Jackass actor distances himself from BitTorrent legal action

Jason “Wee-man” Acuna, of Jackass fame, has distanced himself from the producers of a direct to DVD movie he starred in, known as Elf Man, after they announced their intention to sue over 200 Bittorrent downloaders for pirating the movie.

Initially taking to Twitter to voice his concern, Acuna posted: “My representation has spoken to them.. I'm not backing it at all.. Has NOTHING to do w/ me!! It's all them..” This tweet now appears to have been removed however.

The lawsuit in question is demanding as much as $30,000 (£20,000) from each downloader in damages. As of yet, those that downloaded the film haven't been identified, but their IP address have been submitted to the court, with a request that the respective ISPs hand over the details of those households.

As TorrentFreak points out, the producers of this film are playing the little-guy card, by suggesting that downloaders forget that not every movie production company is loaded. “A reality disconnect often builds in the minds of the public, namely that those associated with a motion picture do not need any more money.”

Elf Man is a direct to DVD Christmas movie about an Elf left behind, who local children discover has the power to become Elf Man. Together they have to save Christmas in what sounds like a very Home Alone style.

KitGuru Says: If we accept that there is a misconception about the wealth of producers, it would only be fair to assume that there's also a misconception on the producer's behalf, that those downloaders cost them money, or stole anything from them. If there are infinite copies of something, you don't have any less if someone takes 200 copies.

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