Prenda

Lightspeed Media Corporation v. John Doe: a quick Q & A

This is the first post by a long-time reader (and valuable contributor to the discussions) Raul. I hope he will be back soon to share more of his thoughts in the form of another (and another) blog post.

Disclaimer: This post in a way constitutes legal advice but is being submitted for discussion purposes only.

I wanted to write my first post and try to keep it simple about the case entitled Lightspeed Media Corporation v. John Doe currently pending in the Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois (complaint is embedded below). Don’t let the title deceive you : this is not a lawsuit against a single malicious hacker, but a mere fishing expedition, which has a sole goal to obtain contact information of 6,500 Internet users and start extortion racket. Naming one person and burying hundreds, and (like in this case) thousands, of subscribers in a complaint is one of the new sleazy tactics employed by trolls in order to deceive both courts and public.

Who is Lightspeed Media Corporation?
Pornographer Steve Jones

Lightspeed Media Corporation (LMC) is a pornography enterprise located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Steve Jones, a former computer consultant who, along with his wife,

…publishes photos and videos of youthful models, and has long used terms such as “barely legal” and “barely 18″ in its marketing. Users pay between $30 and $40 a month, depending on how many sites they want to access.”

(According to Wall Street Journal.)

Today Steve Jones charges (NSFW link) either $34.95 or $39.95.

Who is LMC’s troll?
Former judge Michael O’Malley

LMC is being represented by an attorney affiliated¹ with Prenda Law by the name of Michael O’ Malley, who until August 2010 was a judge in the court where this lawsuit is pending. Undoubtedly he is on friendly terms with the judge who has been assigned to this case in what American Tort Reform Foundation has identified as being in the top list of “judicial hellholes” in the USA.

Who is LMC’s Forensic Computer Expert?

Quick answer: Steve Jones. According to the complaint at paragraph 14,

Plaintiff retained Arcadia Data Security Consultants, LLC (“Arcadia”) to identify IP addresses associated with hackers that use hacked passwords and the Internet to access Plaintiff’s private website and content.

[to do this] Arcadia used forensic software named Trader Hacker and Intruder Evidence Finder 2.0 (T.H.I.E.F.) to detect hacking, unauthorized access, and password sharing activity on Plaintiff’s websites.


Arcadia‘s address is the same address for LMC. Arcadia’s sole member is Steve Jones (likewise Matthew P. Collins is the Organizer of Arcadia and Attorney of Record for LMC).

Furthermore, guess who owns, markets and likely commissioned the creation of the forensic software? Yup, Steve Jones (www.arcadiasecurity.com ²). So a more accurate statement of paragraph 14 would be “Plaintiff’s principal, Steve Jones, retained Steve Jones to use Steve Jones’s forensic software to identify…”. No reports, investigations or testimony would be admissible in an honest court because they would be found to have been issued or given by a “biased expert” or one who has a financial interest in the outcome of the lawsuit.

What is the Amount of Money Involved In This Lawsuit?

LMC is claiming damages in excess of $100,000 plus attorney’s fees and costs. Back to reality, Buffy the Pirate Hunter (a.k.a. John Steele) has threatened to sue individuals and if that is the case then, in my opinion, LMC’s damages would be the cost of a lost monthly membership ($34.95 – $39.95) if a case actually went to trial.

What of Earth is Going on With Count I of the Complaint?

LMC’s troll is bringing lawsuit in a state court based upon a federal statute known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) on the ground that John Doe and his 6,500 co-conspirators used hacked passwords to access his websites (how this could happen to a former computer consultant who has been working in online porno business since 1999 is beyond me). On its face it looks a little scary but I do not believe the troll has pleaded a claim that would survive a motion to dismiss. This is because to make such a case the troll has to prove that his client sustained “damage” or “loss” of at least $5,000 which I think is not realistic.

The CFAA states that “damage” means any impairment to the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, or information and “loss” means any reasonable cost to any victim, including the cost of responding to an offense, conducting a damage assessment, and restoring the data, program, system, or information to its condition prior to the offense, and any revenue lost, cost incurred, or other consequential damages incurred because of interruption of service. In plain English and within the context of this lawsuit it means that the Troll has to show that LMC spent at least $5,000 to repair and/or re-secure his websites. The complaint claims it can reach this amount “in the form of actual damages, statutory damages, and reputational injury” but there are no statutory damages contained in the CFAA and as to reputational injuries to a pornographer that uses models/actresses who are barely 18… good luck with that.

