Prenda
Defendant strikes back, sues Hard Drive Productions, targets Steele’s extortion outfit
“Standing up to a bully, whether some blowhard attorney,
or an 8th grader feels good.Try it sometime.”
John Lawrence Steele, from “Even Attorneys Can Be Bullies”, 2008
This event is long overdue. We all are aware of Dmitry Shirokov’s class action lawsuit against Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver handled by Booth Sweet LLP, but I did not know about any other offense against copyright trolls… until today. So far, the anti-troll community was purely defensive in courts. The tide may switch its direction soon, and this event is a good omen. We have been hearing that “enough is enough” for too long. Finally, a concrete action has taken place.
One of the Prenda Law’s victims, Liuxia Wong, filed a lawsuit against Hard Drive Productions with the help of one of the best IP attorneys from the California section of the EFF Subpoena defense list, Steven Yuen (an experienced IP litigator, not a divorce lawyer.)
I want to break the news quickly, so I will not do too much analysis of the complaint at this time, but it is a fun read, even a better mood-booster than Steele’s insults to EFF I talked about yesterday. Enjoy.
One last thought before you dive into the pure bliss of reading such a heartwarming text… Righthaven fell apart not by itself, and not even because of “good” or “wise” judges. Messing with wrong people is what predicated its downfall, messing with people who have dignity and do not succumb to frivolous threats, who are ready to fight back.
What I think would be particularly interesting (and effective) is if Does from across the country began filing similar cases when they received the threatening letters. It’s risky, but Prenda would have to scramble to find attorneys in the 45 states that they are currently threatening people and without licensed attorneys. Something like a Declaratory Judgment day, where Does from all over the country file simultaneously. That would have an effect!
Updates
02/06/2012
It seems that Brett Gibbs, an eccentric copyright troll, the only Prenda Law’s representative in increasingly anti-troll California, will be defending this case. These guys are so greedy… they hesitate to spend a tiny fraction of the money they extorted from alleged file-sharers on an attorney that could match Mr. Yuen! Or simply they are arrogant and detached from reality… I don’t know. A motion to dismiss amended complaint that was filed yesterday is weak to say the least.
Here is the analysis from the comment section I totally agree with (Raul is of the most active commenters, and his contributions are always up to the point):
The improper venue argument that Gibbs makes is weak in that he is asserting that all copyright infringement actions are governed by Section 1400(a) of the Copyright Act. However this is not a copyright infringement action but one requesting declaratory relief as to the defendants’ agents/employees improper conduct and misrepresentations in the context of a previous and pending copyright infringement action.
Likewise his argument that there is no case or controversy between the parties is also less than compelling because he is arguing that there can be no case or controversy until HDP sues Ms Wong. Again this is not true because even if HDP does not have a case or controversy with Ms. Wong it does not mean that she cannot have a case or controversy with HDP and its agents/employees for their improper conduct and misrepresentations.
Gibb’s last argument is also without merit in that he asserts that Ms. Wong’s lawsuit is duplicative of an earlier filed lawsuit by HDP in which she can assert these claims in the event she gets sued. Wrong; she cannot assert (counterclaim) these claims (improper conduct and misrepresentations) against HDP’s agents/employees because they are not named plaintiffs in the prior HDP lawsuit.
Watch Mr. Yuen maul this pathetic dog of a motion in his opposition papers.
and
One of the problems with Gibbs representing Hard Drive Productions in this lawsuit is that he has an obvious conflict of interest being that he is one of the “John Doe” co-defendants who is alleged to have engaged in improper conduct and made misrepresentations of law and fact to Ms. Wong. An objective attorney might very well advise HDP to consider instituting a third-party action against Gibb and his gang for, among other things, a declaration that these agents/employees were acting outside the scope of their agency/employment.
and
Gibbs representing HDP and the ethical (if not procedural and legal) problems down the road. Ms. Wong’s complaint was, in my opinion, drafted in such a way so as to preclude Gibbs and his gang from answering it insofar as it made the self-dealing/conflict of interest issues central to the lawsuit so that only a moron (IMHO) would represent himself and HDP without the Judge and the Bar Association taking note. But, as we have seen, they have done exactly that… Wow!
02/22/2012
As expected, Steven Yuen crashed Gibbs’ silly arguments. Gibb’s claim that “there is no case of controversy” received the following reply:
Hard Drive‘s $3,000 settlement demand to Mrs. Wong is the equivalent of the 3,000 pound elephant in the room that Hard Drive never mentions in its moving papers.
02/28/2012
Mr. Yuen discharged the second barrel: another (very similar) lawsuit was filed against the same pornographers (and Prenda). DieTrollDie is covering it. Same claims and a new one: defamation (Prenda Law website used to list 25 individual complaints under the “Top Pirates” header, removed later).
Fight © Trolls 
Paul Pilcher is the majority owner of Hard Drive Productions. Despite what you may read on the internet about HDP, Inc. It is a pornography company.
The Hard Drive Productions, Inc. films in these cases are all under the Amateur Allure brand. Not sure if that’s a subsidiary of HDP or what, but that’s the branding.
I’m not quite sure of the intricacies of how a smut producer operates, but I highly doubt it’s a separate legal entity such as a subsidiary. If these dipshits had half a brain, they’d bury the actual porn producing company under a shell company, owned by a shell company, which is owned…well, you get it. That way no one would be able to find out where the hell they are and who they are. Thanks, Paul Pilcher, for gracing us with your complete and utter lack of intelligence. Because of that, I’m gonna go to sleep very happy knowing that you’re NOT happy tonight 🙂
Problem with using multiple shell companies, is the longer the trail, the greater the assumed complicity in illegal actions. (ie Jury Trial – A is owned by B. B is owned by C. C is owned by D and so on. A jury would see right through this). Also shell companies don’t prevent one from finding out who truly owns or controls a company.
