The European Parliament has adopted a report that urges the EU Commission to propose legislation that will combat sports streaming piracy. Specifically, the report calls for new rules that require online services to take down unauthorized live streams within 30 minutes of being notified by a copyright holder or 'trusted whistleblower' In recent years the European Commission has proposed and adopted various legislative changes to help combat online piracy. This includes the Copyright Directive which passed last year as well as the Digital Services Act, which was officially unveiled last December. These changes have been welcomed by major copyright holders but not all of them are entirely pleased. The owners of the rights to major sports events, for example, believe that current solutions are not suited to deal with live streaming piracy. Swift Takedowns for Live Streaming For sports groups, timing is of the utmost importance. When pirates publish live streams, it is pointless reporting them when it takes two hours before a takedown notice is processed. By that time, the football match or UFC fight has already ended. To address this problem, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament agreed on a draft resolution, proposed by rapporteur Angel Dzhambazki. This effectively proposes a system where online platforms and hosting services are required to remove pirated sports streams soon as possible. Specifically, the draft calls for current legislation to be updated to “specify that the removal of the illegal content should take place immediately after reception of the notice and no later than 30 minutes after the event started.” These takedown notices can be sent by the copyright holders or by ‘trusted whistleblowers’ who are certified to police online platforms. Parliament Adopts ’30-Minute’ Takedown Proposal After approving the draft it was referred to the European Parliament which approved it with 479 votes in favor, 171 against, and 40 abstentions. This means that it will now be sent to the EU Commission, which has to decide whether it will submit a legislative proposal on the issue, or not. Rapporteur Angel Dzhambazki is hopeful that the Commission will pick up this issue, which he believes is much needed to protect sports organizers. “The piracy of the content of live broadcast sporting events is a major challenge for the organizers. The problem with the existing measures is that enforcement comes too late,” Dzhambazki comments today. “In the report, Parliament calls on the Commission to clarify and adapt the existing legislation, including the possibility of enacting orders to block or remove access to unauthorized live online sports broadcasts in real time,” the rapporteur adds. Not All MEPs Are Happy With the Vote Not all Members of Parliament are in favor of these measures. Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer actively tried to stop the plan, backed by the Greens/EFA Group. While that didn’t work, Breyer did get an amendment passed to prevent overblocking. Overall, however, the Pirate Party MEP still believes that the proposed legislation will do more harm than good and he hopes the Commission agrees. “The commercialized sports lobby prevailed and obtained a vote for radical measures that would be ineffective but harmful to fans and users in general. I hope these draconian measures such as take-downs without court orders will never be implemented,” Breyer tells us. “The Commission should know better than to counteract its own proposal of a Digital Services Act. At least we won a tight majority for our amendment 10 stressing that illegal content never justifies the overblocking also of legal content on the same server,” he adds. No Harm to Consumers? In a press release on today’s vote, the European Parliament is also mindful of potential overblocking, noting that arbitrary or disproportionate blocking of legal content should be avoided. At the same time, copyright holders have an obligation to ensure that legal options are widely available to consumers. These consumers should not be held liable for illegal streaming either, the Parliament clarifies. “Liability for the illegal broadcast of sporting events should lie with the providers of sports streams, and not with the fans or consumers.” That final comment is important. This stresses that if new measures are implemented, these are not intended to back a crackdown against streaming users. Instead, they are solely targeted at hosting platforms and online streaming providers.

