Los Angeles: The high quality leak of Sylvester Stallone`s `Expendables 3` has sparked copyright issue with Lions Gate taking several websites to court for punitive damages.
The company has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against several parties over the leak of the film, which stars Stallone, Jason Statham, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among other action stars.
Filed in US district court in central California on Thursday, the claims that it reached out to numerous sites on multiple occasions asking them to remove the film, which premieres on August 15, but received no responses.
The company claims that despite repeated attempts, the illegal files continue to be on these sites, suggest reports.
The studio is asking that the defendants be prohibited from hosting, linking, reproducing, selling, streaming the film, or making it available for download.
The suit is also asking for unspecified damages. The first two films in the action franchise earned more than USD 575 million.
The film leaked online on July 25 and saw more than 189,000 downloads in over a 24-hour period. It is not clear how the leak is going to affect the box office prospects of the film.