What About the state claims of conversion, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and civil Conspiracy?

The simpler ones (conversion and unjust enrichment) are arguably valid but the damages are small ($34.95 – $39.95). The other two causes of action (breach of Contract and civil conspiracy), in my opinion, are laughable under the circumstances of this lawsuit.

 

I will keep an eye on these cases and, if the need arises, write a post about personal jurisdiction and removal under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In the meantime, do not feed the trolls.

Thanks to On2ndthought for unearthing some interesting facts presented in this post.

Notes

A resource and discussion page dedicated to Lightspeed “hacking” cases.

4/16/2012: A follow-up post: Attorney’s opinion: Lightspeed’s claim is a farce.
5/5/2012: Another follow-up post by Raul: Lightspeed Media Corporation v. John Doe: a quick follow-up Q & A.

Here is an interesting blog post about St. Clair county and its public servants.

¹ Pay attention to the address where deposition is set to take place: this is the official Prenda Law headquarters (a.k.a Troll Central).

² Initially I linked to www.arcadiasecurity.com, but it was brought to my attention that Steve Jones redirects to a Google image search for “gay love”. Is this how a mature individual behaves? You decide. Update: now it redirects to the Facebook main page; also, Steve Jones’s name is not listed in the domain name registration anymore: don’t worry, we have plenty of screenshots.

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Discussion

841 responses to ‘Lightspeed Media Corporation v. John Doe: a quick Q & A’

  1. well, there are two new entries:

    06/14/2012 CAL:MOTION HEARING ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/14/2012 ORD:ORDER ADMINISTRATION csam

    Maybe this just means that previously filed motions are being reviewed and new intermediate hearing dates are being set to review incoming motions?
    Anybody hear from their attorney yet?

    Reply

  2. How does a motion to quash work?

    From Wikipedia: A motion to quash is a request to a court to render a previous decision of that court or a lower judicial body null or invalid.

    Wouldn’t that essentially make it so every doe would remain anonymous if a motion to quash were to be granted?

    Reply

        • All an MTQ is going to do is request the court to render a previous decision of that court or a lower judicial body null or invalid. This prevents the troll from gaining access to your information. If the troll is smart (and at times they display some intelligence), they will see that Doe #123 with IP 1.2.3.4 has hired a lawyer and they are willing to fight, so they drop any further attempt to pursue you.

          Depending on the lawyer and what they are including with their fee, they may also offer to stand between you and the Troll if the Troll gets access to your information and starts harassment. You need to ask these questions to each attorney you interview before you select one.

          Always start with an MTQ. That scares away most Trolls and you won’t have to worry as much about harassment if at all.

          Also, this is a blog. Go out and talk to attorneys now about the case. The EFF maintains a list of attorneys who may be able to help you. You need to select an attorney who is licenses to practice in the court where the Troll filed their paperwork. I found that my local attorneys couldn’t represent me in FL where the Trolls filed against me. So I did a few weeks of daily research interviewing attorneys and found who I though was the best one to represent me in this case. It takes time, but it’s time well spent. Don’t want until the day before to hire an attorney.

          Reply

    • get a lawyer they can bring down settlement and with their fee it will end up costing about the same (maybe a little less) but without any of the headaches of troll calls and letters since it will be illegal for them to contact you since you are being represented…

      Reply

  4. If case11-L-0621 filed 11/03/2011 & case11-L-0683 filed 12/14/2011 ever go to trial in Illinois would they both be combined into one trial or would they go to trial separately, with 11-L-0621 being first due to the earlier filing date. Someone please clarify !!

    Reply

  5. I like your style Raul. Make the silly troll jump again, that was cute.
    I am with Juan Carlos I was just going to write the IL attorney general, but why think small?

    Reply

  6. When I was involved in a troll lawsuit I looked into who would be best to contact: FBI was the answer when it came to threatening to sue on unregistered copyrights and claiming statutory damages when none was available (like the CFAA claim in this case). In other words, criminal fraud/extortion.

    On the lighter side I am trying to mess with Jones because he is quite vile and SJD turned me onto 419eater.com which got me thinking…..