pansexual

Mental

Leipzig

Nike

Fiji

Eager

genocide

VPN.ht is asking a Virginia federal court to dismiss the piracy lawsuit filed by a group of movie companies earlier this year. The VPN service argues that the court has no jurisdiction over the company and its Algerian operator, who had never heard of Virginia before this case started. VPN.ht also asks the court to lift a temporary restraining order that froze the PayPal account of a third-party company. A group of movie production outfits, including affiliates of the film studios Millennium Media and Voltage Pictures, filed a lawsuit against VPN.ht in March. The companies accuse the VPN provider of promoting the piracy app Popcorn Time to its users, noting that a VPN.ht IP-address was repeatedly used to share pirated films. After filing the original complaint, the copyright holders moved full steam ahead. A few weeks ago, they successfully obtained a temporary restraining order that required PayPal to freeze the assets of VPN.ht’s operating company Wicked Technology Limited. VPN.ht Filed Motion to Dismiss This order was a major setback for Wicked Technology and its owner, an Algerian citizen named Mohamed Faouani, who hope to turn things around. In a motion to dismiss filed late last week, the defendants argue that they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Virginia federal court. Wicked Technology and its owner are represented by attorney Benjamin Maskell, who stresses that VPN.ht didn’t specifically target people in the state. In fact, Faouani had never heard about Virginia before he was sued. “Faouani has never traveled to the United States, and had never heard of the state of Virginia prior to this lawsuit. He does not have an interest in, use, or possess any real property in Virginia. He has not transacted any business in Virginia or contracted to supply services or things in Virginia.” Under US law, complaints have to meet certain standards when foreign people are sued. To establish jurisdiction, there have to be ‘sufficient minimum contacts’ with the state and the legal claim must be connected to those contacts. In addition, there should be reasonable grounds to sue the foreign defendant. No Connection to Virginia In this case, there is no substantial connection to Virginia, the defense argues. The VPN provider and its owner didn’t purposefully target Virginia, they simply offered their service to people who could be located anywhere in the world. “The facts giving rise to Plaintiffs’ claims in this case involve online activity and VPN services that were not expressly directed at Virginia, but to an undefined group of Internet users around the world,” the defense notes. “Nothing indicates that the Wicked Defendants specifically directed advertising or web activity at Virginia or to Virginia or U.S. users. The Wicked Defendants did not direct the sales of VPN services to Virginia or any Virginia consumers, nor did it require or request that Voxility subcontract to the CoreSite data center in Reston, Virginia.” The Hosting Issue The movie companies previously highlighted that VPN.ht used the hosting service Voxility, which supplied a Virginia-based IP address. The defendants don’t deny this. However, they never instructed Voxility to operate a connection in Virginia. Apparently, Voxility used the services from a CoreSite-operated data center in Reston, Virginia, without any instructions or directions from the VPN provider. “The Wicked Defendants did not specifically structure the relationship with Voxility to facilitate anything or provide any services in Virginia. The IP address at issue was obtained indirectly, as Voxility reallocated or reassigned IP addresses it received from ARIN and RIPE to its customer Wicked.” Dismiss Case and Unfreeze Funds Based on these and other arguments, Wicked Technology and owner Faouani ask the Virginia federal court to dismiss the complaint for a lack of personal jurisdiction. In addition, they want the PayPal funds to be unfrozen as well. According to the defense, the PayPal account should have never been frozen in the first place. It belongs to the third-party company Wicked Technology UAE which wasn’t sued and, as the name suggests, is incorporated in the United Arab Emirates. Finally, the defendants also contest that they were properly served. They were notified though “registered email” only which isn’t sufficient, they argue, adding that this alone means that the court doesn’t have proper jurisdiction. This isn’t the first time that these movie companies have been challenged over a jurisdictional issue. Last year, a federal court in Hawaii ruled that it did’t have jurisdiction over the foreign operator of the torrent site MKVCage, denying a request for $150,000 in piracy damages.