You’re right as far as a jury is concerned. I’m a finance/numbers geek but sometimes I forget the human component. “If you don’t have anything to hide, then why’d you try to hide it behind 5 different shell companies.” If it were a bench trial, it’d be a whole different ball game.
I know it’s a pornography company, I just thought it was hilarious that the company claims to be “consultants.”
“Consultants” my @zz, so that’s what they’re called. If these guys are consultants, then Steele is really an IP attorney.
That’s reminds me an old classic joke: “why it is impossible to have sex on the market square? Because there will be too many advisers.” In other words, “consultants”.
One thing I think is worth pointing out is that this is *not* a suit against Prenda, the defendant is Hard Drive Productions, Inc. and Does 1-50. Love the Does part, just seems poetic but it’s not really clear to me what that is for, apparently for their agents and investigators?
While it will be great to see Prend themselves targeted (all in due time) this is great in and of itself because HDP is not able to hide behind their contingency lawyers and let Steele and Duffy do all the dirty work anymore. HDP is the defendant and they are the ones who are going to have to hire lawyers and mount a defense. Now it’s possible that Steele’s people may be involved, but since none of them are even remotely qualified to litigate a case like this, HDP may find itself in the very uncomfortable spot of being called out for Steele | Hansmeier and Prenda’s misdeeds and having to pay for it. Until now, the scam was a sit back, pay nothing, collect checks kind of deal. Today, signing on to the scam carries the risk of lawsuits.
I wonder what Steele’s agreements with his plaintiffs say about their liability for his firm’s actions. You still lurking around here John? What did you tell your plaintiffs about their liability for your actions?
How long will it be before they start eating each other and HDP sues Steele and Duffy to cover attorney’s costs?
It’ll be interesting to see if any plaintiffs bail on the scam now, or if Prenda can get anyone new to sign on now that the stakes are higher.
Thanks, slightly updated the header to remove impression that Prenda is being sued.
Well, they got Bubble Gum Productions to sign on. They want $100 million per infringement. Yes, I said $100 million, with an emphasis on million. My guess, to cover the costs of them getting assraped by the judicial system.
Yeah, but that was a couple days ago 😉
True, they’re probably ordering Prenda to drop the lawsuits NOW. Every single copyright troll should be on notice, not just the Steele Cartel, that people are done bending over. Steele Cartel, I like that haha.
My guess is the ‘Does 1-50’ part is to nail up to 50 accomplices to the scam, not just HDP. Opens the plaintiff up to lots of opportunity for discovery, lots of targets to inflict damage upon. IANAL. IANAT.
Woohoo! Steele, you & your minions (& the others of your ilk) need to brace yourselves for the *BEATCH* slapping to come – t’was long overdue!
And just imagine if the extreme happens and this case sets a precedent that porn can’t be copyrighted.
Steele will be enemy of the entire industry.
I would LAUGH MY ASS OFF if that happened. Seriously, a scumbag bottom feeding lawyer sues a whole shitload of people for porn copyright infringement, then a court decides that, ONLY because of his lawsuits (it wouldn’t even have been an issue if Steele hadn’t started suing everyone), porn cannot be copyrighted. Talk about irony.
He would probably have to flee the country for his safety at that point…
Only then would it be proper to call him “Buffy.”
Methinks this is the first salvo of a class action suit. I don’t know ms.Wongs finances but Aaron McClellan is a big time attorney. I’m not sure she could afford this kind of representation. He already represented a group of Does against Lionsgate in an IP case and is the senior shareholder of the firm. I’m guessing this going to get good fast.
And Mr.Yuen isn’t so shabby himself… Class action is listed as his first focus 😉
Mr. Yuen currently focuses his practice on class action, commercial, construction, insurance, premises liability, products liability, and professional liability litigation matters. He also has previous experience working on intellectual property matters such as copyright, and trademark litigation.
fuck yeah ms. wong!!!
That’s a pretty heavy hitting complaint. It touches on basically every sleazy tactic used in these lawsuits.
Can’t wait to see where this goes.
@#$% YEAH!!!
It’s about time someone demanded a jury trial! Lets hope the trial takes place…the exposure of the BS evidence these trolls have will be the beginning of the end of these enterprises. If I were an IP attorney I would even consider taking on one of these cases Pro Bono. The opportunity of make a name for oneself as the troll slayer could pay off in the end.
If I were an experienced IP litigator, I wouldn’t hesitate to take one of these cases pro bono if all of the facts line up right. I wouldn’t even care if it made a name for me or not, just to beat the shit out of John Steele in front of a jury (legally, I mean, although….no) would be enough for me and helping a victim of his (what I consider to be) crimes. I have a feeling that, while this is the first case, it isn’t even close to being the last. I also have a pretty good feeling that the FBI will look into Steele after all is said and done. Lawyers in 46 states, that’s RICO my friend. Part of me wants to book a plane ticket for the trial, if there is one.
I wanna see these assholes get skewered by not just one, but two experienced IP litigators and class action specialist(s). I wonder who HDP is going to hire as counsel, as I’m sure that no experienced IP litigator will go near this case. It’s WAY too toxic for an experienced attorney’s career to be defending a porn studio against that long of a laundry list of complaints. I’d love to see Gibbs defend them 🙂 And Steele, well, his ass is probably halfway across the Atlantic right now, fleeing the U.S. for a non-extradition treaty country.
