Golden Eye Boss Reveals Tackling O2 UK Internet Pirates is about Making Money

One of the key people behind Golden Eye International, the firm that claims to hold numerous film copyrights and is linked with the UK’s Ben Dover porn brand, has confirmed that the reason they are pursuing O2’s broadband ISP customers, to settle “suspected” cases of “illegal” internet copyright infringement (piracy), is because it’s “the only way I can make money“.

The UK High Court recently allowed Golden Eye to extract personal details for thousands of customers from O2 (those alleged to be internet pirates). The firm then intends to send masses of warning letters to the suspected pirates (details), which is being done in the hope of gaining thousands of pounds in compensation from settlement fees.

But a new interview conducted by VICE (note: the link is not safe for work / children), which was spotted by TorrentFreak, has revealed why Lindsay Honey (aka – Ben Dover) has chosen to take such action.

VICE: So, what drove you to take on the copyright bandits?

BD: The income from DVD sales and legitimate outlets for adult entertainment have been completely eroded by the advent of everything on the internet being free. As a consequence, my income dropped 90 percent within two years. People like Revenue and Customs, who aren’t the sharpest tools in the drawer, think I’m up to something dodgy. I’m going, “Hang on a minute, look at the world we live in. I’m in the porn business, have you not noticed that nobody buys porn any more?” Obviously no one who works at Revenue and Customs watches porn.

VICE: What do you think about people downloading porn for free?

BD: At the end of the day, if I can’t make money out of porn, the only way I can make money is to get to the people who are not buying it. The main thing that spurred me on was this whole kind of moral attitude of: “Oh yeah, but everybody does it.” But if everybody went round burgling everybody’s house, because everybody’s doing it, does that suddenly make it OK? Apparently in a lot of people’s eyes it does. I need to earn a living. I’m not a charity.

The last time we checked “everything on the internet” wasn’t free. The full interview avoids nearly all of the more contentious issues, such as the problem of identifying the correct internet pirate and related evidence fallibility. Aside from that “Ben” admits to still leading “a very nice lifestyle. When I say I’m skint, people say, “No, you’re not skint mate, it’s just now you’ve only got three cars instead of five“.

But Golden Eye’s forthcoming letter writing campaign might not amount to much. The High Court imposed a raft of restrictions upon what they could and couldn’t say, so many in fact that the recipients would effectively have to admit their own guilt before a claim could move forward. The court recognised that the subscriber should not automatically be assumed responsible for any copyright infringement on the internet connection they pay for.