Originally Posted by johnsteele

I am amazed at the posts here and feel I must respond to some of the more unbelievable and misleading statements here. I would say that my thoughts on the matter should bear some credibility as I am probably the only person here who has actually sued pirates, collected money, and has software to go after pirates. Here goes:

1. "Sell a product worth paying for and you'll cut down on the downloading." Really? So the better the movie, the Less likely someone is to steal it. That makes no sense. Statistics show the most downloaded porn, or mainstream movie, is the good stuff. Why download crap when the #1 porn of the year is also available?

2. Backlash. If someone wants to stand up for the rights of pirates to steal content, I'll take that fight any day, especially in court. Stealing content is a crime. I have to believe that the most of the people defending theft are thieves. I can't believe people depending on selling content to make a living think that stealing content is ok.

3. false positives. I have not had one yet. Our firm's software is so much more advanced than RIAA, that I laugh when people mention us in the same breath as those simpletons. There are trade secrets involved, but I can say that the amount of proof we have that person X downloaded file Y at exactly Z time, etc. is pretty impressive.

4. The people we represent have content being pirated on a massive scale. I have seen attacks on people like Steve Lightspeed, saying he has old content and is not making any money anymore so he is resorting to suing pirates to make money. I do not know how much Steve earns selling content. But I can say he has massive pirating going on, so that means a lot of people want his content.

5. I will keep saying this until I am blue in the face, but here goes: We work on contingency and NEVER make more than the content producer when we do collect money for them. This canard that "all the money just goes to the lawyers" is silly. I wish I got most of the money. I have to suggest that to Steve next time I see him.

6. Blackmail. If making people pay you when you catch them stealing content is blackmail, then so is making someone pay you when they are caught stealing your car. Prosecutors tell Defendants "You agree to this plea deal, and pay X in restitution, or we go to trial and see what the jury thinks of our evidence." If someone did not do what we allege, and we are just making up our accusations, we will have the mother of all counter suits. Despite what the armchair lawyers here think, filing federal lawsuits and going before a judge appointed by the president is no minor task. Since we are batting 100% with our requests to all of the judges hearing all of our cases to date regarding discovery, and our suits in general, I would respectfully suggest that if 1/3 of the federal judges (hey, we are filing a lot, what can we say?) in the Northern District of Illinois thinks these suits have merit, I will trust them over an anonymous poster on gfy.com.

7. Some claim that lawsuits lose money. The RIAA pay their attorneys by the hour. Those attorneys are incentivized to bill as many hours as possible. I work on contingency and only make money if my client does. If my client makes 0, I make less than zero, as I front the costs of the suits. I promise to stop filing these lawsuits the minute I stop making money.

I welcome reasoned responses.