Judge hammers porn company's 'blackmail the pirate' plan

New York federal judge has come down hard on a porn company - that was effectively blackmailing its pirates.

Malibu, X-Art's parent company, was sending thousands of letters to alleged pirates telling them to pay up or face a hefty fine, according to Gizmodo.

Most people did - not having the resources to fight big porn, and not really wanting to have their neighbours find out about their masturbatory habits.

But some didn't, so what did Malibu do? It threatened to subpoena their neighbours and spouses.

Judge Forrest wasn't pleased, saying “At this point, this deposition appears to be harassment and at least outweighed by such considerations.”

Despite Malibu's loss, the case is still ongoing, and might reveal more about how porn companies have been going after pirates.

Malibu is noted for being pretty litigious - it accounts for about a third of America's copyright litigation.

The New Yorker reported in 2014 that while X-Art's subscriptions dropped below 50,000 in 2013, they managed to ramp their production budget to about $2 million.

Apparently they average about three lawsuits a day, and most defendants settle by paying between $2,000 (R26,692) and $30,000 (R400,379) each.

 “Please be advised that I am ninety years old and have no idea how to download anything,” one defendant wrote in a letter filed in a Florida court.

According to the New Yorker report, only one case had actually proceeded to court at that time. The judge ruled that the defendant had lied about not downloading five movies - and charged the defendant $250,000 (R3,336,112) in damages on top of their attorney's fees.