Nissan

Peugeot

Quesadilla

The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment has announced that it has "put a permanent end" to the activities of piracy release group NTG. Working online under the pseudonym 'notthegrinch', the operator of the group ripped movies and TV shows from streaming services and uploaded them to several major private trackers from where they spread to more public services. Those who dare to place thousands of pirated movies and TV shows online via so-called ‘release groups’ tread a very fine line. On the one hand, they could face the wrath of law enforcement and potentially years in prison. On the other, things may play out rather differently as a deterrent to others. Release group NTG has been active for around three years, mainly uploading movies and TV shows culled from online streaming services, Amazon in particular. These so-called WEB-DL and WEB-RIP releases are popular since their quality is generally good, especially in the case of the former. And NTG released thousands. Users of public torrent sites will be familiar with NTG (notthegrinch) releases due to the prominent three-letter tag but the group (most probably a single person) was mainly an uploader on a handful of major private trackers, members-only torrent sites from where his releases trickled down into the mainstream. That show, however, is now well and truly over. ACE Announces “Permanent End” to NTG Release Group In a new announcement, the Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment – the global anti-piracy coalition featuring all of the main Hollywood studios, Amazon, Netflix, and around three dozen other content companies, say that they have put a “permanent end” to the NTG group’s activities. “One of the world’s most prolific providers of ‘ripped and uploaded’ pirated content since 2018, with 4600 releases in the last year alone, NTG, also known as ‘Not the Grinch,’ illegally made new movies and TV shows available to the public within minutes of a title’s legitimate digital/streaming release,” ACE reports. “Ceasing NTG’s operations is yet another victory for ACE and sends a clear message to illegal operators working in the ripping and uploading space that ACE will find you and pursue enforcement action against you,” adds Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association. NTG Apologizes For The Damage Caused That ACE would expend significant resources to shut down NTG doesn’t come as a surprise. In addition to the many releases that appeared online with specific NTG ‘branding’, it’s believed that other release entities used NTG releases to make their own lower-quality movie and TV show releases, presented under their own branding. The end of NTG means an end not only to that brand but several others too. Interestingly, ACE nor the MPA make any reference to law enforcement proceedings directly against NTG or the person operating under the alias ‘notthegrinch’. They do not mention any action against the private trackers he once called home either and there is no public reveal of settlement details. While none of these things are off the table, the nature of the announcement suggests that a criminal case is probably unlikely. What ACE does present to the public is a rather unusual ‘apology’ from NTG, which they hope will serve as a warning to others operating in the ripping business. “We are aware of the harm that NTG has caused to the many people who work so hard to bring entertainment to a mass audience and we take full responsibility for the damage we have brought to the industry,” a NTG spokesperson said, as quoted by ACE. “We had mistakenly believed that we could hide behind the anonymity of the Internet, but we have been caught and have agreed to shut down.” The apology certainly ticks all of the right boxes for a PR release but it does sound just a little uncharacteristic, which is most possibly the result of having a formidable team of multi-billion dollar companies pressing for action – or else. While there is no official confirmation, the ACE release is labeled as emanating from Canada, which may suggest the NTG group was operated from there.

Zealous

After being founded in 2017, 123movies.la grew to become one of the most popular pirate streaming sites online. But along with tens of millions of monthly visitors, its profile also drew unwanted attention. The site's domain is now in the hands of the Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment after its operator reached an agreement with ACE and agreed to close down. The brand ‘123movies’ and variants thereof have been associated with many pirate streaming platforms over the years, some more successful than others. As far back as 2016, 123Movies.to was being watched by Hollywood and in the same year was reported to the USTR for being a notorious pirate market. In 2018, the site was branded the largest pirate streaming site in the world before being shut down as part of a criminal investigation. With many other sites using the 123Movies branding, however, a replacement is never far away. MPA and ACE Target 123Movies.la In September 2020, TorrentFreak learned that the MPA had requested a DMCA subpoena requiring Cloudflare to hand over the personal and account details relating to the operators of a number of sites including The Pirate Bay, YTS, 1337x, and EZTV. Within that list was a request to learn more about the people behind 123Movies.la, yet another pirate streaming site with tens of millions of visitors per month. It’s unknown whether that process directly led to any useful information but it is now clear that by some means, ACE eventually managed to identify the operator of 123Movies.la. 123Movies.la Shuts Down, ACE ‘Seizes’ Domain Today, visitors to 123Movies.la are no longer presented with masses of free movies. Instead, they are presented with the familiar Alliance For Creativity ‘seizure’ banner which performs a countdown before redirecting to the ACE portal. Whois details show that that the domain registrant is now MarkMonitor Inc, the company used by the MPA to administer its domains, and now utilizes the DNS servers located at Films.org, a domain owned and operated by the MPA. The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment is also confirming the ‘seizure’. “From its debut in late 2017, 123movies.la received an average of nearly 30 million monthly visits, making the site one of the most popular pirate services globally,” a statement from the global anti-piracy group reads. “Further to cease-and-desist communication and a settlement with the operator, the popular streaming website has shut down and the domain has been transferred to ACE. Visitors of the domain are now redirected to legal offer platforms.” Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association, says the shutdown of 123Movies.la is a testament to the relentless work of the global ACE team. “This action encapsulates ACE’s mission and is a strong example of how we fight to protect the creative marketplace in every corner of the globe,” he adds. According to ACE, the shutdown of the site represents its first-ever action in Tunisia. The Fight Against 123Movies-Branded Sites Continues The closure of 123Movies.la is clearly an important step for the MPA and ACE but stamping out every site carrying that branding will take considerably longer. Earlier this year the major Hollywood studios of the MPA obtained a new site-blocking injunction at the High Court in London compelling local ISPs to block several web-based streaming sites using the ‘123movies’ branding. At least two of those domains appeared in an earlier DMCA subpoena application against Cloudflare. In October 2020, the official website of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort surprised visitors by listing a link to yet another 123Movies-branded site. The ‘error’ was subsequently corrected.

