LONDON — Ben Dover Productions this week plans on contacting thousands of alleged porn BitTorrent pirates in its quest to extract settlements from those who traded its content.
Ben Dover Productions, through parent company Golden Eye International, gained approval from the England and Wales High Court last week to send out letters to users of 9,124 IP addresses that have been linked to the alleged piracy.
Ben Dover spokesman Julian Becker told XBIZ that the first letter to those targeted will be more informational regarding the porn studio's evidence of infringement.
Recipients of the letters will be told what to do to negotiate a settlement and will be warned that if they do not respond they could be found liable for infringement, according to Becker.
Those targeted will be given 28 days to reply and negotiate a settlement. London-based Ben Dover Productions is seeking £700, or about $1,100, per infringer.
Becker said he's gratified that the high court gave its approval over the letters, which cannot make any demands in pounds for settlements nor include wording that their Internet connection would be slowed down or terminated.
Ben Dover Productions originally received court permission to target the users of the 9,124 IP addresses — all broadband and mobile O2 customers — in March.
"We have spent several years and many thousands of pounds to arrive at last week's judgment," Becker told XBIZ. "I look forward, in the very near future, to be able to begin effectively protecting the Ben Dover brand and hopefully very soon other adult and mainstream titles against illegal file sharers."
