General
Happy holidays!
The real opposite to love is fear: these two concepts don’t mix in any proportions. So the first and foremost thing I wish you is to fight and kill your own fear. It is easier than it seems at the moment of a predatory assault, the moment when a trolls’ victim opens an envelope and finds veiled lies, ridiculous threats and frivolous demands.
Extortionists induce fear — this is a part of their “business,” and they are very skillful at that. Since fear shortens lives, copyright trolls have committed much worse crimes than extortion. Look, they have been trying to scare more than 250,000 people into paying, and if fear that their victim experiences shortens his or her life by a mere day (very conservative estimate!), then they have already collectively murdered more than 10 people. Think about it.
As for me, I’m going to continue shedding light on these blackmailers and murderers in a hope that their Halloween scary letters — like the one embedded below — will make people react with disgust rather than fear.
Thank you all for being strong and considerate. So far this blog has generated more than 2,500 comments, and I did not witness anything but intelligence, insight, respect to others, and desire to help. Isn’t it too much for “pirates,” trolls?
Fight © Trolls 
That is the same exact Steee Hansmeier extortion letter with Prenda Letterhead. LMAO! What is funny is the second letter where they back off and claim they just need to cooperation to find the real “infringer” but if they don’t get the cooperation are prepared to move to the next step which is deposing the ISP account holder.
The opposite of love (and, in fact, the opposite of hate as well) is apathy. Love and hate are the ends of a horseshoe, fairly close together, whereas apathy is the polar opposite.
Keep up the great work you’re doing!
Happy holidays SJD! thank you for running this website
SJD,
I also want to thank you for this site. When i got the supeona in early september I nearly had a nervous breakdown. Luckily I found this site after speaking with Nick Ranallo and have following this site religiously since. There is a reason trolls hate this site, you have educated so many about this site with great advice. I am now months into this ordeal and none of the advice in the FAQ is spot on. Consult a lawyer about your situation. Don’t communicate with the trolls, and stay up to date with developments in these cases. SJD, I am grateful for this site and your partership in the fight. Btw, you need to put up a donation link for this site. I would gladly donate to support your ongoing efforts.
I meant all the advice in the FAQ is spot on.. Not none lol
Those words ring true and I wish the best for everyone here. Happy holidays and best wishes to everyone.
DieTrollDie. 🙂
SJD,
I also wanted to say thank you so much, without you this would be so much more difficult. You blog is a god-send.
Thank you
Thanks SJD for the site and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Again, you have brought much relief to many people with this site. Keep up the great work.
Merry Christmas To one and all,
P.S. And of course to the one we always seem to forget,
Happy Birthday Jesus!
Thank you for all you do.
Happy Holidays to SJD for all she does and to Everyone!
Santa Claus was very generous this year as he left me a complete litigation strategy complete with complaint letter to my State Attorney General (cc; copy to local FBI), Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss any and all claims for statutory damages and attorneys fees for alleged preregistration infringement and request for Rule 11 sanctions and answer with affirmative defenses and counterclaims for fraudulent misrepresentation, conspiracy to commit fraud, 18 USC Section 1030, et seq., aiding and abetting fraud, violations of RICO 18 USC Section 1962, negligent misrepresentations and omissions, fraud on the court, abuse of process, fraud on the Copyright Office, copyright misuse, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment, money had and received, conversion, pendant state claims for unfair and deceptive practices and malicious prosecution, He also gave me a first set of interrogatories for plaintiffs’ IP “experts”. I hope to share this largess with this wonderful community after the Christmas Break (in about a weeks time).
You must have been a very good person this year to receive such a treasure! This could be the gift that just keeps on giving. 🙂
A quarter of a million Does is bound to turn up one or two troublemakers and that’s all it will take. I can’t believe they were so foolish as to sue so many anonymous people. Didn’t they consider the consequences of stumbling on the wrong people? With the amount of carelessness on display, they will get shredded once someone gets serious.
Good Morning,
Any updates on this “litigation strategy”? It appears that I may be named soon.
Dashing through
the courts
in a pair
of brocken
skies down
the hills we
go crashing
into judges
the snow
is turning
red I think
Im almost
dead somebody
call the
ambulance
before I lose
my head
Merry Christmas trolls!
Boy is the New Year full of surprises!
So far invited to the party are:
1. IRS
2. FTC
3. US DOJ (office of the Attorney General)
4. FBI
5. ICE (yes for those offshore plaintiffs!)
6. Federal Barr Association (With special requests to those jurisdiction in which you all troll)
Looks like a full house already and special guests are still being invited! Keep trolling and the list will grow even more.
And lets not forget what is on schedule for the Plaintiffs! Oh yeah, you think this is only for the trolls! Wrong!
And last but not least a warm thank you to SJD! Keep up the good battle! This blog could probably will be seen in a court of law sometime soon! Good weapon against the trolls!
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Herbert, Frank (1965). Dune
🙂
Happy Holidays !!
and a very Thank you for your great work and encouragements
Just a thought.
Seeing how many of these larger cases are being dismissed w/o prejudice, if you know that your case has indeed been dismissed, isn’t it wise to just sit tight and wait to see if the trolls are going to refile? I see a number of defense lawyers suggesting “even though your case is dismissed, you should still call/retain me”.
While I know that these people need to make a living too it seems like some are trying to make some $$ off of FUD just like the trolls are. I would think that if you haven’t been actually named, and the case has been dismissed the wisest course of action would be to just sit tight. Don’t say anything, don’t write anything and absolutely don’t pay anything. Just monitor your case to see if there indeed have been any named defendants in your jurisdiction.
Am I in error with this line of thought??
