If you’re one of the 5,000 “John or Jane Does” accused of illegally downloading copies of The Hurt Locker, and your ISP is Time Warner Cable, you may be safely airlifted out of the battle zone. According to the law firm representing Hurt Locker producer Voltage Pictures, TWC is “a good ISP for copyright infringers” because it won’t hand over the names of its customers as quickly as the lawyers would like.

Ars Technica testifies:

[Co]mpanies like Comcast and Verizon have worked out their own compliance deals with [law firm] Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver.

Not TWC. “Copyright cases involving third-party discovery of Internet service providers have typically related to a plaintiff’s efforts to identify anonymous defendants whose numbers rank in the single or low double digits,” the cable company told a federal judge earlier this month. “By contrast, plaintiff in this case alone seeks identifying information about 2,049 anonymous defendants, and seeks identifying information about 809 Internet Protocol addresses from TWC.”

It continued: “If the Court compels TWC to answer all of these lookup requests given its current staffing, it would take TWC nearly three months of full-time work by TWC’s Subpoena Compliance group, and TWC would not be able to respond to any other request, emergency or otherwise, from law enforcement during this period. TWC has a six-month retention period for its IP lookup logs, and by the time TWC could turn to law enforcement requests, many of these requests could not be answered.”

Not surprisingly, the law firm — which also represents other independent film producers that are suing downloaders — disagrees:

“TWC highlights the fact that it is not a party to this case,” he wrote, “but it appears that TWC is utilizing that fact to garner public support for its position and possibly in an attempt to gain more subscribers who would value TWC’s efforts to protect the privacy of demonstrated copyright infringers. To the extent TWC’s tactics are just that — letting the public know that TWC is a good ISP for copyright infringers because TWC will fight any subpoenas related to infringers’ activities — TWC exposes itself to a claim for contributory copyright infringement.”

Tough talk, but at least he hasn’t called anyone a moron — yet.

Time Warner Cable “a good ISP for copyright infringers” [ars technica]

PREVIOUSLY:
Hurt Locker Producer Sues “Moron” Downloaders
Lawsuit-Happy Producer Tells Boycotter He’s A ‘Stupid Moron’ Whose Kids Hopefully Get Arrested

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.