Torrent sites have been fined $196,000 each for hosting a leaked version of the Exp 3

Three torrent sites have been fined $196,000 each for hosting a leaked version of the Expendables 3

ACTION blockbuster The Expendables 3 didn’t receive any Oscar nominations, yet this hasn’t stopped three torrent sites from copping massive fines for hosting leaked copies of the film.Movie studio LionsGate asked for compensation for damages suffered when a high-quality leak of the then-unreleased Expendables 3 film appeared online in 2014.

Despite not being responsible for the original leak, the studio sued the alleged operators of LimeTorrents and the non-operational Dotsemper and Swankshare sites for not removing the infringing files at the time.As such, a Federal court in California has ordered each of the parties to pay the maximum statutory damages of $A196,000 for copyright infringement offences.

Judge Otis Wright said the maximum fine was vindicated as he believed LionsGate would have suffered substantially from the leak.

“In light of the fact that the film garnered over $A752 million dollars in worldwide box office revenues, the ‘value of the copyright’ strongly favours a high award of statutory damages,”.

“Defendants hosted the anticipated film available online prior to its theatrical release for the purpose of enabling users to illegally download it, which more than likely diminished Plaintiff’s revenue substantially.

”Mr Wright added such heavy punishments would hopefully help deter other site operators from hosting infringing content.

''Moreover, an award of the enhanced statutory damages will likely serve to deter defendants and others from infringing plaintiff’s rights in the future,” he said.The court also forbid the defendants from operating their sites going forward, however it is unlikely LimeTorrents operator would comply.

“We want to keep the site up and running and we don’t care about default judgment because we don’t have any faith in the United States,”.The site operator added he had no intention to pay any damages.

“We already took action and blocked their keyword, so we don’t have a penny to pay them for their own leak problem,” he said.

Additionally, as the operators of Dotsemper and Swankshare didn’t attend the hearing and live outside of the US, it is unlikely LionsGate will receive damages from them either.