Well Prenda is making a show that they are going to sue people individually that don’t settle. And if you read Cashman’s blog he thinks that a couple other firms will go after people at an individual level, at least until they realize that isn’t anymore economical. Those $20,000 judgments with another $20,000 in attorney’s fees don’t mean a whole lot when the person you do it to is judgment proof.
To me its curious that they argue on the one hand that the Does are the same, but once they find Does that don’t settle they move on them individually. Basically, their actions show that their only real motive for clumping everybody together is to defraud the US taxpayers from collecting their $350 filing fee in each case.
Sure. But isn’t it wiser to wait and see if they actually ARE going to sue you individually or as another group in the right jurisdiction before you spend any money on attorneys? Im guessing that the individuals they do go after will be the fools who actually called or wrote to the trolls and gave incriminating statements.
I would not use Prenda as the reason to go out get a lawyer. They files these “show” cases on Nov 21st and most of them are just sitting there with no action. Most lawyers do not seem swayed or concerned by these cases
I think when to retain a lawyer is based on each Does circumstances. If you own property or other publicly searchable assets then hiring a lawyer earlier makes sense. I think the best idea is to consult with a few lawyers in your state and go over your situation.
Also take a close look at the proxy “lawyers” they’re acquiring in each state. The vast majority are personal injury, or divorce, or something to that effect. They’re essentially the lowest of the low bottom-feeding scumsuckers, that make everybody else in the lawyer biz look bad. If their name gets “sullied” by filing a slew of asinine cases (like our good friend, John Steele), it’s no big thing.
Does anybody really believe that a personal injury attorney is going to stand in front of a jury and make a heartfelt argument about the heinous crimes of copyright that have been perpetuated against their noble, hard-working, cute-as-a-puppy client? Puh-leez. They’re ambulance chasers with dollars in their eyes threatening and porn-shaming their way into a 10% cut of the take.
anon – I’m not a lawyer but this seems like sort of a catch-22 since you are asking for legal advice, essentially. The only way to be sure you should not do anything would be to consult a qualified attorney. There may be some penalty for not responding to the letter — I don’t know…
There is no penalty…. You are never required to respond to a settlement letter.
You can ignore anything that isn’t a subponea or a summons. And you can’t deal with either of those by trying to hide from them. Once you have one of those, there will be a whole lot of other things to deal with though.
“You can ignore anything that isn’t a subponea or a summons.”
Exactly.
I can see trying to squash subponeas, but if you have been dismissed (with prejudice) I wouldn’t do anything until I was refiled against in my home jurisdiction or named in a suit.
I am a part of a larger DOE case.
My information was released to the trolls back in October.
I still have not heard from the troll in any way shape or form.
Should I be concerned ?
Why such a delay?
The Trolls are slow, but they will tell the court that the reason they haven’t named anyone is because the ISP take so long to get the information to them. My Troll took a couple months to contact me. I would add any additional stress to this delay. If you want, call your ISP and ask them when they released your information. Record that date and then add 120 days to it. Have a Motion to Dismiss IAW Rule 4(m) ready to go.
https://dietrolldie.wordpress.com/motions/
“Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Rule 4(m) – Word Format. This is a Motion to Dismiss template, based on no summons being served on Doe defendants for 120+ days. There is also an Exhibit for this motion. Make sure you add the correct case information, edit the details in the body as needed, change the date, and place the Troll’s address on the certificate of service.”
DieTrollDie 🙂
Merry Christmas, SJD! Hope you had a great holiday, and looking forward to watching and participating in your work for 2012!
Let’s make 2012 the year the trolls starved!
Most rules of professional conduct prohibit fee splitting with non-lawyers (ie. the non-lawyer “experts” collecting IP addresses, who get a % of what’s collected). An enterprising Doe may want to see if there’s evidence of that.
An enterprising Doe may also want to file a cross-complaint for declaratory relief (and possibly abuse of process), which would make it impossible to dismiss the case, and allow the enterprising Doe to conduct discovery of their own.
May the New Year bring us all happiness and joy of watching trolls roasting on an open fire.
I’m TAC and I approve this message.
I just got the email from my ISP so im new to this. But now that its almost 4 am and ive spent all night rapidly searching for answers, it seems like we’re basically fucked. At least I’m already way to stressed to even think about dealing with my parents finding out, etc.
I dont even have $200 to pay the settlement. If i dont sounds like im screwed either way. Apparently i can even get phone calls from them? When is it apparent that ISP will release my info?
How does this even happen? Its a total nightmare.
OK. Time to take a break and get some sleep. You are not f@#$d. Yes it is scary and sounds like eveything is falling down around you. Take the time to read the information here and take a look at my Noob page – https://dietrolldie.wordpress.com/newbie-noob-start-here/ Relax a bit.
DieTrollDie 🙂
Its really hard to relax. I’m the perfect target for them. I’ve got an anxiety disorder. I cant rationalize any of this shit. I’m scared out of my mind, which is what they want. But who wouldn’t be.
perhaps this might help. The time frame on a lawsuit is months to years. If you don’t have $200 let alone $2,000 then it seems like your best approach would be to wait for a summons or subpoena, which isn’t going to be next week. The only way you can get this thing to end ASAP is to pay them what they ask. Gonna just have to steel your nerves if you want to make it through.
As for the phone calls as soon as they idnetify themselves hang up. remember the number and never pick it up again.
Your ISP should have included a date in which they will release your information. Also, who is the Plaintiff/Studio, and Attorney?
If the settlement amount is $200, it might make sense to settle, that is your decision. However, if you do settle, do not admit anything to the plaintiff attorney, regardless what they say to you.
Thanks! It’s good to know what the real story is regarding these extortionists.