ricochet

A streaming platform has warned people who allegedly shared pirate links of hit K-pop musical Midnight Sun that they are being reported to INTERPOL. MetaTheater took the unusual step of publishing the names of eight Twitter accounts that would also face lawsuits. However, at least two of the targets say they are innocent and MetaTheater appears to be backtracking. With its roots firmly in South Korea, K-pop has since developed into a truly global phenomenon, with the incredibly popular BTS as an obvious example. This has led to the rise of so-called ‘idols’, stars of the K-pop scene that can do everything, from singing and dancing through to modeling and acting. Earlier this year it was revealed that several such idols including Shinee’s Onew, Got7’s Young Jae, Day 6’s Wonpil, Nu’est’s Baekho, and Lovelyz’s Kei, would be starring in the stage musical Midnight Sun. The show is being streamed online by outlets including MetaTheater which according to its promotional material offers live streaming plus VOD services and marketing. The performance is listed on its main page as running from May 1 through to July 25 at a ‘ticket’ price of $40 but has already run into controversy. Your Idols Are Disappointed By Piracy This week, MetaTheater took to Twitter to air its disappointment over illegal streaming links of Midnight Sun that had reportedly been posted to Twitch, Discord and Zoom, among other platforms. “Online musicals do not differ in nature from offline performances. They are the same creative intellectual property and hold the same value. They are the fruits of the production team’s hard work, including those of the actors, musicians, designers, engineers, and producers,” the platform wrote. “The entire team of is aware of the situation and is very disappointed by the news.” MetaTheater Issues Stark Warnings To Pirates Knowing that their idols are disappointed in them may be enough to turn some K-pop pirates into paying customers but MetaTheater is taking no chances. Warning that it has a zero-tolerance approach to piracy, it has informed infringers that both civil and criminal actions are on the way, the latter involving one of the world’s most powerful law enforcement agencies. “MetaTheater, along with copyright protection agencies, holds zero tolerance to illegal copying and distribution of copyright materials. Civil and criminal charges will be carried out through INTERPOL in Korea and abroad, if illegal acts of reproduction and distribution are detected,” the streaming platform warned. “Creating and distributing links to share screens, recording & distributing performance clips are all illegal acts of reproduction and distribution.” While this sounds serious enough, MetaTheater also took the unusual step of publishing the names of eight Twitter accounts that it claimed had breached its rights, were being reported to law enforcement, and would face civil lawsuits. Unfortunately, that led to even more controversy. Some Twitter Users Confused One of the targeted users immediately complained they’d done nothing wrong and expressed embarrassment that MetaTheater had exposed them in this fashion. Then there was outrage from another, who couldn’t understand what they had done either. Reaching out to MetaTheater apparently yielded no results. “I don’t know what to say. But I need a quick answer what I am doing wrong. I have sent dm and email since yesterday. But I didn’t get an answer. I am seriously worried that I am doing something wrong. Please reply me soon, Thank you,” they wrote as part of a long series of tweets. Of course, it’s very simple indeed to simply state “I didn’t do anything wrong” but it appears that after the protests from these users, MetaTheater removed them from the list of names being reported to INTERPOL, posted a revised list to Twitter, and offered an explanation. “We have received explanations/statements from some of the accounts listed on our illegal reproduction & distribution notice. We had included accounts on our list because we found evidence of illegal reproduction & distribution associated with them. Cases that provided enough counter-evidence are being reviewed again and the list has been updated accordingly,” the streaming platform wrote. “[W]e do not wish for people to be wrongly accused. If you become listed and believe there has been a misunderstanding, please send us your proof so we may assess the matter.” Warnings Coincide With Korea’s Funding of INTERPOL While MetaTheater will now have to deal with the fallout from what could be oversights in publicly naming at least some of the alleged pirates, this week South Korea announced that it would indeed be funding INTERPOL to tackle online piracy via a new initiative. “With EUR 2.7 million funding from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, the five-year INTERPOL Stop Online Piracy (I-SOP) initiative will counter online piracy and crimes involving intellectual property rights infringement, identifying and dismantling linked illicit online marketplaces, as well as targeting the criminal networks and confiscating their assets,” their statement reads. “The Korean National Police Agency will play an important role in collaborating with INTERPOL to build partnerships with industry, international organizations and academia.” Whether this has any direct connection to the warnings on Twitter over Midnight Sun piracy remains a question. MetaTheater didn’t immediately respond to TorrentFreak’s request for comment but given the timing, it’s likely the streaming platform is well aware of the initiative and the deterrent effect it could have on pirates.