    Reply

    • do you have suggestions on how to format the letter to make your argument clear? If there is a fairly detailed form here, or a more thorough explanation of the arguments, there may be more support for a movement like that.

      Reply

  7. I should have thought of this earlier……

    Steve Jone’s Arcadia Security THIEF ver2 anti-piracy system/program has a registered trademark designation next to THIEF. Would you like to see the certificate of trademark registration to see who owns the trademark THIEF? I know I would. The problem is I could not locate it but the government’s search engine is a wee bit complicated and I am quite sure I was not using it properly.
    http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4002:e3cuan.1.1 So if there is a motivated Doe who wishes to tackle this project, it would be most appreciated.

    Reply

    • There are no registered trademarks that contain both THIEF and Arcadia in the record. There are three live trademarks for the word “thief”.

      Typed Drawing
      Word Mark THIEF
      Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer game cartridges; video game cartridges; user manuals sold as a unit together with the foregoing. FIRST USE: 19980300. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19981100
      Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
      Serial Number 75465976
      Filing Date April 10, 1998
      Current Basis 1A
      Original Filing Basis 1B
      Published for Opposition January 26, 1999
      Registration Number 2359162
      Registration Date June 20, 2000
      Owner (REGISTRANT) Intermetrics Entertainment Software LLC CORPORATION DELAWARE 23 Fourth Avenue Burlington MASSACHUSETTS 01803

      (LAST LISTED OWNER) SQUARE ENIX LIMITED PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY UNITED KINGDOM 1 HARTFIELD ROAD WIMBLEDON BRIDGE HOUSE, WIMBLEDON LONDON UNITED KINGDOM SW19 3RU
      Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
      Attorney of Record JOHN W. CRITTENDEN
      Type of Mark TRADEMARK
      Register PRINCIPAL
      Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20100325.
      Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20100325
      Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

      ——–

      Word Mark THIEF
      Goods and Services IC 005. US 006 018 044 046 051 052. G & S: HERBICIDE. FIRST USE: 20090324. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20090324
      Standard Characters Claimed
      Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
      Serial Number 77570275
      Filing Date September 15, 2008
      Current Basis 1A
      Original Filing Basis 1B
      Published for Opposition January 20, 2009
      Registration Number 3729569
      Registration Date December 22, 2009
      Owner (REGISTRANT) Loveland Products, Inc. CORPORATION COLORADO 3005 Rocky Mountain Avenue Loveland COLORADO 80538
      Attorney of Record Leslie P. Kramer
      Type of Mark TRADEMARK
      Register PRINCIPAL
      Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

      ———-

      Word Mark THIEF
      Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services in the nature of a television series featuring drama. FIRST USE: 20060328. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20060328
      Standard Characters Claimed
      Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
      Serial Number 78812663
      Filing Date February 10, 2006
      Current Basis 1A
      Original Filing Basis 1B
      Published for Opposition September 19, 2006
      Registration Number 3336824
      Registration Date November 13, 2007
      Owner (REGISTRANT) Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation CORPORATION DELAWARE 10201 West Pico Boulevard Los Angeles CALIFORNIA 90035
      Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
      Register PRINCIPAL
      Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

      Reply

        • You can’t really do much about using a registered trademark ® over an unregistered trademark ­™ unless he is trying to assert authority of a registered trademark over a company/entity that is using the name THIEF, or specifically, T.H.E.I.F. (spelled out, too). He may use a ™ symbol at will, and is probably just mistaking a ™ for a ®. It’s a relatively common mistake for people to make.

          The only way for this to be relevant in any legal action is if it were provable that he was trying to use the registered trademark symbol to add relevancy to the software to either the courts he is filing lawsuits in or to intimidate people into settling.

          Reply

      • You need to revise your search criteria. THIEF is not the registered trademark. I do these searches all the time for some of the businesses I’m involved with.

        Start your search for “Arcadia Security”. It does not exist. That would be your root search. Then you need to search for “Trader, Hacker, and Intruder Evidence Finder”, because that’s the long, formal name of the product. That doesn’t exist either. Therefore, it is not a Federally -registered trademark. THIEF it too ambiguous and it would have come up if “Arcadia Security” was the entity that registered it. Additionally, you’d want to list variations to the trademark with just “Trader, Hacker, and Intruder Evidence Finder” or “Arcadia Security” or any variation thereof to wholly protect the intellectual property.