I know the EFF recommended lawyers I talked to after I received a notice from my ISP were just dying to take one of these cases to court; the people who deal with this type of litigation have been licking their chops to be hired to demolish some trolls. I would have had zero problem doing so and really wanted to but simply did not and do not have the financial resources to retain regular legal representation like so many here (and as the trolls were counting on). It was inevitable that someone would finally step up like this.
Exactly! The lawyers I called on the list were also itching to go this route. Another good lawyer if somebody would also want to go this route in California is Dave Madden. He is a little less pricey because he is a smaller firm. Brilliant guy though.
http://www.mersenne.com/
Yes, YES, and YES! This is great news.
Cool thing is, Mr. Yuen was the random attorney off the eff list i decided to call a few days ago. He turned out, to my surpise, to be very well versed in this stuff and not anything of the greedy lawyer I was anticipating..most importantly, he’s on our side! I would send thanks to this guy.
I actually remember calling him when my saga just started, almost a year ago. And I double your words: I was very pleased with comforting and informative conversation.
You have to think that the discovery process by itself would turn the tables on the trolls in a counter-suit. The trolls have been threatening their targets with embarrassment and exposure (pun intended), no matter what the collateral damage.
Discovery process even before any trial could bring to light such things as:
-The names of individual owners and investors in the troll porn productions
-Examples of questionable practices previously
-The specific financial incentives of the troll lawyers and their local hench-lawyers
-The layers of paper businesses the trolls use to hide their activity from legal supervision.
-The alleged actual sales of their “works” even before the alleged infringing activity, and whether fair taxes (fed, state, and local) have been paid on the claimed sales
– The working conditions and safety compromises of their performers and contractors
-Off-shoring that they may have done to hide bad business practices or tax evasion
-Lack of effort to address their concerns through other means, such as notifications through ISP’s
-the long list of collateral damage in these situations, in addition to wasting the time of the justice system
-as well as all the slimy tactics outlined in the complaint.
Thanks to SJD for shining the light on the trolls. Let’s turn up the lights even more.
I wonder how Mark Lutz factors into the whole equation (other than the fact that he’s a knuckle-dragging idiot). It’d be interesting to find that out. How about those pesky 2257 documentation requirements that all pornographers are required to abide by? Pornographers HATE 2257 requirements and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of those girls is under 18. I’d literally piss myself laughing if John Steele’s lawsuits to “fight piracy” ended up getting one of his clients thrown in prison for production of kiddie porn.
Best case scenario, HDP gets a severe bite in the ass by law enforcement and Steele gets exposed and tossed to the wind.
If we’re lucky, at a minimum, HDP will decide this scheme is too much of a hassle now that they’re personally involved and have to spend time and money instead of just letting the steele henchmen to go do whatever they want. If HDP pulls out, it’ll be a huge blow to Steele’s portfolio and hopefully put him under.
If they start making pornographers produce their US 2257 records in these counter-suits it’ll be game over or the trolls. This is what I plan on doing once the calls and letters begin.
As I said before. The pornographers have way more to lose than ever gain here once we the people begin to fight back.
WOW we posted the same thought at the same time. heheheheh
Great minds 🙂
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH LMFAO, where’s that yardarm?
Interesting reading. Can’t wait to see how this is handled.
Does anyone know how to look up if an address is zoned commercial in Arizona? At least in my state you can’t run a business from a home without proper zoning. The address for HDP, Inc looks residential on maps.
The only person who can make these lawsuits stop immediately are Steele’s clients. If these cases become more trouble than they are worth, no one will work with Prenda.
Found it already, it’s zoned residential single family homes only. Now, just need to figure out how to report it.
There’s a school zone/crossing/something to do with a school right down the street. By right down the street, I mean like 200 feet down from the driveway. I checked it on Google Maps and got the street view, scrolled around.
Well, the best way to know where it was filmed is if someone is able to watch some of these and see if there are any windows or views of the outside.
If we cross reference that with google maps, hopefully street view, we’d be able to see if it was filmed inside the home.
Let’s pirate movies so we can fight the producers of said movies 🙂 I’ll try to find one on a tube site.
I think that if this is successful, and the porn industry takes a hit like this, Mr. Steele will need to move further away than Florida. If I recall, the mob has ties to the “industry”. I suspect they won’t like the bright light that will be shone on their “activities”.
California is the ONLY state where a person can be legally hired to have sex for the purpose of making adult films. Producers are also required to obtain permits before starting any such production. If any of these movies were filmed in the US but outside of California they are illegal. (Lightspeed/Arizona?)
Major karma if these bogus lawsuits actually get some of the producers arrested on unrelated charges. Surprised how the porn producers are actually opening themself up to lawsuits and public awareness. Look at the fate of Larry Flynt. Porners like Joe Francis & “Max Hardcore” are always targets and the Govt looks for any reason to put them in jail.
Steel and Duffy etc are selling their souls to the devil for a handful of $3000 settlements, which they in turn must split up with the producers. Listen up trolls – The money runs out a lot quicker than the memory does!
When they call I am going to play stupid in hopes they do attempt to take me to court. I’ll make sure the entire world is aware of it too.
I can’t find anywhere yet to see if they applied for any film permits. I did find home construction permits. Oddly enough in 2004, HDP upgraded the electrical in the house to 200amps. I think that’s around the time HDP formed.
200 amps translates to 21 KW. Or 210 100 W bulbs potentially on simultaneously. No doubt that they shoot there (or growing weed, who knows?)
