NEW YORK - BitTorrent users are in the hot seat as nearly 50,000 users of BitTorrent's peer-to-peer downloading software have been targeted, accused of illegally downloading Hurt Locker and Expendables. Voltage Pictures, the studios behind The Hurt Locker, and Nu Image, the studios behind Expendables, filed lawsuits in federal court in Washington, D.C. against roughly 50,000 BitTorrent users.
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing network. It's users host fractions of files on their computer allowing other BitTorrent users to download (a violation of the copyright owners Reproduction right). Seriously though, who is still using Torrents? Torrents are incredibly annoying, I'm surprised anybody still messes with them.
I'd think the Defendants could possibly argue that their individual Wifi's were not secured, and as a result, the Wifi's were 'open' to the public, effectively allowing anyone to download Hurt Locker or Expendables via Defendant's IP.
3rd party file sharing sites (hulkshare, mediafire, sendspace, megaupload, rapidshare, etc etc) seem to be the only safe way in which to download at the moment. If these sites ever come under fire though, r.i.p. to the blogosphere music scene...
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