A lawsuit against BitTorrent owner Rainberry Inc., TRON Foundation’s Justin Sun, and a colleague, initially based on employment law, contains allegations that could draw Hollywood’s attention.
The lawsuit claims that films, including The Lion King, were part of a “fraudulent scheme” to “make a profit from the illegal piracy of those materials.”
In 2018, Justin Sun’s Rainberry Inc. acquired BitTorrent Inc., but the Rainberry name remains relatively unknown to the public. More familiar brands under its umbrella include BitTorrent, TRON, and TRX, often surrounded by controversy.
Typically, news related to these brands is closely followed by cryptocurrency media, largely due to Sun’s frequent social media activity, which focuses on crypto rather than file-sharing matters involving uTorrent.
Recently, sites like Coindesk reported on an employment law dispute filed last October by two former Rainberry employees. However, the case also introduces significant copyright-related claims that have not been widely discussed.
Richard Hall, a former product manager, and Lukasz Juraszek, an engineer, filed the 70-page lawsuit, which details serious allegations, including racism, threats, and witnessing physical violence.
However, central to the legal action are concerns about Rainberry’s potential involvement in copyright infringement.
“Defendant Justin Sun and his hand-picked mainland Chinese-born subordinates were engaged in illegal piracy of copyrighted materials for defendant Rainberry Inc., in order to make a profit from the illegal piracy of those materials, as well as other illegal and unscrupulous activities,” the lawsuit states.
Hall and Juraszek identify themselves as “whistleblowers” who faced harassment after raising concerns about company activities.
The lawsuit alleges they were fired after refusing to participate in “criminal violation of state and national statutes concerning piracy of intellectual property,” including first-run Hollywood films.
Hall says he was appointed Senior Director of Product Management for BitTorrent File System (BTFS).
He claims he warned superiors that the architecture of BTFS could inadvertently reward users—via crypto tokens like BTT—for storing and distributing inappropriate or copyright-infringing content.
According to Hall, after voicing these concerns, he was demoted and removed from overseeing BTFS. Nevertheless, he sought copyright law specialists to assess Rainberry and TRON’s plans for BTFS and another product named BTFS Movie or BT Movie (the lawsuit uses both names).
However, the lawsuit claims that after discussions with Justin Sun, the company decided against a legal review. Hall further states he advised renaming the ‘Movie’ product to avoid the impression that it promoted illegal movie-sharing on BTFS.
Juraszek, in July 2019, realised BTFS was beyond its demo phase and voiced concerns about content control. He claims that at the time, all BTFS-hosted content was stored on TRON’s infrastructure.
Juraszek says by the end of that month, the Movie app was transferred to Rainberry’s “Mainland China” office for further development.
In August 2019, Juraszek says he once again expressed concerns that illegal content could be downloaded from BTFS. He objected to working on the project and recommended consulting attorneys before proceeding with BT Movie.
To investigate further, he accessed the TRON “BT Movie” website, where he allegedly found pirated versions of The Lion King (still in cinemas at the time), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Hobbs & Shaw, Avengers: Infinity War, and others.
On August 20, 2019, following multiple strained exchanges with management, Juraszek claims he was fired for “sharing company information” with an external party.
The lawsuit seeks $15 million in damages. Justin Sun is aggressively fighting the claims, calling for the case to be dismissed entirely and for the plaintiffs to cover his legal costs.
Meanwhile, Altice, parent company of Internet provider Optimum, agreed to disclose the personal details of a hundred alleged music pirates. The request comes from a group of prominent record labels and is part of an ongoing copyright infringement liability lawsuit.
Altice, will receive anti-piracy information, including a letter the RIAA previously sent to BitTorrent Inc., the owner of popular torrent client uTorrent.
