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Warner Bros. has refreshed its legal campaign against Amazon sellers it's accusing of selling unauthorized copies of its films and television shows in violation of the company's intellectual property rights.

In a wave of lawsuits filed earlier this month, the entertainment giant charged a bevy of Amazon sellers with copyright infringement over the sale of its titles in the DVDs and BluRay formats.

The defendants were either unnamed or cited by their online handles, and Warner Bros. acknowledged in its complaint that it is pursuing litigation in the hopes of wresting information from Amazon with the authorization of a court.

In the case of seller Reneet Gerene, or "RG," for instance, a complaint filed in California reads:

"The true legal status, identity and residency of RG is currently unknown to Warner Bros., but Warner Bros. is informed and believes that Amazon.com will release the true identity of RG upon service of a subpoena once legal action has been filed concerning RG," states the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for California's Central District.

A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Though the specific activities of the defendants are not described in great detail, Warner Bros. is alleging that the sellers operated as unauthorized distributors, peddling infringing copies of the "Harry Potter" movies and television series such as "Shameless," "Boardwalk Empire" and "Treme."

The September lawsuits follow an earlier wave of litigation Warner Bros. initiated in July in a bid to crack down on unauthorized sales of titles in its catalog on Amazon's marketplace.

Word of the lawsuits sparked a lively discussion on the Amazon forum pages, where reactions were mixed.

Some sellers seemed to sympathize with Warner Bros.' efforts to crack down on unauthorized sales, noting that the lawsuits target what has become a pernicious trend on marketplaces.

"And yet some people will still debate listing a product as "new" even though they bought it at retail and are not authorized resellers of the brand. Hopefully more and more will get sued to finally cut back on the "new-but-not-really-new" listings of products," wrote a poster with the online handle Dommiesan.

But some suggested Amazon has a strong financial incentive to keep the unauthorized resellers on its marketplace.

Wrote the poster NextGen Gamer: "Amazon's profits are the direct result of the new-but-not-really-new offers you speak of. The Amazon marketplace would crumble if those offers went away. Prices would go up due to less competition, and Amazon would have to raise their prices because their marketplace cash cow would no longer exist. Buyers would migrate to other e-commerce sites due to the higher prices."

Still others took issue with the Warner Bros. litigation, complaining that if the lawsuits are successful, it threatens to disrupt the activities of legitimate resellers.

"It's obvious to me what WB is doing here. They are trying to scare 3P sellers from offering their titles. The fear of having to hire a lawyer and have WB investigate may be enough to force anybody to say it's not worth the trouble of making a buck or two per disc," said a seller writing under the handle Mando.

"So explain to me why WB sells their products to (wholesalers) AEC, Baker & Taylor, VPD, MVD and Super D then? They must know a lot of resellers use those companies to purchase items for resale. Are they going to say that a legit resale customer of those wholesalers buys some WB titles to resell in the marketplace and now must worry about being sued because they legally purchased these from an authorized wholesale vendor?" the seller continued, calling Warner Bros. litigation "murky and a bad precedent."

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About the author:

Kenneth Corbin is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. He has written on politics, technology and other subjects since 2007, most recently as the Washington correspondent for InternetNews.com, covering Congress, the White House, the FCC and other regulatory affairs. He can be found on LinkedIn here.

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