Time Warner Uses "Copyright Troll" Argument With Customer

LOS ANGELES—You know how the cable companies like to stall or even refuse to provide customer information to law firms that file much-maligned John Doe end-user copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of adult studios? Well, it turns out that one of the same cable companies, when pressed by a customer complaining that she did not order pay-per-view porn, used pretty much the same argument as the so-called "copyright trolls" when refusing to issue a refund. Basically, it accused her of lying. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Carol Scott's idea of unwinding at home is ordering a movie from Time Warner Cable's pay-per-view service, maybe a nice romantic comedy or an engaging mystery. It's not watching tons of porn." But porn is exactly what Scott found on her cable bill—$154.65 worth, to be exact, for 17 adult titles allegedly ordered over a four day period. Needless to say, the 52-year-old healthcare lawyer, who says she never ordered the porn, called Time Warner to get the charges removed from her bill, and that's where the story takes a turn to the hypocritical. "He told me they don't make mistakes," Scott said. "He said I must have watched all those movies." Gee, now where have we heard that line before? To bolster Scott's claim of porn innocence, the times when the movies were supposed to have been streamed indicate either something fishy or an unusual level of lasciviousness by Scott, whose cable bill reportedly never contained any previous charges for adult fare. "On one day,," according to the Times, "the bill shows, a dirty movie was ordered at 9:55 a.m., followed by additional orders at 9:57, 10:03, 10:04, 10:05 and 10:06. Each movie came with a $7.98 charge. "Two days later, according to the bill, Scott's craving for porn returned in a big way with orders for adult movies at 10:39 a.m. and 10:40, and again at 2 p.m., 2:01, 2:03 and 2:04. "She was apparently in such a randy mood, the bill shows that two adult movies were simultaneously ordered twice that day at 2:03 p.m. and 2:04. "The next day, a little more afternoon delight was seemingly in order. Scott's bill indicates that two more adult movies were ordered, at 12:15 p.m. and immediately after at 12:16." Odd, to say the least, but the customer service rep Scott was unfortunate to have contacted, insisted that she or someone in her household had ordered the movies, and refused to give her a refund. Then, when Scott asked to have adult pay-per-movies blocked to prevent anything such future occurrence, the rep erroneously told her that such a thing was not possible, and that all of her pay-per-view would have to be blocked. "This was, of course, completely unnecessary. All cable providers offer parental filters that can block adult content," wrote David lazarus. "If Time Warner's service rep had actually known what he was talking about, he'd have informed Scott that programs can be filtered by rating, channel, time or even title. All you need is an identification number to change the settings." Proving that training is a hit-and-miss proposition, Scott told the Times that in her continuing discussions with Time Warner personnel, "Two service reps have insisted that the porn orders were legitimate and must have been made from inside the house, she said. Two others have said it's possible an electrical short caused the funny orders, or that perhaps Scott's cable account was hacked from elsewhere." Then, because Lord knows the cable companies are infallible, she was told that it must be the fault of the cable box manufacturer, Motorola. But when contacted by the Times' Lazarus, a Motorola spokesperson responded with equal assurance that "Motorola's set-top security is unsurpassed." In the end, Scott was refunded her money and a filter blocking adult pay-per-view is enabled, but the truth of Time Warner's corporate philosophy has been laid bare, so to speak. "We are never wrong and the customer is never right—unless the media starts poking its nose into our business." And, of course, we can all share a cynical laugh the next time Time Warner, or any other cable company for that matter, starts bellowing outrage when subpoenas are issued for the names of alleged John Doe copyright infringing customers. Image: stock photo