Guardaley | X-Art
Jason Aaron Kotzker follows Evan Stone’s steps, disobeys court’s order regarding subpoenas
It may be arrogance; it may be stupidity; it may be a total blackout as a result of a knock-down punch delivered by Jeff Fantalis; it even may be envy to Evan Stone’s infamy. Whatever it is, Kotzker has found himself in a serious situation, which he has undeniably deserved.
When Judge Brown found out about this, he was furious:
Plaintiffs’ counsel is hereby directed to file an affidavit or declaration under oath explaining: (1) the facts and circumstances that led to the issuance of the subpoenas in the form in which they were served, (2) the rationale behind issuing subpoenas directing Cablevision to supply the identity of the John Doe defendants to plaintiffs’ counsel and not to the Court; (3) the extent of Mr. Kotzker’s review of the subpoenas and the Order, and whether he signed them; (4) the identities of all individuals involved in preparing and serving the subpoenas and the extent of their in involvement and (5) any other facts counsel believes might be pertinent in assessing whether sanctions, costs or other remedial relief should be imposed. Plaintiffs’ counsel will al so provide any and all correspondence with Cablevision in this matter, as well as any other documents that plaintiffs’ counsel may wish the Court to consider. Counsel for Cablevision is requested to submit a statement detailing any costs it incurred as a result of the improper subpoena served, including legal costs associated with the appropriate review and implementation of this Court’s order, which the Court may consider as part of a resolution of this matter as well as copies of all correspondence with the plaintiffs’ counsel in this matter.
Judge Brown ordered to show cause why Kotzker shouldn’t be sanctioned, and I hope that this judge won’t back out as Judge Gibney did.
More on TorrentFreak: it was the first to break this news (edit: actually Ray Beckerman was the first).
John Whitaker also predicts that serious troubles await Kotzker.
Updates
Doecumb comments below, and I cannot agree more:
The PR is focusing on Kotzker, when it should shine a light on the entire troll mob.
These local lawyers, even if once in a while they have real copyright law background, are serving a greedy apparatus. This apparatus includes a lawyer overseer (out of state), supposed forensic technologists, porn purveyor (usually) plaintiffs, collection agents, dummy corporations, sometimes off-shore havens, and other pieces.
If the usual response takes place, Kotzker or his attorney will point to some paper-pushing error as the mitigating factor.
The “error” could be due to the disconnect between the local lawyer and the extortion machine.
If Kotzker or a local henchman were running the machine, his servants would be directed to serve the subpoenas properly, if at all. But if Kotzker is receiving instead of giving orders, he would not supervise other parts of the machine.
The judge asks for “facts and circumstances that led to the issuance of the subpoenas”. This is a VERY GOOD time to compel the local troll to DETAIL his relation, including financial arrangements, to (ALL) OTHER parts of the racket with the names of those racketeers.
This is NOT to excuse Mr. Kotzker and his terrible action. It is past time to expose the whole cast of bad actors in trolling. Then troll lawyers will face the danger of all trolls being dragged into the open, in any case.
Let’s hope Judge Brown presses for the whole story.
The same TF article describes the second time of a judge admonishing a troll, which happened on July 27th. A DC district judge Ellen Huvelle used even stronger wording to describe troll Paul Duffy’s behavior (emphasis is mine):
ORDERED that, by August 3, 2012, Bubble Gum shall show cause why sanctions should not issue against it for attempting to perpetrate a fraud upon the Court.
There are some interesting developments in this case, and they deserve a more detailed analysis.
08/15/2012
The troll complies (of course) and files a memorandum and a declaration in response to the Judge Brown’s order. In two words, he whines that it was an innocent error and asks the judge to allow him stop eating candies for a week as a punishment.
Following Brett “Pinocchio” Gibbs’s practice, he whines how tough his life is in an apparent attempt to move the judge to pity:
15. I am an active participant in my church and lead a youth group. At the time the subpoena was issued, I was balancing the demands of a busy caseload, organizing a church mission trip and managing increased responsibilities at home caring for my two small children while my wife was eight months pregnant.
See Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3: A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.
Specifically see comment [2] regarding the rule:
A lawyer’s work load must be controlled so that each matter can be handled competently.
Kotzker basically just admitted to the Court that he is neither diligent nor competent to handle these cases. Oops. Honestly, in a situation like this it is better to just apologize and move on. Trying to make excuses is never a good idea.
Fight © Trolls 
With the balancing of so many cases and dealing with so many hundreds of defendants, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Taking on too much is not an excuse, but it certainly is an expected result (eventually it had to happen to one of them).
Agree: not an excuse. Nonetheless, Perea, who is currently investigated by the Florida Bar, does not hesitate to use this kind of excuse to explain his violation of the Ruses of Professional conduct. Will post his letter to the Bar later: it’s a sad fun read.
Great news! And I thought the EDNY had been mostly played out for troll drama. The greedy bastard should have shut down his trolling enterprise on 5-1 (as Troll Abramson did) and yet he could not resist trying to shake down 2 Does and he truly deserves to be sanctioned for being an arrogant prick in not heeding Judge Brown’s ORR.
On a side note, just accidently erased a post I had been working on regarding Prenda’s Marquee Lawsuits (again!). Too late for me to recreate but will post 2 interesting comments.
Jenius!!!!
This isn’t a matter of having a plate to full, this is a matter of getting too greedy.
The rewards they can get outweigh any downside they can see.
Cases open well past the 120 day deadline… here have 3 more months.
Defective copyrights… we don’t need to worry about that.
Extortionary behaviors… its just settlement negotiations.
Want more time to try and shake them down… no problem just take all of the Doe’s information with you as you close the case and I don’t have to be concerned about you violating the law.
1 lawyer has had anything “real” happen to him, and its still going on months later.
The money is safely out of everyones reach, he is still shaking down people for Funimation.
Oooh a tiny fine compared to what he most likely was able to extort and a letter warning other Judges he is a liar…
He lied on a copyright application, he mislead a court, he violated a courts order, he ignored the courts sanctions only to appeal AFTER the deadline to do so had passed and they allowed it… and he still has a bar card.
Meanwhile people paid him to avoid bad publicity, not because they were guilty. This is massive abuse of the legal process and 1, 1 troll has gotten anything more than a chiding from the bench.
A $10,000 fine means 3 people they scare into settling are paying for that, the rest is profit. The rewards outweigh the damage, it is time to put teeth back into damage and end these fishing trips.
If you wanted an analysis of the Bubble Gum case, here it is summed up in 21 seconds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6jT3Q3gyvs
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First broken @ http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2012/07/judge-concerned-about-indicia-of.html
Thanks. I really need to start using RSS reader. I would love to keep an eye on Ray’s news. No way I can do it on Twitter: he tweets as he breathes, and I would have to quit my job to read.
The PR is focusing on Kotzker, when it should shine a light on the entire troll mob.
These local lawyers, even if once in a while they have real copyright law background, are serving a greedy apparatus. This apparatus includes a lawyer overseer (out of state), supposed forensic technologists, porn purveyor (usually) plaintiffs, collection agents, dummy corporations, sometimes off-shore havens, and other pieces.
If the usual response takes place, Kotzker or his attorney will point to some paper-pushing error as the mitigating factor.
The “error” could be due to the disconnect between the local lawyer and the extortion machine.
If Kotzker or a local henchman were running the machine, his servants would be directed to serve the subpoenas properly, if at all. But if Kotzker is receiving instead of giving orders, he would not supervise other parts of the machine.
The judge asks for “facts and circumstances that led to the issuance of the subpoenas”. This is a VERY GOOD time to compel the local troll to DETAIL his relation, including financial arrangements, to (ALL) OTHER parts of the racket with the names of those racketeers.
