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Iron Sky distributor threatens file sharers with lawsuits

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Iron Sky distributor threatens file sharers with lawsuits
By Janko Roettgers

Crowdsourcing, crowd-financing and… file sharing lawsuits? The science fiction comedy Iron Sky has gotten lots of help from its fans, and its filmmakers have in the past relied on BitTorrent to distribute their works. Now, a German distributor is threatening to sue file sharers. A number of German Internet users have received letters from a local law office in recent weeks, threatening them with copyright infringement lawsuits for allegedly distributing the science fiction movie Iron Sky via file sharing networks. There was only one way not to get sued, the letter informed them: Sign a cease-and-desist notice and pay € 800 (about $1012). These kinds of costly cease-and-desist campaings against file sharers aren’t uncommon in Germany; hundreds of thousands of Internet users have been targeted by music labels, porn studios and others with similar demands in recent years, netting rights holders millions. Unusual about this case is that Iron Sky is a crowdsourced and crowd-financed movie, produced by people who made names for themselves with Creative Commons-licensed content that could be freely downloaded and reshared.

Iron Sky is a science fiction comedy, depicting a world in which the Nazis fled to the moon at the end of World War 2. It’s director Timo Vuorensola and its visual effects producer Samuli Torssonen previously rose to fame when they released the Star Trek parody Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning in 2005. That movie was offered for free online and clocked three million downloads within three months. The filmmakers have also in the past lambasted old media for their take on piracy. In a blog post from 2009, Vuorensola wrote: “Piracy in its current, most common form – the digital download – is not a crime.” His current German distributor, Polyband, seems to disagree. The company has hired local law office Sasse & Partners, which has in the past sent out similar letters on behalf of German record companies, according to a local law blogger. Iron Sky has been heavily relying on crowdsourcing for animation, modeling and other parts of the movie making process, and €1 million of the movie’s €7.5 million budget have been contributed by fans. However, the film makers are relying on traditional distributors to actually get the movie in the theaters, and that apparently has resulted in a number of problems. Iron Sky’s British distributor initially intended to only show the movie in theaters for a single day and then immediately take it to DVD. This strategy was opposed by the film makers themselves, who wrote on their blog: “What they are doing is basically stabbing us in the back.” The duo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit threats in Germany, but one can imagine that they’re not too happy about threatening their fans with lawsuits either.

Summary
The science fiction comedy Iron Sky has gotten lots of help from its fans, and its filmmakers have in the past relied on BitTorrent to distribute their works. Iron Sky has been heavily relying on crowdsourcing for animation, modeling and other parts of the movie making process, and €1 million of the movie’s €7.5 million budget have been contributed by fans. Now, a German distributor is threatening to sue file sharers.

Description
The Iron Sky’s British distributor initially intended to only show the movie in theaters for a single day and then immediately take it to DVD. This strategy was opposed by the film makers themselves, who wrote on their blog: “What they are doing is basically stabbing us in the back.” The duo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit threats in Germany, but one can imagine that they’re not too happy about threatening their fans with lawsuits either.

Tags: Creative, Crowdfunding, Crowdsourced, Crowdsourcing, films, Iron Sky, Lawsuits, Science Fiction

Posted by Adam Frazer

Aug 25, 2012 08:24 am GMT Viewed 1058 times

Author: Janko Roettgers Source

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Timo Vuorensola Aug 25, 2012 12:44 pm GMT

This is the director of Iron Sky, Timo Vuorensola, speaking; just to make clear, we, the filmmakers of Iron Sky, do not support in any way the actions of lawyers pursuing file sharers, and have requested on numerous occasions for them to stop doing so.

But the same way as we can't stop piracy, we can't stop the lawyers going after pirates either; we can only ask people not to pirate our film if possible, and demand our distributor to stop chasing pirates under our name.

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