        Now, since he’s in Arizona, you would also need to search that state’s records for the trademark too.

        You can search here for the registered name of the business: http://www.azsos.gov/business_services/tnt/

        Search for “Arcadia Security”. Go to the scanned documents and you’ll see the original filing documents. Ain’t no way Steve can ever change those. His name and address are entombed in the government’s data labyrinth.

        However, a search for “Trader, Hacker, and Intruder Evidence Finder”, or “THIEF” or “T.H.I.E.F.” does not result in anything related to “Arcadia Security”.

        So, in short, there isn’t a registered trademark or pending application based on the records searches provided by the State of Arizona (where Arcadia Security is registered) or the US Trademark Office.

        Reply

        • It gives me a thrill to witness the collective power of the internet sometimes…Keep up the great work guys! Hell, you might not only be able to make this go away, you might just put him out of business, in jail, etc. Great job!

          Reply

          • When I discuss this board with friends and family I call you all “ants”, and I put a huge respect in this comparison. Anthill == collective brain. Ants, visibly chaotic, together do the trickiest jobs. I’m proud and happy to be an ant in this anthouse 🙂

        • Ah, I tried to avoid this analogy and even did not post a fascinating video to avoid this type of comparison, which is flawed anyway: the ant queen produces ants 🙂 I’m rather an ant and at the same time a little bit of a ranger who makes sure the forest condition if right for ants to built their hill.

          So since you broke that barrier, here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A042J0IDQK4

          Reply

  10. After receiving numerous phone calls on my cell phone from the copyright troll, they called on my work number and got me on the phone. I refused to speak and hung up. They called back and spoke with my administration leaving a message leaving name and number also adding that I’m being sued for an illegal download of a third- degree movie. I am SO MAD!!! I am a school teacher and I have to deal with this dirt explaining to my employers what the he’ll is going on! Is anybody filing complaints against these “lawyers” harassment? How can it be done?

    Reply

    • Make sure you document the date and time of the phone calls. At this point (if they are calling your work) if you have the nerve to do it call them and ONLY tell them they must stop calling you. These guys are almost always collection agents (NOT lawyers) and they have rules they have to follow. If you tell them they can not call you at work and to stop calling I believe they have to, or you have a harrasment suit on your hands. Up until that point it’s a grey area, as collection agencies are only supposed to come into play on “owed” monies. Since that’s not the case here you can certainly threaten them with a countersuit (and a couple of people have actually gone through with them). Good luck–that truly sucks.

      Reply

    • That’s just awful. Earlier this year, a woman named Liuxia Wong filed a harassment suit against Hard Drive Productions, represented by Prenda Law, and she recently received a settlement in the case. See the thread on this site at https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2012/01/31/defendant-strikes-back-sues-hard-drive-productions-and-steeles-extortion-outfit/.

      You might want to consider contacting the lawyer who represented Ms. Wong in this case, Steven Yuen — see http://www.mpbf.com/attorneys/yuen_steven.php

      Reply

      • This same thing happened to me but backfired on them, since I’m the boss where I work. I’m guessing an internet search of various social media sites led them to me since you can match jobs with home addresses and guess which ones are closest.

        Reply

    • http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm

      not sure how relevant that is as this is not really a debt collection and in its own unique category. You technically don’t “owe” anything as there has been no judgement against you or anyone else, so these guidelines may not be fully (or at all) applicable.

      However, continuing to call your workplace, friends, family, etc,especially if you’ve told them to stop calling is harassment, and may be dealt with by threat or carrying out a lawsuit against them.

      Reply

      • Let’s see. Calling administration at a public institution and describing an allegation that might threaten the career of a Doe ? That fits the usual definitions of harassment and extortion. This is outrageous but not surprising. Trolls have consistently acted with malice.

        First, include in your documentation the time or times when you told the troll agent to stop calling and stop contacting you. There are differing ways to respond, and you could use more than one of them. You could get a lawyer, for infringement defense, or for harassment or both. The troll callers would back off, but they have already caused harm, even if your administration is supportive. This costs money even though the accusation may be wrong.
        You can also file a complaint with your state consumer protection office. These claims may be made anonymously. They usually carry more weight when the injured person gives their name. You could also make a complaint through your state representative, and have them contact the state attorney general’s office. You’d have to check to see if you could keep confidentiality on this route.

