A federal court in Washington state has imposed a $7.5 million judgment against nearly two dozen defendants who were accused of selling DVDs on Amazon that contained unauthorized copies of major Hollywood films.
The money will be paid to Amazon and to several production studios, including Comcast’s NBC Universal, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and Paramount Global.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), part of the Motion Picture Association, and Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit were part of the investigation that led to the action against 22 individuals.
The judge overseeing the case found each of the 22 defendants individually liable for infringing on the intellectual property of the film studios.
“Today’s ruling delivers a powerful message of resilience, persistence, and determination: we will never stop fighting to protect the rights, creativity, intellectual property, and livelihoods of the artists, craftspeople, and storytellers at the heart of our industry,” said Charles Rivkin, the Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and the Chairman of ACE. “Our alliance and our studios, will leave no stone unturned in deterring, dismantling, and defeating criminal piracy everywhere – and this case in which we worked with Amazon is a clear-eyed measure of our commitment to keep that promise and preserve a vibrant marketplace for creators and consumers in the U.S. and across the globe.”
In addition to the financial judgment, a judge ordered each of the defendants to stop selling counterfeit or infringing products through Amazon.
