subscriber details quickly so that ongoing infringement can be brought to an end.
“[It] is the experience of counsel that parties generally promptly terminate infringing activity and further distribution as soon as they have notice of an actual suit pending,” motion for discovery adds.
The copyright infringement complaint filed by DDTO states that that Dumb and Dumber To is one of top illegally downloaded movies on BitTorrent networks “with over 1,000 confirmed infringing Internet Protocol (‘IP’) addresses in Oregon alone.”
DDTO has prayed for a permanent injunction against the defendants (read downloaders), costs and attorney fees, statutory damages of up to $150,000, and a trial by jury. Though in all probability, Comcast and DDTO will reach a out of the court settlement with some money and names changing hands.
