Voltage Pictures Launches DMCA Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against AT&T
September 5, 2022 – Voltage Pictures, LLC and its affiliates have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against internet service provider AT&T in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District Of Texas.[1]
Voltage Pictures alleges AT&T “has knowingly allowed [its] users to engage in online piracy, the illegal distribution and downloading of copyrighted materials, including films.” Voltage claims it notified AT&T of this piracy to no avail:
AT&T knows that it is facilitating mass online piracy. Copyright owners have repeatedly told AT&T that its services are used for piracy. Voltage and its affiliates—the producers and copyright owners of movies like Dallas Buyers Club and I Feel Pretty—have sent AT&T more than one hundred thousand infringement notices. In the last few years alone, AT&T users have pirated Voltage’s movies over six hundred thousand times.
Voltage claims AT&T is not eligible for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor protections because during the time in which the alleged infringements occurred, “AT&T had neither adopted nor reasonably implemented a policy that provides for the termination of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.” Voltage provides this allegation:
For example, AT&T failed to terminate the account of its subscriber at IP address 104.5.19.25 even after AT&T received multiple notices of copyright infringement at this address. AT&T received at least 1000 notices of copyright infringement for this IP address. Each notice accounted for at least one instance of infringement.
The complaint contains four causes of action: contributory copyright infringement; vicarious copyright infringement; contributory violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; and vicarious violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Voltage is seeking actual and statutory damages. Additionally, Voltage wants the court to order AT&T “to block users from accessing notorious piracy websites of foreign origin including those listed in the annual trade report of Notorious Foreign Markets published by the United States Government such as (a) YTS; (b) Piratebay; (c) Rarbg; and (d) 1337x on networks under its control to prevent further [piracy].”
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[1] Voltage Holdings et al. v. AT&T, Case 3:22-cv-01966-M, Complaint For Copyright Infringement And DMCA Violations And Demand For Jury Trial, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Sep. 2, 2022); Ernesto Van der Sar, Filmmakers Sue AT&T to Block Pirate Sites & Disconnect Repeat Infringers, torrentfreak.com (Sep. 6, 2022), https://torrentfreak.com/filmmakers-sue-att-to-block-pirate-sites-disconnect-repeat-infringers-220906/.
