Pirate Torrenting Manny Pacquiao’s Documentary – ‘Manny’ Is Slapped With A $30000 Fine As Damages

A pirate named Michael Chang from Florida has been ordered to pay $30000 as damages excluding attorneys' fees for pirating a documentary called "Manny" using BitTorrent. It is based on the renowned athlete Manny Pacquiao's life. People use The Pirate Bay and other platforms to share copies of movies, software and more and Chang turned out to be one of them.

"Manny" the film, has so far filed 215 lawsuits for copyright infringement, noted TorrentFreak. In one of the cases, Judge Darrin Gayles of District Court has found Chang guilty of sharing pirated copy of the documentary.

The judge passed the judgement in favour of the filmmakers after Chang failed to respond and ordered him to pay $30000. After the additional costs and attorney's fees were added Chang will have to shell out $31657.

"Here, despite the fact of Defendant's willful infringement, Plaintiff only seeks an award of $30,000 per work in statutory damages," the film "Manny" wrote in a statement.

Moreover, apart from pirate "Manny," Chang also downloaded other Hollywood movies like "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Avatar."

The court also stated that Chang must destroy all the copies of the Plaintiff's work. "Is hereby ordered to destroy all copies of Plaintiff's Work that the Defendant Michael Chang has downloaded onto any computer hard drive or server without Plaintiff's authorization, and shall destroy all copies of the Work transferred onto any physical medium or device in Defendant Michael Chang's possession, custody, or control," reads the judgement (Via TorrentFreak).

The website noted that such cases are usually tackled outside the court but this time since Chang did not respond, the judgment was passed against him.

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