Wikipedia says that in New York also a state where it is allowed.
Also it does not mean that adult producers will be necessarily charged with pimping/pandering in other states, it’s merely an untested area. Yet, as I understand, states are not eager to invite this type of business, and pornographers know that, hence won’t probably risk.
It would be interesting to hear legal experts on this topic.
Shooting porno in a residential area is another issue, and I think that authorities (and/or neighbors) should be tipped.
The Phoenix local fox station did a news report a few days ago about the threat of pornography companies moving to AZ. I’m tempted to report a zoning violation and theme it around seeing that news broadcast and thinking my neighbor Paul is up to something. 🙂
Sounds like a story right up local news’ alley. Who are the local news affiliates, and who is the local District Attorney? Calls to each of them couldn’t hurt. Zoning board too…
I have a few friends in the Phoenix area. I might need to fly down and visit them, make some flyers saying “Porn is being produced and distributed at 3402 N 26th Place. Call your local alderman and district attorney.” and go door to door in the neighborhood.
It will interesting to see what the discovery phase of this lawsuit brings. I am sure we will find out that Steele sent demand letters to ISPs requesting subscriber information, which he did in another lawsuit.
If I recall some judges have asked the porn plaintiff attorneys to show money received, letters to does, revenue from sales of works, etc… Each time the plaintiff attorney dismissed the case. The reason for dismissal? They can’t risk the potential tax issues…..
Start swimming to Cuba Johnny Boy. The BS you sold the porn studios will be revealed during the discovery process.
To my recollection, Gil Sperlein already has the IRS up his ass, and he was still suing people up until the last judge basically told him to fuck off. I have a pretty damn good feeling (it really does feel good) that the IRS is gonna be investigating Steele’s outfit.
I’ll be watching this closely for sure. You reap what you sow.
On a sidenote, how do you subscribe to certain posts of new messages without first commenting? There should be an option for that, or if there is one already, I can’t find it.
It’s not some option that I disallowed: unfortunately this is impossible to the best of my knowledge.
There is a workaround: just post a one-word comment “Subscribe”. As far as I know, even if I delete such message in order not to pollute the comment section, subscription won’t be affected.
sjd,
Have never tried this myself, but seems correct: http://blogtrainingclassroom.com/blog/allowing-readers-to-subscribe-to-your-wordpress-post-without-commenting/
Yes, but it is for those who host their own wordpress software. WordPress.com bloggers have their hands pretty much tied. I wish I had time to move to my own hosting… maybe some day. Wiki is a higher priority now though.
Ah yes that wouldn’t work then.
If you ever need the community’s help in any of these projects, please let us know. I’m sure the Does indebted to you have a wide range of professional fields who would love to help out anyway possible.
You can subscribe to the comment RSS feed https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/comments/feed/ . It’s the last section on the left sidebar. It’s not quite what you’re looking for as it gives you all the comments on the site but… I actually prefer that. It all relates and you get all the latest info. In fact, I don’t think wordpress (or maybe this template?) was designed for some of these huge comment threads. It’s much easier to scan w/ an RSS reader then click on what interests you to go to the main site.
Wow. Hard Drive Productions, Inc. filed five “individual” cases in California. From what I can remember piecing together from these blogs, two defendants appear to be stonewalling, one ratted out his roommate, one settled and the last one just gave them a nasty lawsuit in return.
20% odds of being sued aren’t going to make these individual suits very attractive or profitable for Prenda’s clients, especially if this leads to an eventual Righthavening. At least Righthaven had the foresight to organize itself as a separate company to shield the participants from liability; these guys weren’t even that smart, so it’s going to be HDP themselves taking the bullet for Steele. I’d love to hear the phone conversations between Prenda and HDP over this.
Love Gibbs’ threatening “potentially costly deposition.” Did he not even bother to Google the lawyer/firm he was up against and figure out Yuen wasn’t likely to be impressed with that crap?
Looks like hubris and bravado are going to be these guys’ undoing in the end. I really miss The Pirate Slayer’s braggadocio right now. Come on John, why don’t you stop by and explain to us why this is no big deal?
Could other HD cases be put to a halt until rulings are made in this case? Considering thst if this case proceeds the rulings could affect every other HDproductions case in California. Could a gutsy Doe or their lawyer file a “motion to stay” in one of the other cases in California?
No, but they could pull the same clever maneuver or fashion the declaratory judgement action into a counterclaim (and add RICO and fraud for good measure).
Prenda stupidly ran into a VERY clever trap that had obviously been carefully planned. I cannot wait to see the rest of plaintiff’s strategy unfold.
Unfortunately, the RICO and fraud cases would have to be decided by the US DOJ and US Attorneys’ Offices. However, given the fact that these troll cases are so prevalent and some of the Does involved are likely employed by the US DOJ or know or are related to a law enforcement official (statistically speaking), I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole Steele Cartel gets strung up by its nuts along with any of the pornographers involved in his little scheme. It’s a goddamn conspiracy, the pornographers have publicly admitted that they work with Steele. Hell, Steve Jones (Lightspeed) said that he’d throw a party with the settlement money. Another one said that the money is “an additional revenue stream.”
This has a very good chance of turning into a bankrupting counterclaim, which could turn into a class action suit against the pornographers and Prenda/Steele. I’ve been saying this for the better part of a year, but I’ll say it again, Steele is a complete dumbass for fucking with so many people and expecting them not to fight back. Ms. Wong is just taking “fighting back” to the nuclear level though, and I applaud her for having the guts to stand up to these bullies in open court (where they hate to be).
