MIAMI, FL (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Warner Bros. has admitted in federal court that they deleted files from a file-hosting website, despite not owning the copyrights to the material.
The admission came in a countersuit brought against Warner by file sharing website Hotfile, who claim that Warners has "knowingly made misrepresentations and it has engaged in DMCA abuse on an unprecedented scale by grossly misusing the powerful anti-piracy software tool that Hotfile specially created at Warner’s request." Warner had sued Hotfile earlier this year, claiming that Hotfile had faciliated thousands of trades of copyrighted material on a daily basis.
According to court documents filed in the case, Warner revealed that they a Special Rightsholder Account (“SRA”) to remove files from Hotfile. Warner goes on to acknowledge that due to the volume of files they were dealing with, that they "could not practicallydownload and view the contents of each file prior to requesting that it be taken down through useof the SRA tool."
According to Warner's admission, some of the files deleted were not copyrighted material at all, but included open source software and game demos. Some of this Warner attributes to an incorrectly functioning automated tool. For example, while searching for the movie "The Box (2009)" numerous other similar files were removed, including files called "The Box That Changed Britain" and "Cancer Step Outsider of the Box."
Hotfiles is seeking unspecified damages from Warner. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
