New Company is copyright trolling – for $10 a pop

There are a lot of companies out there that want to nail you for copyright violations. Most of them want ridiculous amounts of cash for a single title. Digital Rights Corp. has a different tactic. They work for the copyright owners, tracking down violators independently and sending the ISP a request for settlement.

How much does it cost to settle? A whopping ten dollars. Yep. $10. Of course, your friendly ISP will forward the bill directly to you, without requesting proof from the company. In fact, the business model for Digital Rights Corp. doesn’t include lawsuits at all.

The company does all its sleuthing and billing through an automated process. According to techdirt:

The company says it has no plans to sue at all. It’s sort of a new tactic in copyright trolling: just send a bill and get the ISP to pass it along. The $10 per infringement is certainly a hell of a lot cheaper than what copyright trolls have asked for in the past. And, of course, the reason this system works is it’s mostly automated. They put together a list of IP addresses that they assume are infringing, send it to the ISP, and get the ISP to pass along the demands for cash.

Apparently two ISPs have decided not to pass on the settlement letters,  and they’ve been taken to court. Why? Because they don’t feel like passing on unsubstantiated claims of copyright infringement by an independent company that asks for $10  with no threat of lawsuit? I mean, it seems legit to me.

If you’ve gotten one of these letters, let us know. It doesn’t appear that there’s any legal basis to pay up, but you’d be better off consulting a lawyer. Which is something they are betting you won’t do, because it will cost you more than $10.

Thanks to Neal

Source: DSL Reports