Corbin Fisher’s Anti-Piracy Rampage May Be More Trouble Than It’s Worth

Corbin Fisher's Anti-Piracy Rampage May Be More Trouble Than It's Worth
Corbin Fisher continues to cement its reputation as the suing-est sue company this side of Suesville. First they went after Jake Lyons for posting their pics on his “escort” profile and now they’re tracking down 40,000 alleged porn pirates and issuing them $1,900 fines… or else!
Apart from asking people to pay up before they’ve even been formally charged with a crime, they’re also locating folks via BitTorrent IP addresses—a method that may have some problems. IP addresses aren’t the most precise way to locate someone, meaning they could potentially fine the wrong person or find a bunch of dead ends from public WiFi hotspots at Starbucks and other places. Also some LGBT blogs think Corbin Fisher might potentially out closeted teens downloading gay porn on the sly to their parents. We’re not so sure about that, but maybe it’s time for anti-piracy studios to consider a new way forward.
Porn magazines and studios already have trouble staying afloat in the digital age. Corbin Fisher isn’t the first studio to hunt down torrent pirates, but they’re probably spending lots of money on these mailed notices and lawyer threats just to risk being countersued by other wrongly targeted folks, having alleged offenders not pay, and leaving them to fight numerous court battles that will continue to garner unsavory press.
Instead of subscriptions could they consider trying an iTunes type store that lets people pay per scene on a controlled media player? That wouldn’t stop all the piracy, but it might get them enough newly interested fans and more money than their continued quest to hunt down thousands of alleged pirates.

Feb 18, 2011 By paperbagwriter 15 Comments