It is no revelation that film studios have been in a sustained freakout for years over films that leak to the internet before they hit the theaters. While the freakout is somewhat understandable (nobody wants to plan out a film release only to have the product appear in a way outside those well-laid plans), much of the reasoning in the freakouts has to do with claims that the leaks eat into the profits the company would generate at the theater. This reasoning has been debunked many times over, most notably by AAA movies that leak online still making a killing at the box office. What should be immediately apparent is that much of this is driven by emotion and outrage rather than anything resembling facts or clear-thinking.

Which brings us to Our House Films, the company that produced Jean-Claude Van Damme's latest opus, Kickboxer: Retaliation. If you weren't aware that Van Damme had actually made another Kickboxer movie in the first place, you're in good company: the film grossed five-thousand whole dollars domestically. If you are aware that this film was made, perhaps you also are aware that it leaked early online. Our House Films blames its post-production partner, Tunnel Inc., for the leak and has filed a copyright lawsuit against Tunnel...for $5 million.

"Tunnel has failed to respond to Plaintiff's requests for substantive information concerning the parties to whom the final cut was disseminated," writes attorney Paul Sorrell in the complaint. He adds that because the film was available illicitly online worldwide prior to the release producers were robbed of all or a substantial portion of its value.

The suit goes on to accuse Tunnel Inc. of willful copyright infringement, but also suggests elsewhere that this might be the result of negligence rather than Tunnel actually distributing the film purposefully. There is nothing, it should be noted, even remotely resembling any reasoning or evidence possessed by Our House Films as to why it believes Tunnel was the source of the leak here. All it states, in fact, is that Tunnel has refused to respond to Our House's demand for an explanation. For its part, Tunnel Inc. has worked on plenty of films, some of them quite high-profile. If the company were just running around leaking client films as a matter of regular practice, it's hard to see how the company would still be in business.

Part of what makes this so absurd is the disparity in the damages requested and how the movie performed publicly. $5k gross domestically results in a $5 million copyright lawsuit? Our House Films may want to argue that disparity is directly explained by the leak, for which it blames Tunnel, but its decidedly average reviews are more likely to blame.