        Let’s collect examples of harassment, for Does to use in motions to the court. They add to the evidence of harassment used for profit only.

        Make clear to the school administration that:

        -This is a scam that has caused grief for tens of thousands of innocent people.
        -There are no charges brought, only the threat of charges. In 300,000 cases, almost none have even reached trial with a Doe responding. This suggests extortion. Imagine if a parent made 300,000 complaints against a teacher without ever coming to school to discuss a grievance.
        -A case very probably won’t go forward. Even if it did, it would be a civil, not a criminal, case involving a domestic matter.

        http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/harass
        harass…
        2. To annoy endlessly or systematically; to molest.
        3. To put excessive burdens upon; to subject to anxieties.
        http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/extort
        extort
        1. …To wrest from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity… to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort contributions from the vanquished… to extort payment of a debt.

        This is not legal advice and is only for discussion purposes.

        Reply

        • I just read this in an article abut Patent infringement lawsuit harrassment.
          If the demand letter includes an actual “threat” of a lawsuit,
          consider filing in a federal court within the jurisdiction of the
          business (i.e., a home court advantage), a declaratory judgment
          action seeking a declaration of invalidity and non-infringement of
          the asserted patent.
          Does anyone think this may be a good strategy in dealing with prenda letters?
          The full article is here http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.195.631&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

          Reply

          • I spoke to an attorney today that attempted to review the case file. He said that they had a 3.5 hour hearing and that the case file was under review by the judge. He also stated that having Omalley in front of LeChein was “unfortunate”. One of the clerks office employees expected the hearing to last “all day” on 7/20. He also said that the clerks office said there were 6700 Does and several MTQ’s already filed.

        • What is also “unfortunate” is that this apparently bent judge has kicked the hearing on the Doe motions over to 7-20. By then any ruling on severance, the validity of the legal theories of the complaint and the weight, if any, to be afforded Jone’s “evidence” will be largely superfluous as Prenda will have the lion’s share of the Doe info. It is now obvious why Prenda brought O’malley on board for this scam, he is perfect for it.

          Reply

    • Irina, this is pretty simple. You need to hire an attorney. Ask that attorney to send whomever is calling you a tersely-worded note that any attempt to contact you directly will be construed as harassment and you will prosecute to the full extent of the law. If the callers want to contact you, they need to do so through your attorney.

      You do have the option of sending them a certified-return-receipt letter stating that you refuse to discuss anything with them and any attempts to contact you directly or through a third party will be construed as harassment and you will prosecute them. The downside is that they’ll probably file a lawsuit against you because you don’t have legal representation.

      In either case they’ll stop harassing you.

      Reply

    • Ira, if your employers have any questions, let them feel free to send me an email: I’ll do my best explaining the scam, especially the part about high false positives – ~15% of victims are innocent.

      Reply

  11. so can i create a little java game applet and call it T.H.E.I.F. and register it for a trademark and then sue steve-o for giving my little game applet a bad name?

    Reply

  12. RAUL:

    If case11-L-0621 filed 11/03/2011 & case11-L-0683 filed 12/14/2011 ever go to trial in Illinois would they both be combined into one trial or would they go to trial separately, with 11-L-0621 being first due to the earlier filing date. RAUL OR SOMEONE please clarify !!

    Reply

    • 11-L-0621 is LIGHTSPEED MEDIA v AT&T et al, this was to subpeona the ISPs to get your information.

      11-L-0683 is LIGHTSPEED MEDIA V JOHN DOE which is their lawsuit against the john does.

      They are different things.

      Reply

    • My understanding is this, 11-L-0621 was a petition to compel the ISPs to provide the personal identifying information of their customers (Does) who allegedly used hacked passwords to Prenda’s proxy troll (however the Does can move to quash the subpoenas). The ISPs lost and the petition was granted (case is now over as to the ISPs). We are now at the stage where some Lightspeed Does are moving to quash the subpeonas prior to the date the ISPs have to turn over their personal identifying info to Prenda. By the way, while this is going on Prenda is in Miami-Dade using Florida’s pure bill of discovery mechanism to obtain personal identifying info on other Lightspeed Does with motion practice going on in that state court as well.