You are quite wrong, I have defended many a defendant on a civil RICO and fraud lawsuit and won and lost so unless you have done likewise……..
I was referrring to a criminal RICO case
You think HDP is gonna take the fall for this? They’d gladly roll over on Steele if it saved them from whatever the hell kind of nasty shit is coming their way. I’m assuming that they do have records of emails and it might be prudent for Pilcher and his buddies to record phone conversations. I wonder if they’re still pumping out (no pun intended) porn while this is all going on, or whether they’ve ceased operations.
Actually, Pilcher and HDP probably doesn’t know about the lawsuit yet. Just like us, there’s a delay in notification.
Just imagine him opening the mail one day this week, seeing the summons, and calling John, saying WTF? You know John will laugh it off as nothing.
Most telling will be who represents HDP. If it’s Johnny boy’s crew, HDP is still 100% in it with Steele. The good news with that is, this case is so out of the divorce lawyer league that they are bound to screw up big time.
If someone else represents HDP, then there was probably a falling out between him and steele.
I’d love to see Pilcher’s face when he reads the summons. My guess is that he’ll drop Steele like a bag of dog shit because Steele’s the clown who got him into this in the first place. I see the conversation going like this:
“John, what the fuck is this? A summons? A FUCKING LAWSUIT!?”
“Paul, don’t worry about it, I know what I’m doing, these lawyers don’t stand a chance against me.”
“Fuck you John. You got me into this. You said it’d be easy money and that I’d never have to worry about a thing.”
(ad nauseum)
According to e docket, HD productions was successfully served with a summons. This marks the first defendant to be served in an HD productions case. I think it only makes sense that the first party to be named is Steele/Duffy and his gang. Poetic justice!
As I believe Caligula said before the Christians(in this case Trolls of course, who have not one bone of Christianity within them) were slaughtered by the lions “Let the games begin!”
this is what AVN had to “objectively” say about this matter:
http://business.avn.com/articles/legal/Alleged-Infringer-Countersues-Says-Porn-Cannot-be-Copyrighted-463798.html
Oh John, what have you done? Bringing all this attention to Hard Drive Productions, Inc., Prenda’s scam and yourself.
People have noticed this development in a hurry. You have more to worry about than just a bunch of your victims complaining on their own forums now. Everyone is going to want a piece of you.
Please note that this is not a random opportunistic lawsuit. It’s quite a long-discussed, coordinated and well-thought-through assault on extortionists.
I have no doubt about that. With some of the claims Yuen is making I have to assume he has done his own research and investigations and is ready to back them up. Looks like he is a real lawyer with a real reputation so I don’t think he’s going to make stuff up like the Copyright Trolls.
If someone was going quick and dirty they would likely have a lot to work with just with the fraudulent copyright claims and being innocent. And if someone was trying to fight just enough to make the Trolls go away, I assume they would go for a counterclaim or motion to dismiss the original suit. Filing a completely separate action means they mean business.
I look forward to seeing how and when they bring additional suits or additional Does into the mix. In this case they have a claim of improper copyright registration and therefore HDP’s statutory damage claims are invalid, but at least they made a token attempt to register the work. HDP has filed many other cases against many, many Does for works that have no registration at all. They have likely opened themselves up to thousands of suits just based on that.
If I were HDP I would be asking John why I was led into this trap and why he didn’t make sure all the registration paperwork was in order with respect to my statutory damages claims. I’d also be thinking about suing John for negligence for getting me into this mess.
SDJ, found this on MSNBC’s OpenChannel:
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10312840-internet-piracy-suit-asks-can-you-even-copyright-porn
The light is going to shine on the trolls activities.
Thanks! I left a comment there.
Wow… 6 months ago we were Does fighting these crooks without much help from anywhere or anyone. Things did not look good. Now we have Does fighting back with lawsuits and not just motions to quash, strong lawyers standing beside us in the fight and large media outlets shining the light on these extortion attempts. Steele won’t even show his face around here anymore and hides behind a “johndoe” alias on dietrolldie.com throwing hollow verbal assaults at DieTrollDie. The fight is not even close to being over though. Even if Prenda is wiped away there are trolls who are actually worse out there. Patrick Collins, K-Beech and others are still attacking thousands of Does without the publicity and retribution that Steele and his gang are getting. We all have to stick this out and help other Does even if our cases fade away. Like it or not this crap brought us all together here and thanks to SJD we have a forum to continue to fight back. OK off the soapbox…
Steele posts using TORBrowser, coward.
He’s trolling around here, using the nickname “The pirate hunter,” along with poor grammar and shit sentence structure.
“5. Not everyone who posts here in favor of protecting copyrights, or who posts making fun of you Freetards is Steele. There is more than one attorney who makes good money off of fighting pirates. Some of us are feeling neglected. And one of my fellow pirate hunters is mad his photo isn’t on your troll board! How can I have nailed more pirates than Steele and hardly every get mentioned!?”
Brass balls Steele doesn’t even have the balls to admit who he is. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Needless to say, the “troll board” is located on a different site.
This is such a beautiful thing, it is beyond words! This case has me more excited than the pornography I was accused of downloading could ever make me! Every last bit of the complaint is a masterstroke of art!
