A group of movie production companies are suing LiquidVPN 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, 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, and reveals how the service flirted with the boundaries of the law.
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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 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.
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Via Ars Technica
