Fight Copyright Trolls

Cases

There are a couple of cases filed by Prenda Law on behalf of a pornographer Lightspeed Media Corp.

Florida Miami-Date county court:

• 12-05673 CA 05

Illinois St Clair countly court

• 11-L-0621 11/03/2011 LIGHTSPEED MEDIA VS AT & T
  • Petition
  • Subpoena to Comcast
• 11-L-0683 12/14/2011 LIGHTSPEED VS JOHN DOE
  Complaint was amended on 8/2/2012, naming Anthony Smith, AT&T and Comcast representatives as defendants.
  On 8/9/2012 removed to Federal Court (ILSD 3:12-cv-00889 – see below).
  • Complaint — original quality, no exhibits.
  • Complaint— scanned, all exhibits.
  • Comcast’s motion to quash subpoena and vacate order granting discovery (incl. memorandum in support) (3/19/2012)
  • Memorandum in support of motion to quash and/or motion for protective order by Embarq and Verizon — first 16 pages (3/20/2012)
  • Consolidated motion & memorandum to dismiss by Jason Sweet (June 2012)
  • First Amended Complaint (08/03/2012) — AT&T and Comcast are named as defendants.
  • The Supreme Court of Illinois
    • Emergency motion to stay (5/22/2012)
    • Motion for supervisory order (5/22/2012)
    • Explanatory suggestions to the Motion for supervisory order (5/22/2012) — Appendix contains many IL 11-L-0683 filings
    • Lightspeed’s Objections to motion for supervisory order (5/29/2012)
    • Reply [to objections] brief of moving ISPs (5/29/2012)
    • Supervisory Order (6/27/2012)
    • Audio recording of the hearing before the Illinois Supreme Court in the LMC v. AT&T
      

Southern District of Illinois

• ILSD Lightspeed Media Corporation v. Smith et al 3:12-cv-00889 — state case (11-L-0683) was removed to the Federal level upon defendant’s request. Dismissed 3/19/2013.
  • Case Docket
• Lightspeed Media Corporation v. Lukas Shashek 3:12-cv-00860-WDS-DGW — state case (12-L-927) was removed to the Federal level upon defendant’s request. Dismissed 2/15/2013.
  • Case docket.

Maricopa County Superior Court (State of Arizona)

• CV2012-053230 11/03/2011 LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORPORATION v. WORLD TIMBERS, INC., an Arizona Corporation, and JOHN DOE
  • Defendant World Timbers, Inc.’s Motion to Dismiss (07/03/2012).
  • Ruling denying Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (11/02/2012).
• LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORPORATION v. ADAM SEKORA (CV 2012-053194)
  Case history from the Maricopa county state court
  • 07/10/2012 Answer to complaint
  • 12/10/2012 Ruling
  • 12/17/2012 Status conference set
  • 1/7/2013 Order to compel Lightspeed to produce forensic logs

Superior Court of the State of California

• LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORPORATION v. Jеssе Nаsоn (voluntarily dismissed)
  Defendant attorney: Morgan Pietz of Pietz Law firm (post about this case)
  • Demurrer
  • Motion to Require Plaintiff to Furnish Undertaking

Relevant pages:

• Arcadia Security
• Guava LLC v. Skyler Case (IL Cook County 12-L-7363)

Relevant posts:

• Lightspeed Media Corporation v. John Doe: a quick Q & A
• Attorney’s opinion: Lightspeed’s claim is a farce
• Lightspeed Media v. John Doe: a quick follow up Q & A
• Lightspeed v. Doe news. Early Halloween scare: Unusually lame demand letter
• Prenda Law starts using robocalls to intimidate its targets. Will IARDC continue keeping its head in the sand?
• Illinois Supreme Court ends justice mockery, kills the farcical Lightspeed v. Doe case
• Lightspeed Media Corp. v. John Doe, St. Clair county 11-L-683: A behind-the-scenes look (and it ain’t pretty)
• Lightspeed Media v. John Doe: a must-read motion written by a real IP attorney
• “Guava” and “Arte de Oaxaca” scams hit Cook County court

Media coverage:

• ArsTechnica: Illinois Supreme Court nixes latest porn trolling scheme by Timothy B. Lee
• XBiz (may be NSFW due to explicit ads): Lightspeed Media Adds AT&T, Comcast to Lawsuit by Rhett Pardon
• ArsTechnica: Porn copyright troll sues AT&T and Comcast, says they side with pirates by Timothy B. Lee

Announcements

• Please take an effort to document all the interactions with the plaintiff. Copy and file mailings, record conversations, preserve voicemails. This information may really help in a possible counter-action.
  • This request does not cancel the advice not to answer any questions over the phone. Be extra careful.
  • Mind the state wiretapping laws. Illinois, for example, requires consent of both parties to record a phone conversation, so if you are recording a call, start your conversation with a polite warning and suggest that continuing the conversation implies consent to record. If you reside in a “one-party” state and the incoming call is originated in a “one-party” state or the caller ID is masked, no such warning is necessary. Certainly, preserving voicemails does not violate any laws. Further reading.
• If you have any documents regarding these cases, please send them to me. If these documents contain your personal information, please redact and scan, or you can just trust me: I always double-check and remove everything, including file metadata, and I never publish anything without your consent, but even if you don’t want it to be published, I’m really interested in seeing it.
• If you are an attorney who defend victims of Lightspeed/Prenda, please think about how I can help you: create separate pages, make announcements, coordinate/facilitate communications etc.