Facetious

Orlando

Toblerone

kerion

Invincible

GitHub has restored a fork of the fan-made “Re3” project that published reverse-engineered code of the popular GTA 3 and Vice City games. The action follows a counter-notice sent by a third-party developer in response to Take-Two Interactive's takedown. Github followed the DMCA procedure and isn't publicly taking sides. In February, a group of developers released a project that had many passionate GTA fans excited. After years of work, they published “Re3” and “reVC,” two fully reverse-engineered releases of the GTA III and Vice City games, which were originally released two decades ago. The reverse-engineered code opens the door to many tweaks and modifications that make the old games much more playable on modern computers. Importantly, however, an official copy of the games was still required for the code to work properly since game assets are not included. Take-Two Takes Down Reverse-Engineered GTA Code GTA fans welcomed the releases with open arms but the same can’t be said for Take-Two Interactive. A few days after “Re3” and “reVC” were posted on GitHub, the game publisher took them offline, claiming copyright infringement. “The content in the links below consists of copyrighted materials owned by Take-Two. The use of our copyrighted content in these links are unauthorized and it should be removed immediately,” Take-Two Interactive wrote. When the news first broke, project leader “aap” said that the team was considering possible options to restore the code. That is not without risk. Under US law, reverse-engineering can be seen as fair use, but this area is a bit of a minefield that could open the door to an expensive legal battle. The DMCA takedown notice didn’t just target the official GitHub repository. There were more than 200 forks that were pulled offline too. One of these forks was created by a New Zealand-based developer named Theo, who, unlike the main developers, decided to take a stand. Fork Owner Sends Counter-Notice Last month, Theo submitted a counter-notice, arguing that his fork was taken down without a proper reason. “This should not have happened,” he informed GitHub. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the developer says that the reverse-engineered code is not completely identical to Take-Two’s original. Since it’s not copied verbatim, he believes that the game publisher can’t claim it as theirs. “It would appear that the code in the re3 repo is reverse engineered, not a straight decompilation. I believe Take-Two’s claim to be wholly incorrect if this is the case, since the code may be functionally identical, but not exactly identical, they hold no claim to the code. “I do not agree with how Take-Two handles events like this,” Theo adds, referencing an earlier debacle when Take-Two targeted the OpenIV modding tool. “Taking down code that does not belong to them is abhorrent.” Github Restores Forked Repository While this may seem like a David vs. Goliath battle, the developer’s counter-notice was successful. After two weeks, GitHub restored the fork, which is now accessible to the public again. This doesn’t mean that GitHub has taken sides. The DMCA rules simply dictate that disputed content has to be restored between 10 and 14 business days, unless the rightsholder takes legal action. Theo tells us that he hasn’t heard from Take-Two in response to his takedown notice. While he’s aware of the legal risk that he faces, the developer doesn’t expect the game publisher to pursue this any further. This would mean that the reverse-engineered code remains online.