This is NOT to excuse Mr. Kotzker and his terrible action. It is past time to expose the whole cast of bad actors in trolling. Then troll lawyers will face the danger of all trolls being dragged into the open, in any case.
Let’s hope Judge Brown presses for the whole story.
http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/101763907?extension=pdf&from=embed
“Plaintiffs’ counsel is hereby directed to file an affidavit or declaration under oath explaining: (1) the facts and circumstances that led to the issuance of the subpoenas in the form in which they were served…(3) the extent of Mr. Kotzker’s review of the subpoenas and the Order, and whether he signed them; (4) the identities of all individuals involved in preparing and serving the subpoenas and the extent of their in involvement and (5) any other facts counsel believes might be pertinent in assessing whether sanctions, costs or other remedial relief should be imposed.”
SJD,
RECAPPED some Bubblegum documents but it is too late to get into all the Prenda lies and misrepresentations as set forth in its response http://ia600405.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.dcd.155317/gov.uscourts.dcd.155317.9.0.pdf. However, in the Comcast reply paragraph 7 reads:
“We may not have the final word from the Florida court either. A subscriber in those proceedings (not Doe Defendant One as recently identified, but within the severed and dismissed group of Doe Defendants 2-80) received a demand letter dated July 23, 2012 from Bubble Gum counsel four days after the Florida court’s initial discovery order was vacated. (S.D. Fla. Dkt. 41). That IP address (67.77.173.88) is listed as that of Brighthouse Networks, another ISP, and using the same online lookup tool, located in Kissimmee, Florida.” http://ia600405.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.dcd.155317/gov.uscourts.dcd.155317.8.0.pdf
Are you and Comcast on the same page regarding Perea or is Comcast referencing something else?
I don’t know, I’m lost. Going to bed earlier.
Long day,almost too many deveopments to keep apace of. Seems like copyright trolling is approaching critical mass. 🙂
John Steele’s favorite nubemr is ZERO. That is the nubemr of Does they have actually named & served with a summons. Saying that, ther have been a couple instances where they get a judge to authorize a limited deposition of a Doe to Determine if you are in fact the infringer. Just another scare tactic to try and get people to pay up. As the case in not in your State, I would say hold tight and just keep an eye on the case. Please email me more details on your case/situation.ThanksDTD
All i know is that I have a hankering for some Double Mint gum after reading those.
This is what kills me about these guys:
The judge call Kotzger on his, let’s be generous and call it a mistake. Kotzker’s excuse boils down to: I’m a nice person and I didn’t realize I made a mistake. I’ve never done anything like this before and my life is crazy so please be lenient on me and I’ll never do it again.
This guy gets up in the morning and prosectues people on behalf of a client who listens to that same line of reasoning with respect to copyright infringement. You know what they say to doe defendents who claim they are innocent and have crazy lives and a clean record?
“We don’t care if you did it on accident, we don’t care if you’re guilty, and hell no we’re not going to go lenient on you. We’re seeking the maximum fine that will ruin your finances and destroy your life and we’re going to drag you to court for months until we break you”
And seriously, involved in a Youth Group? I’m sure that parents of youths in that group would love to know that Kotzker’s day job involved shaking down innocent people for tousands of dollars on behalf of producers of the films “Veronica Wet Orgasm” and “Gangbanged”
Agree. And mentioning Church activities (involving youth!) is egregious IMO.
thanks for the tip! I am on it! They need to know what this lost soul is up to!
We need to find out if he just lied to the judge.
Information is power.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is just an honest fuck-up because he has way too many irons in the fire. Either way, it’s no excuse and he should still be sanctioned, deliberate or not. He disobeyed a judge’s order.
People like this disgust me because they could be your neighbor the friendly attorney and you’d have no idea that they’re out doing this shit to innocent people. The fact that he mentions involvement in his church? Well they sure don’t know what cookie jar he’s got his hand in if they let him lead youth group one day and then talk to a scumbag like Brigham Field the next.