“Copyright trolling” movie studio gets hit with Godzilla-sized lawsuit

[ScooterS]

“Copyright trolling” movie studio gets hit with Godzilla-sized lawsuit

Voltage Pictures sued thousands for torrenting. Now, it's the alleged infringer.

Most mass-copyright lawsuits today are filed over pornographic material. One movie studio, Voltage Pictures, has tread its own path, combining a knack for making critically acclaimed mainstream films with a strong interest in suing online movie pirates. Voltage sued thousands of John Doe defendants it says downloaded The Hurt Locker and more recently sued hundreds for downloading the Academy Award-winning Dallas Buyers Club.

Now, the Japanese company that owns intellectual property rights to Godzilla says that it's Voltage that has blown off copyright laws. In a lawsuit (PDF) filed yesterday, Toho Co. says that Voltage is promoting a new Godzilla film, starring Anne Hathaway, without its permission.

Voltage has been promoting the new film, called Colossal, at the recent Cannes Film Festival. It sent out a promotional e-mail that includes a publicity image from the 2014 movie Godzilla, which, unlike Colossal, acquired Toho's permission to use the character.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, doesn't hesitate to call out Voltage's hypocrisy in defending its own copyright while blowing off the need to license the rights to Godzilla.

"uch blatant infringement of another's intellectual property is wrong enough," Toho lawyers write in their complaint. "That defendants, who are known for zealously protecting their own copyrights, would do so is outrageous in the extreme."

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-conten...sal.email_.png

Godzilla was created in 1954, and the movie Godzilla, King of the Monsters was released in the US in 1956. The plot describes how a lizard monster was re-awakened by the detonation of an atomic bomb. Toho produced 27 sequel films over the years. In 1981, the company acquired a US trademark to the name and character image of Godzilla. The Toho v. Voltage lawsuit includes trademark as well as copyright claims.

The lawsuit says that Colossal is using the Godzilla character for its traditional purpose—annihilating the city of Tokyo. The project is set to be directed by Nacho Vigalondo, who boasted in 2014 that he intends to make "the cheapest Godzilla movie ever."

While Toho is calling out Voltage for their alleged copyright hypocrisy, Toho is a vigorous litigator itself. The company's lawyers compelled Subway to remove a rampaging lizard from an ad campaign, and settled with Warner Bros. for an undisclosed sum over an unlicensed Godzilla chase scene in the 1985 flick, Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Toho also sued Honda for having a Godzilla float in the Rose Parade, settling that case in 1991. It even went after an Arizona rock band that briefly called itself Asshole Godzilla, before it lost its name and Internet domain to Toho lawyers.