Xiaomi

Internet provider Cox Communications has filed a lawsuit against Rightscorp and BMG, accusing them of sending thousands of DMCA notices to an outdated email address. The ISP argues that the companies intentionally engaged in an abusive and unfair campaign with a goal of fabricating massive copyright infringement claims. Internet provider Cox Communications has been on the losing end of several piracy lawsuits in recent years. In December 2015, a Virginia federal jury held Cox Communications responsible for pirating subscribers, ordering the company to pay music publisher BMG Rights Management $25 million in damages. This damages figure was reduced in a settlement agreement but, soon after, the Internet provider was hit with a $1 billion jury verdict in a similar case, which is still under appeal. Overhauling the Takedown System These lawsuits were a wake-up call for Cox. To cope with the constant stream of DMCA notices, the company spent millions to improve its takedown systems and processes. In 2017, DMCA notices were separated from other abuse complaints. After that, rightsholders were directed to use a new email address which is also listed as the registered agent at the Copyright Office. While pretty much all copyright holders immediately started using the new takedown email, Rightscorp and BMG continued to use the old [email protected] address. Cox has reminded the companies through repeated emails and certified letters, but they still use the old email address today. This situation presents a problem for the ISP. It can either incur significant costs to properly process the notices or ignore them and risk massive liability claims and damages. Cox Takes Rightscorp and BMG to Court To get more clarity Cox Communications has decided to take Rightscorp and BMG to court. In a complaint filed at a California federal court, the ISP accuses the companies of intentionally sending thousands of invalid DMCA notices with the goal of fabricating massive secondary infringement claims. “If Defendants were truly trying to notify Cox’s subscribers of allegations of copyright infringement, they would be sending notices to Cox’s registered agent, as required by law. Cox has informed Defendants of this numerous times, yet Defendants persist in misdirecting their notices to an improper email address,” the ISP writes. “It is obvious that Defendants’ tactic is a thinly veiled attempt to exploit the procedures set forth by the [DMCA], with the goal of leveraging their improper notices to attempt to extract windfall judgments for BMG and Rightscorp’s other prospective clients. Their approach is improper and unlawful, and should be stopped.” Multiple Warnings and Alerts The complaint describes in great detail how Cox has tried to get Rightscorp and BMG to use the correct email address. In 2018, Cox’s Senior IP Counsel sent an email to Rightscorp alerting it about the new DMCA address. This went unanswered, and so did a reminder that was sent in early 2019. While Rightscorp didn’t reply, it briefly stopped sending DMCA notices after the second email. This prompted Cox to reach out again, making sure that everything was in order. However, Rightscorp did not respond. After a few months, in July 2019, Rightscorp started sending DMCA notices again, still to the old abuse address. To prevent potential liability claims, Cox forwarded these to the correct address, investing significant resources to make sure that no errors occurred. After nearly a year had passed Cox reached out to Rightscorp again, this time by sending certified letters to three different addresses. These letters informed the company that DMCA notices sent to the old address would no longer be processed. While the letters were received in good order, Rightscorp didn’t respond. However, the company stopped sending DMCA notices for several months. As indicated, Cox went ahead and reconfigured its main servers to no longer forward DMCA notices that were sent to the old address. But that wasn’t the end of it. Rightscorp Continues to Use the Wrong Address In December last year, Rightscorp started sending DMCA notices to the old email address again. This was no longer in use for this purpose, but Cox had configured ‘bounce’ reports which showed that tens of thousands of emails were sent. “Since December 2020, when Cox stopped forwarding Defendants’ improper notices to [email protected], and Cox had begun sending bounce-back notifications, Defendants have sent tens of thousands of notices to Cox, all of which are improper and legally invalid under the DMCA. Indeed, in the month of April 2021 alone, Rightscorp sent Cox more than 75,000 invalid notices,” Cox writes. The ISP sent yet another certified letter but that went unanswered once again. The company now hopes that the court can help it to resolve the matter. ‘Corrupt’ and ‘Extortionate’ Business Model In addition to describing the context of the dispute, Cox is very critical of Rightscorp’s practices in general. It accuses the company of intentionally sending duplicate notices to trigger ‘repeat infringer’ allegations and extort alleged pirates in the process. “Rightscorp’s business plan is simple, and corrupt: it floods an ISP with an enormous number of notices, each of which purports to accuse an internet subscriber of copyright infringement. It demands that the ISP forward the notices to the accused subscribers,” the complaint reads. “And with each notice that is forwarded, Rightscorp attempts to extort the receiving subscriber into making a monetary settlement with Rightscorp, by threatening them with loss of internet service, federal litigation, and potentially ruinous statutory damages.” Declaratory Judgment and Damages To solve the matter once and for all, Cox asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment confirming that DMCA notices sent to the old [email protected] email address are invalid. In addition, the ISP accuses Rightscorp and BMG of causing irreparable harm and injury through their incorrect DMCA notices. This amounts to negligence and electronic trespass to chattels, for which Cox demands the maximum amount in damages.