Porn studio offers "amnesty" if file-sharers turn themselves in

Lately, we’ve been seeing several porn-producing movie studios using mass copyright infringement lawsuits in an attempt to get money from alleged file-sharers. One studio, however, is taking a bit of a different approach by giving illegal file-sharers a chance to turn themselves in and pay a reduced fine before a lawsuit is filed.

Corbin Fisher, a studio that produces films geared toward gay adults, is about to begin suing people for allegedly sharing their movies, but is offering an “amnesty period” now through February 8th, during which guilty parties can turn themselves in and settle all claims for a one-time $1000 fine. As a bonus, those who take the settlement offer will receive a one-year membership to “Corbin Fisher's premier online adult content sites”.

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“Despite the fact that these people are stealing from us, we wanted to give them a chance to admit their mistakes and move on,” Corbin Fisher’s COO Brian Dunlap told adult industry news source XBIZ. “Therefore, we are offering this limited period where we will resolve these cases quickly and cheaply.”

The company is warning file-sharers that they have already begun the process of identifying infringers, and that not participating in this offer could result in a much greater penalty later.

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"The company won millions of dollars in court judgments in the past year, including a recent $250,000 judgment against a single torrent user," a Corbin Fisher representative said in a statement. "A list of thousands of torrent users has already been provided to Corbin Fisher by an independent research group, and all of these users will be targeted in the first wave of lawsuits to be filed in February. Anyone who has shared Corbin Fisher content via a torrent site is encouraged to contact the company immediately."

This is an offer that probably wouldn’t work for major motion pictures, but since we’re talking about porn films it may actually be a compelling offer to some. People who care about their reputation will likely jump at an offer like this in exchange for not having to deal with the shame of being associated with illegally sharing pornography. It will be interesting to see if the Electronic Freedom Foundation releases any comments about Corbin Fisher’s offer, as they have been quite outspoken about copyright infringement cases involving porn films..

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