Lionsgate has taken legal action and is filing a lawsuit over The Expendables 3 being leaked online before its actual release in theaters.

In the last week of July, Lionsgate learned that a DVD-quality version of the movie was stolen, distributed online, and downloaded for more than 189,000 times in just one day.

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According to analysts, millions of illegal downloads could be carried out by the time The Expendables 3, starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and more, is shown in cinemas in the UK on August 14 and in the US on August 15.

The Hollywood Reporter has claimed that Lionsgate has since sued the anonymous people, referred to as "John Does 1-10", and filed the lawsuit last July 31 in California.

The lawsuit is allegedly directed towards the operators of websites that enable file-sharing; these include limetorrents.com, billionuploads.com, hulfile.eu, played.to, swantshare.com, and dotsemper.com.

Demand letters have been sent to such operators; for instance, Lionsgate has already reached out to hulkfile from July 26 to July 31. However, the lawsuit claims that there has been no response to the demand letters from the operators of the said sites.

As the film's distributor, Lionsgate has sought an order to ensure that illegal downloads are discontinued. Additional restrictions have also been requested for operators to be blocked from transferring the illegal film content to a new service.

In addition, the distributor has demanded that all digital copies of The Expendables 3 and other technical equipment associated with the leak are to be turned over.

The ISPs that provide hosting and cloud storage along with the banking and financial institutions that provide services to torrent sites are being closely monitored. Subpoenas may be issued in the near future.

The first Expendables film in 2011 also fell victim to illegal downloads by torrent users. Production company Nu Image had reportedly targeted more than 23,000 online pirates of such movie.

The identity and motives of the individual responsible for stealing and distributing The Expendables 3 online has not been disclosed.

TagsThe Expendables, LionsGate, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, leaked, online, Lawsuit