First off, Brett Gibbs is the Prenda “Man in Cali” … hell, Exhibit D is FROM him! Brett Gibbs is also Prenda’s weakest link, with his near misses on sanctions, writing movements that pussyfoot around the “tenor of the court”, and regularly taking it on the chin from the west coast judges denying his requests for deposition. If there is ANY trollawyer ready to crumble from the stress and send this whole thing plunging into the Pacific, it is Brett mother-effing Gibbs. If we thought he’d wet himself from the “show cause or get sanctioned” orders last year … hooooo boy is he ever shitting his pants now! Even if Prenda buys a REAL lawyer to defend this case, Gibbs’ name is on the exhibits! If this goes to court, he will have to sit behind a microphone and testify upon his own behalf! How good was the money, Mr. Gibbs? I hope it was great, because somebody just went medieval on your ass!
Second, this case is going to go soooo much more smoothly than Shirokov v U.S. Copyright Group. Yuen’s a genus in that he’s specifically targeting Hard Drive Productions, and not Prenda itself. Prenda may be the asshat John Steele LLC that started the whole thing, they may be the dirty lawyers pulling the levers of the settlement factory, and Hard Drive may just be the guys who signed on to collect a percentage, but with all the special protections of attorney/client privilege it’s damn near impossible to actually PROVE. If you have no proof of conspiracy to start with, client/attorney privilege makes it impossible to get it via the courts. By going after Hard Drive, and citing all of the Prenda/Steele/Hansmeier documentation, they’re bypassing that little catch-22, while calling-out & drawing-in Prenda/Steele/Hansmeier at the same time.
Third, Yuen has fired every available gun! Damn near every argument that can be made against these copyright trolls is right there in that one little complaint! Joinder? It’s in there. Jurisdiction? Yep. False claims for statutory damages? Unlicensed investigators? Dirty hands? Honeypots? Failing to submit DMCA takedowns? Profiting from piracy? Lying about liability of being hacked? Intimidation and coercion? Misrepresentation of distinguishable facts? Using cost of the court as a club to extract settlement? Yep, yep yep .. it’s all in there. Hell, why not throw in a little argument about the questions of copyrighting pornography in the first place for good measure!?! This isn’t firing with both barrels … it’s a nuclear fucking strike!
Finally, plaintiff isn’t asking for boatloads of cash! There isn’t some conspiracy to try to glean millions of dollars from the trolling scheme over some silly complaint for “emotional distress” or some other batshit piece of baloney. Yuen’s simply asking for an end to the thing. They just want the court to make the simple and basic declarations that would make Prenda leave the plaintiff alone, defuse the copyright trolling scheme, and for defendant to cover plaintiff’s legal costs. That’s it! Simple and concise. Zero personal profit motive for the plaintiff. Just make it go away.
The most exiciting point will be who they hire to represent them. I’m sure John has to defend it for free, which would be his immediate offer while he attempts to laugh this off. The problem is their only CA lawyer is Gibbs. Does he seem suited to represent a suit like this? Uhh No. If Gibbs is in charge, there’s a good chance he’ll lose on all counts including the nuclear bomb of is porn copyrightable.
If they hire outside of Prenda, the bills start to pile up, and someone they hire may tell HDP these Prenda guys are a ticking time bomb, why are you risking your business?
Hopefully Yuen finds a way to rack up his own billable hours, so they are least have a decent size bill coming their way when they win. Eats a little into Steele’s extortion profit.
In the end of HDP doesn’t drop Steele after this, the money must be really good because these kinds of suits could become more and more common.
Gibbs is representing.. Motion to dismiss filed by Cali troll prince.
Thank you for the tip. I used recap to put the documents on the public archive:
http://ia600809.us.archive.org/15/items/gov.uscourts.cand.250725/gov.uscourts.cand.250725.docket.html
Thank you, I wrote a short update to the post.
He is arguing that Plaintiff has not shown venue to be proper….Oh the irony.
“Second, there is no case or controversy at issue in this litigation
because no party has alleged that Plaintiff has infringed a copyright.”
No party is alleging Ms. Wong infringed? Then why’d you sue her, Gibbs? Jesus, this guy is an idiot. He’s sure to bungle the case and torpedo everything that Steele’s “worked” for.
Oh yeah… From the demand letter sent to Ms. Wong personally (not to a “Doe”):
Idiot indeed.
Click to access gov.uscourts.cand.250725.8.1.pdf
And the lies of omission continue in Gibbs’ declaration. He makes himself sound so reasonable, he was so sure she wasn’t the infringer but of course he conveniently leaves out the part where he still offered to settle for $3000. How stupid does he think Yuen and the Judge are?
If what Gibbs says is true, why does the email entered into evidence make no mention of this supposed belief that Ms. Wong is innocent, but has plenty of talk of settlement?
He also doesn’t make any excuses about the registration issues, which is disappointing, but all in due time.
The improper venue argument that Gibbs makes is weak in that he is asserting that all copyright infringement actions are governed by Section 1400(a) of the Copyright Act. However this is not a copyright infringement action but one requesting declaratory relief as to the defendants’ agents/employees improper conduct and misrepresentations in the context of a previous and pending copyright infringement action. Likewise his argument that there is no case or controversy between the parties is also less than compelling because he is arguing that there can be no case or controversy until HDP sues Ms Wong. Again this is not true because even if HDP does not have a case or controversy with Ms. Wong it does not mean that she cannot have a case or controversy with HDP and its agents/employees for their improper conduct and misrepresentations. Gibb’s last argument is also without merit in that he asserts that Ms. Wong’s lawsuit is duplicative of an earlier filed lawsuit by HDP in which she can assert these claims in the event she gets sued. Wrong; she cannot assert (counterclaim) these claims (improper conduct and misrepresentations) against HDP’s agents/employees because they are not named plaintiffs in the prior HDP lawsuit.
