p2pnet.net News:- “Okay, okay… I’ve had the issue for a couple days now, and I was a bit torn if I was going to post anything about it on my blog or not. I didn’t like a few things about it… For one thing, I’m not a ‘hero’ (I’m a pretty normal guy), but they […] “

So says Shawn Hogan on his blog, talking about a Wired story which says he’s taking on the MPAA - The Might of Hollywood.

But Wired, “titled the article Shawn Hogan, Hero,” he says, going on:

“Anyway, today it seems everyone knows because I’ve been bombed with emails, phone calls, etc. about it. People have scanned the article and posted it around and it also made the front page of Slashdot today.”

Hogan is ceo of Digital Point Solutions and Wired leads off that a lawyer, “representing Universal Pictures and the Motion Picture Association of America informed the 30-year-old software developer that they were suing him for downloading Meet the Fockers over BitTorrent. Hogan was baffled. Not only does he deny the accusation, he says he already owned the film on DVD. The attorney said they would settle for $2,500. Hogan declined.”

On his blog, Hogan says one of the allegations the MPAA is making is, “that I’m more or less destroying the movie industry because I allegedly downloaded a movie that I own”.

So he has pix of stacks of DVDs he’s bought and, “The dumbest thing is that of the movies I own, I’ve probably watched (in its entirety) 40 of them. And I’m guessing that 50+ of them, I’ve never even put in a DVD player to TRY to watch (I just don’t have the time to watch TV/movies anymore… but it’s nice to have them in case you ever have nothing else to do… like on a plane).”

He goes on, “When it really comes down to it, I’ve probably spent $5,000+ on DVDs that I never watch more than once (and in most cases, never at all) because I’m too lazy to make two trips to Blockbuster (one to rent and then again to return it). And since I buy movies (but don’t immediately watch them), sometimes I forget which movies I already own, so I end up with 2 copies (see 2nd picture).

“So uhm… if I’m damaging the movie industry, who in the heck is supporting it? Hell, I support the movie industry so much that I be willing to feed (okay, buy dinner) some movie stars (see this post).”

And in a more recent post headed up I Figured Out Where My Car Is, he says, "Okay, so you know how my car got stolen a few weeks ago? I just had an epiphany and realized what really happened to it…

"The MPAA/Universal Studios hired someone to steal my car. They didn’t do it because just want to annoy me or because they thought it had anything cool in it (which it didn’t… except for my sunglasses). Nope… the real reason is they want to see if I would lie to my insurance company to try and claim I had other stuff in it which I didn’t, then have my car magically turn up with whatever stuff they were hoping I would claim not there. Then they could somehow use that against me to show my ‘bad character’."

And under that, "Disclaimer: In case you are brain-dead, this is a JOKE by the way. As much as I would *love* for it to somehow be true (man that would be hilarious), I don’t REALLY think the MPAA stole my car. So everyone reading this can just take your panties out of a bunch… this is a work of fiction out of my overly active imagination, and as far as I know has no truth at all to it."

Back to the Wired piece, "Though he expects to incur more than $100,000 in legal fees, he thinks it’s a small price to pay to challenge the MPAA’s tactics. ‘They’re completely abusing the system,’ Hogan says.’I would spend well into the millions on this.’

"Of course, the MPAA isn’t backing down either. ‘I hear Mr. Hogan has said, ‘I’m absolutely going to go to trial,’ and that is his prerogative,’ says John G. Malcolm, the MPAA’s head of antipiracy. ‘We look forward to addressing his issues in a court of law.’ Look for a jury to weigh in by next summer."

Definitely stay tuned.

(Thanks, Andrew)

Also See:
blog - Shawn Hogan Fan Club, July 25, 2005
Wired - Shawn Hogan, Hero , August, 2006
Sony - Sony inks deal with porn firm, July 11, 2006

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