A new lawsuit lists Surfshark, VPN Unlimited, Zenmate, and ExpressVPN as defendants. Besides damages, the filmmakers want the VPNs to block pirate sites and start logging user data. The accused companies have yet to respond in court.
“Defendants advertise their service for allowing their subscribers to bypass regional restrictions of streaming platforms to stream copies of copyright protected content including Plaintiffs’ Works from locations Plaintiffs have not authorized the platform to stream the Works,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendants promote their VPN services as a tool that can be used to pirate copyright-protected content without getting caught,” the complaint reads.
The movie companies further allege that VPN customers are engaged in other types of “outrageous conduct” under this privacy shield, including racist comments, child pornography, and even committing murder.The rightsholders have sent thousands of copyright infringement notices to hosting companies, which were reportedly forwarded to the VPN defendants. However, based on these notices, the accused VPNs can’t pinpoint individual subscribers.
In addition to money, the filmmakers also request that the VPN services start blocking known pirate sites such as The Pirate Bay and RARBG, which have been listed in the notorious markets list of the US Trade Representative.