I believe it is the duty of the copyright holders to “police their own copyrights,” meaning, if a company sees a file sharing tracker or website hosting an unlicensed copy of their copyrighted work, BY ALL MEANS, issue a DMCA takedown notice to the website or to the file sharing tracker, and that torrent will be GONE AND UNAVAILABLE for downloaders to take the content.
[2017 UPDATE: Carl Crowell has created a new entity called RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT which has reverse-engineered CEG-TEK’s proprietary DMCA copyright infringement notice system. Many of you have visited CEG-TEK links thinking that RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT was CEG-TEK, but really they are an ‘evil twin’ competitor. Since the two entities operate almost the same way, and since Crowell has solicited (and likely taken) most of the clients on this list, this article is relevant.]2016 UPDATE: I wrote this article in June, 2014. Immediately afterwards, a number of the companies changed their names which confused the issue of who was a copyright troll suing defendants, and who was not a copyright troll. It is now almost two years later, and while I usually do not update older posts, since this article does still come up from time to time, I am updated a few of the copyright holders’ names. -RZC
Rather than doing this, copyright holders hire CEG-TEK to target EVERY SINGLE DOWNLOADER with a letter forwarded by various ISPs, privacy providers, or university IT departments who are cooperating with CEG-TEK (sometimes for profit).
Account holders receive “notice of infringement” letters sent directly to them either via an e-mail, FedEx, or a screen pop-up link along with a notification that they have violated the ISP’s terms of service. CEG-TEK’s letters now ask for $250-$300 per download, and they direct the accused downloaders to the “Copyright Settlements” website (http://www.copyrightsettlements.com) with a link which pre-populates the assigned Case Number and Password into the website.
With the cooperation of the ISPs in forwarding CEG-TEK’s letters to accused downloaders, there is no longer an anonymity barrier between the accused downloaders and the copyright holders as there once was when CEG-TEK would need a court order to access the identities of the accused downloaders.
Now, since various ISPs and universities (e.g., Charter, Suddenlink, CenturyLink, Giganews, etc.; NOTE: Comcast, Verizon, and the other big ISPs appear NOT to be working with CEG-TEK for the moment) have been useless in stopping the copyright holders from contacting the account holders, other than hiring a lawyer such as myself to create a buffer between the copyright holders and the accused account holders, internet users should probably be aware of which companies are using this extortion tactic of “we will sue you unless you pay us money for the video you have downloaded.”
Here is a list I compiled from my own records as to which copyright holders are [at the moment] using Ira Siegel and CEG-TEK to “monetize” their “most pirated” copyrights. I want to point out that I am conflicted as to whether to post this list because the list itself can be deceiving — a title “not” on this list can still be monitored, and by no means am I suggesting that someone avoid these titles and download others.
Axel Braun Productions
Celestial Inc., DBA Lethal Hardcore
Cinderella Distributors Inc.
Coast to Coast Video
Daring Media Group
Diabolic
Echo Alpha, Inc. DBA Evil Angel (Not Angel Has Fallen)
Fallout Films
Froytal Services Limited DBA Babes (now known as “MG Premium Ltd.”)
Froytal Services Limited DBA Brazzers (now known as “MG Premium Ltd.”)
Froytal Services Limited DBA Mofos (now known as “MG Premium Ltd.”)
GGW Direct, LLC DBA “Girls Gone Wild”
Froytal Services Limited DBA Twistys (now known as “MG Premium Ltd.”)
Giant Media Group, Inc. DBA Devil’s Film (they have changed this name more than once, but have kept the “Devil’s Film” trade name.)
Girlfriends Films Inc.
Intense Industries
JM Productions Inc.
JW Releasing Ltd
Kick … Pictures Inc.
LFP Internet Group, LLC DBA Hustler
Manwin Content RK Limited DBA Reality Kings (now known as “MG Content RK Limited”)
Manwin DP Corp. DBA Digital Playground
Marc Dorcel
Marc Dorcel DBA SBO Pictures, Inc.
SBO Pictures DBA Vouyer Media
SBO Pictures DBA Wicked Pictures
Metro Media Entertainment
Millennium TGA, DBA Grooby Productions
Patrick Collins Inc., DBA Elegant Angel
Pleasure Productions Inc.
RLD Distribution LLC
Second Phase Distribution Inc.
Third Degree Films, Inc.
Vivid Entertainment LLC
White Ghetto Films Inc.
Zero Tolerance Entertainment
Perhaps by listing which companies are enforcing their copyrights using this extortion-type of “settle or else we’ll sue” method, it might shame the companies into doing something a bit more ethical (e.g., by policing their own copyrights and issuing DMCA takedown letters rather than attacking the downloaders as a means for financial revenue):