Ever heard of last year’s Werner Herzog flick Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman and James Franco? How about the tearjerker Fathers and Daughters, with the likes of Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried?
Yeah, we’ve never even seen the trailers pop up in our radars either. All the more reason why both movies were financial flops — Queen of the Desert grossed $2 million against a $26 million production budget, while Fathers and Daughters grossed over $5 million against a $22.4 million production budget.
Not even method acting could save this one
So they had to make their money back somehow. Their solution: Hunt down illegal downloaders of the films to sue their pants off.
Just like the Dallas Buyers Club case last year, the rights owners to these films have launched legal proceedings. Samuel Seow Law Corporation — the very same one that acted on behalf of Dallas Buyers Club LLC — are at it again, serving papers to Singtel, StarHub and M1. TODAY reported that a pre-trial conference has been scheduled in the High Court today, with QOTD Investments and Fathers & Daughters Nevada LLC as plaintiffs.
It should be no surprise then that Fathers and Daughters was produced by Voltage Pictures, the same people behind the award-winning Dallas Buyers Club. The American film company has had a long history of filing lawsuits with severe financial penalties against individuals they accused of illegally sharing their movies online. The only difference here is that Fathers and Daughters is apparently a way shittier movie.
In any case, should the High Court rule in the favour of the movie owners, Internet service providers will be forced to snitch on their customers. Letters will be sent to identified Internet subscribers with IP addresses allegedly involved in torrenting the films.
It’s copyright trolling at best — nothing ever came out of the Dallas Buyers Club case and nobody got dragged to court. What did happen was that the Law Society of Singapore went after two former lawyers of Samuel Seow Law Corporation following a complaint lodged over their conduct during their unrelenting proceedings against alleged illegal downloaders.
