Taiwanese prosecutors have charged five men with running an operation to download movies to
One of them – former ultra-marathoner Kevin Lin, who founded a copyright consulting company after 2020.
According to reports, Lin's company luredusers to download torrents, tracked their IP addresses, and then filed copyright lawsuits in an attempt to profit from cash settlements. Lin said that because of his support for the opposition and criticism of the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the investigation against him is "politically motivated."
In May 2021, licenses were obtained from VieVision Pictures Co. and Applause Entertainment Ltd., resulting in 18 films being downloaded on the BitTorrent network. Having fixed the IP addresses of the downloaders, Lin's company obtained their personal data from Internet providers and sued them. The goal was to reach an out-of-court settlement.
Since August 2021, Lina has filed 937claims for copyright infringement. In only 25 of these cases the company was able to "extort" payments of $29,207, FocusTaiwan reported. In addition to Lin, several other people were charged with participating in the operation.