A group of movie production companies are suing LiquidVPN (opens in new tab) for $10 million over its marketing efforts that the studios claim could be perceived as promoting piracy.
While LiquidVPN’s features aren’t any different from that of any other no-logs VPN provider (opens in new tab), the real problem appears to stem from its aggressive marketing strategy.
While LiquidVPN’s website has since been pulled from the internet, it can be accessed through the Wayback Machine (opens in new tab), and reveals how the service flirted with the boundaries of the law.
- These are the the best VPN services (opens in new tab)
- Take a look at our collection of the best proxy services (opens in new tab)
- These are the best VPN services for Windows 10 (opens in new tab)
LiquidVPN described itself as "the best VPN for torrenting,” which users could use to "unblock ISP banned streams," which are otherwise blocked in response to copyright takedown requests.
Aggressive marketing
LiquidVPN didn’t shy away from encouraging its users to access Popcorn Time streams. Think of Popcorn Time as a bittorrent client with an integrated video player. The service and its various apps aren’t legal in several jurisdictions.
On top of that, LiquidVPN advertised the fact that being a no-logs provider, it couldn’t identify and forward DMCA notices to any of its copyright-abusing customers.
Earlier this year in March, the studios sued LiquidVPN (opens in new tab) asking for the maximum statutory damage amount of $9,900,000 for the 66 copyrighted works listed in their complaint.
Despite the fact that VPN providers don’t actually host any copyrighted content, the group is demanding $1,650,000 for "secondary liability” for violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The studios are now asking the court to issue a default judgment against LiquidVPN for its failure to show up in court.
- We’ve also rounded up the best business VPN services (opens in new tab)
Via Ars Technica (opens in new tab)