Watch Mr. Yuen maul this pathetic dog of a motion in his opposition papers.
This has been the Schrödinger effect in all of these lawsuits.
Does aren’t “named” so they can’t stop their records from getting released.
Does can’t make motions because they are not a party to the case until they are named.
Does can’t challenge anything alleged about them in court.
Does can be threatened with lawsuits.
Does can be harassed.
Does can pay a “low low fee if you act now!” to avoid ever being named.
Does can’t disprove the allegations, how does one prove a negative?
Does can’t expect a Judge to ever question an “expert” who has financial benefit derived from these settlements.
Does will NEVER be named in these cases unless there is clear admission of guilt, so that the original evidence can never be questioned.
Does find themselves screwed no matter what.
And that they never alleged she was the infringer, in spite of all the settlement threats that said just that, and even trying to get them to drop the deposition for a price. Yuen should have a field day with that, and I doubt the judge will be impressed with Gibbs telling the courts one thing and a different story in settlement correspondence.
Also good to see a response on Monday, and that it’s Gibbs representing. That means a few things:
* They must be worried and stayed up all weekend writing a response. No wonder John was back trolling the forums, he must be pissed that this ruined his Super Bowl weekend.
* They don’t have the money or resources to put a real lawyer on it, or think they are smart enough to do it themselves. So much for Prenda having deeper pockets and more lawyers.
Aahh the beauty and subtle irony of extortion.
“I have never alleged that you have molested cute widdle baby unicorns. And if you pay me $5000, I will continue to not make that allegation indefinitely!”
One of the problems with Gibbs representing HDP in this lawsuit is that he has an obvious conflict of interest being that he is one of the “John Doe” co-defendants who is alleged to have engaged in improper conduct and made misrepresentations of law and fact to Ms. Wong. An objective attorney might very well advise HDP to consider instituting a third-party action against Gibb and his gang for, among other things, a declaration that these agents/employees were acting outside the scope of their agency/employment.
Thank you SJD for highlighting some of my brain farts about this matter. Now not to beat a matter to death BUT to add just a few extra cents (sense?) about Gibbs representing HDP and the ethical (if not procedural and legal) problems down the road. Ms. Wong’s complaint was, in my opinion, drafted in such a way so as to preclude Gibbs and his gang from answering it insofar as it made the self-dealing/conflict of interest issues central to the lawsuit so that only a moron (IMHO) would represent himself and HDP without the Judge and the Bar Association taking note. But, as we have seen, they have done exactly that …. . Wow!
I was surprised by this too. I thought they would be smart enough to get outside counsel or at least a different Prenda “staff” attorney.
I believe K-Beech was smart enough to bring in additional counsel when D. Wayne O’Bryan was facing sanctions.
This suggests that Steele has HDP’s ear and they asked him for advice and got a load of BS about how this was no big deal, he’ll handle it, etc. It’s likely that HDP and its management have never dealt with a lawsuit before, so they would have no more idea how to handle this than the average Doe does when he receives the settlement threats. Since Steele is already doing the work that got them into this mess, they would be susceptible to taking Steele’s advice and digging themselves a deeper hole.
It’s also encouraging to see as a gauge of their resources. This is a high-stakes case for them, but they aren’t currently willing to spend money and bring in some professional help. Makes it look like maybe things haven’t been going so great and the war chest isn’t overflowing.
“The attorney who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.”
There is no “different staff attorney”. Steele’s name is poisonous for any lawsuit, Duffy has a bone in his tongue… Who else?
Wow indeed. Even a supposedly unsinkable Righthaven vessel was represented by an “outside” counsel… Clever trap. “The hunter became the hunted”.
yup, that is what happened in the DGW lawsuit. They took that approach.
What’s great is Yuen might’ve ruined Gibbs’ vacation, in several cases he has asked for more time because he won’t be in the country on February 9th.
“Plaintiff Pacific Century International, LTD., by and through its undersigned counsel, and
pursuant to Northern District of California Local Rule (hereinafter “L.R.”) 7-11, hereby moves this
Court for administrative relief for an order continuing the initial case management conference for
good cause. Per the Court’s Order Resetting CMC, the Initial Case Management Conference
(hereinafter “ICMC”) is scheduled for February 16, 2012. (ECF No. 16.) The preceding Case
Management Conference Statement is due February 9, 2012. Plaintiff’s counsel will be out of the
country during that time, and therefore would be unable to submit the Case Management Conference Statement by the required date.”
Alternatively Gibbs is running for the hills, I’m tempted to see if I can get an op-ed into the local Mill Valley paper that ran his heartwarming cancer survivor story.
He was probably planning to go hang out in St. Kitts and Nevis or The Seychelles or one of the other offshore havens where they are now setting up front companies.
Maybe Mr. Gibbs is away on vacation and someone else had to pull double duty and put out the crap motion and troll this and DTD sites? Might explain an ugly temper. Just speculation of course.
That’s funny, the motions are ,”signed” by him, how much of a muppet is this jerk.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/5:2011cv03648/246633/31/0.pdf?1322130829
Here’s Howard R. Lloyd, the magistrate judge assigned to this case, granting a Doe’s motion to sever in Hard Drive Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-84, severed all but one Doe. Can’t remember reading about any other instances of a Doe pulling that off. The case cannot be found in PACER now so I assume Gibbs eventually dismissed it like he has done with the other cases eviscerated by Northern California magistrate judges. When Prenda filed their batch of single-Doe cases they filed declinations to proceed before magistrate judges like crazy because all those cases were initially assigned to magistrate judges that had been shredding their cases.
Looks like Yuen was fortunate enough to have this case assigned to someone who will recognize Gibbs by his stench, although at this point there probably isn’t a judge in CAND who is unfamiliar with these clowns.
Wow! Lloyd did appear! He has disapeered from cases like HD vs 1-166 in California that has about 7 motions to quash that has been sitting there since september. It is good to see that he is also crushing the trolls. He was one of the last judges to not have weighed in lately. I also like that he required Gibbs to send the order and a notice that were dismissed without prejudice to all Does.
Actually, that case had a great exhibit of communication between a Doe lawyer and Steele and his butt boy Gibbs. Classic Steele in this letter. Poor guy.. Another Cali case got dropkicked out of the court by Lloyd in November.
Click to access gov.uscourts.cand.246633.22.4.pdf
Wow, Gibbs is an asshole. Can’t wait to see his ass get dropkicked into the garbage by Yuen and Lloyd. Great to see that the judge has seen Gibbs in action before and knows how slimy he is.
And what’s with Gibbs claiming on October 10, 2011 that recent decisions in CAND support joinder? That was right after the judges there had torn apart most of their cases. These guys have made an entire business out of fraudulent misrepresentation, I’m not surprised they try it with Does but they even have the balls to bluff other lawyers.
I imagine once this thing gains steam and discovery gets under way in Wong v. HDP there is going to be a Pandora’s box of Troll asshatery that is opened. Hopefully I have enough popcorn.
[sjd: restored from spam. Why the hell spam filter triggered? No idea.]
Wow, Gibbs is an asshole. I can’t wait to see his ass get dropkicked into the garbage by Yuen and Lloyd. Good thing this is a judge that has seen his scumbag tactics before.
And what’s up with Gibbs claiming in October 2011 that recent cases in CAND support joinder? That was right after the courts tore a bunch of their cases apart for joinder issues and failure to name defendants. The courts had been issuing orders to show cause like crazy. These guys have really made a business of fraudulent misrepresentation, and while it doesn’t surprise me they try that on Does, I’m a little surprised they have the balls to bluff other lawyers like that.
These guys are really full of themselves and it’s going to be fun to see how they get torn apart by a real lawyer. I hope I have enough popcorn.
What do you guys think the deal is with Gibbs CCing Lutz? To single the Doe’s IP out for extra harassment?
Click to access gov.uscourts.cand.250725.8.2.pdf
proposed order! He wishes! Needs to ruled on and signed by the Judge.
I don’t know why all the hate on Gibbs, he clearly has a sense of humor.
I guess he’s funny in a way! more like goofy!
I wonder how much Ostrich-Boy-Gibbs actually communicates with Mother-Ship-Steele?
It seems to me that in the majority of the Steele-spam we see, he likes to berate people’s “amateur” motions to the court that propose certain actions, because judges don’t like to be told what to do.
I seem to remember Steele (or whoever the resident Steele imitator was over at DTD that day) pounding on this point like it were his ol’ lady: “Judges throw your crap out because they’re giant egomaniacs like me, and they don’t like it when puny people like you pretend to be lawyers and tell them what to think!”
Hmmmmm…
Seems to me like you can’t get much closer to inserting thoughts into a judge’s head than proposing an order and offering them a dotted line to sign on. We may appreciate the humor, but it almost seems like it would be lost on a Federal Judge with too much to do, and too few hours in the day to do it.
Looks like there’s an update on the
LIUXIA WONG,Plaintiff,v.HARD DRIVE PRODUCTIONS, INC., AND DOES 1-50
But seems kinda weird though.
https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/HistDocQry.pl?124360308675688-L_1_0-1
Yes, I saw that. I have not seen this type of motion before, but I’m not a lawyer. My gut feeling though it’s a secondary, less important thread. But this motion manifests loudly that it was written by an experienced IP litigator, not a divorce lawyer.
Essentially Ms. Wong is trying to bring all the birds back to the original Judge who had the original case. When Prenda dismissed the first case against Ms. Wong and 47 other Does (Judge Spero was not perceived as pro-plaintiff) they refiled the same case only against Ms. Wong but sleazily did not inform the court of the prior action which they had dismissed which is required by the Local Rules so it can be assigned to the original judge (who Prenda does not like). Ms. Wong is advising the court of Prenda’s sleazy tactic and asking that the second lawsuit against her (which Prenda denies is against her, claiming it is someone in her household-WTF). and requesting that her present lawsuit for declaratory relief be combined with the pending Penda lawsuit against her and the two lawsuits be reassigned to Judge Spero, the original judge in accordance with the Local Rules.
I apologize for the run-on sentences and hope that the above is somewhat clear
change the above third sentence to: Ms. Wong is advising the court of Prenda’s sleazy tactic and asking that the second lawsuit against her (which Prenda denies is against her, claiming it is someone in her household-WTF) be combined with her present lawsuit for declaratory relief and the two two lawsuits be reassigned to Judge Spero, the original judge in accordance with the Local Rules.
Again I apologize for the screw-up but I just returned from a mind numbing curriculum related meeting only to find that my teenage son has broken his laptop by accident and am somewhat frazzled by this loss.
But after all is said and done Judge Spero denies the motion to combine/reassign the two cases to him which leaves us with HDP’s case against Ms. Wong still pending before Judge Seeborg and Ms. Wong’s case against HDP pending before Judge Lloyd. Look for either party to make a motion to consolidate based upon which Judge is perceived to be more favorable to the moving party.