      Case 11-L-0633 is the complaint against John Doe and 6,499 co-conspirators which, no doubt, will be referred to when Prenda starts sending out its threatening settlement letters. This case will never go to trial as it is crap, pure and simple IMHO.

      Reply

      • In short, trolls like Prenda use bogus lawsuits so they can refer to them when threatening Does. Trolls want their extorting demands to seem more significant. Trolls would like to drag out even a failed case to increase their collections. This point should come to judges’ attention.

        Reply

  13. I’m having a hard time finding some comments made in the last day or two on this site, and I’m wondering if they’ve been deleted. One was a suspected troll saying that his research showed that lawyer Celestine Dotson and John Steele were old friends, with some comments following by a few of us. There was also a post I made about Steve Lightspeed’s hoax concerning the “death” of one of the models who worked for him. Am I looking in the wrong places, or have these comments been deleted? I hope this site hasn’t been hacked. Also, the contact page on this site appears to be down.

    Reply

  15. RAUL:

    HERE’S THE REGISTER OF ACTIONS ACTIVITY FOR ST CLAIR COUNTY CIVIL CASE 11-L-0683 is LIGHTSPEED MEDIA V JOHN DOE DURING THE LAST WEEK. CAN YOU TRANSLATE OR EXPLAIN TO US LEGAALY CHALLENGED DOE’S ??

    05/15/2012 ASM:COPIES ATY FOR DEFEND BOZARTH TROY A
    05/15/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE ATY FOR DEFEND DOTSON CELESTINE
    05/14/2012 DOC:BRIEF ATY FOR DEFEND HEIDARI YASHA
    05/14/2012 MOT:MOTION FOR LEAVE ATY FOR DEFEND HEIDARI YASHA

    05/14/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND HEIDARI YASHA
    05/14/2012 ASM:ENTRY OF APPEARANCE ATY FOR DEFEND HEIDARI YASHA
    05/14/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/14/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/14/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND DOTSON CELESTINE
    05/14/2012 ORD:ORDER ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/14/2012 CAL:MOTION HEARING ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/11/2012 DOC:NOTICE OF MOTION ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/11/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND DOE JOHN
    05/11/2012 DOC:DOCUMENT ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/11/2012 DOC:DOCUMENT ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/11/2012 ORD:ORDER ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/11/2012 ORD:ORDER ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/11/2012 ASM:COPIES ATY FOR DEFEND STULTZ DOUGGLAS A
    05/11/2012 ASM:COPIES ATY FOR DEFEND COLLINS DON CARY
    05/11/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND DOTSON CELESTINE
    05/10/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/10/2012 DOC:CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/10/2012 DOC:NOTICE OF MOTION ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/10/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND COLLINS DON CARY
    05/10/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND HATCH MARY
    05/10/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND DOTSON CELESTINE
    05/10/2012 ASM:ANSWER $5000.01 TO $15000 ATY FOR DEFEND DOTSON CELESTINE
    05/10/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE ATY FOR DEFEND HATCH MARY
    05/10/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE ATY FOR DEFEND COLLINS DON CARY
    05/10/2012 DOC:SPECIAL LIMITED APPEAR ADMINISTRATION aven
    05/10/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE ATY FOR DEFEND BLAKE EDWARD
    05/09/2012 DOC:CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/09/2012 DOC:STIPULATION ADMINISTRATION csam
    05/09/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ADMINISTRATION aven
    05/09/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ADMINISTRATION aven
    05/09/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE ATY FOR DEFEND tgla
    05/09/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE ATY FOR DEFEND tgla
    05/08/2012 MOT:MOTION TO QUASH ATY FOR DEFEND BEASLEY LAURA K
    05/08/2012 ASM:ENTRY OF APPEARANCE ATY FOR DEFEND BEASLEY LAURA K
    05/08/2012 ASM:ENTRY OF APPEARANCE ATY FOR DEFEND GILFOIL ANDREW R
    05/08/2012 DOC:ENTRY OF APPEARANCE ADMINISTRATION aven
    05/08/2012 DOC:LETTER ADMINISTRATION aven
    05/08/2012 ASM:ANSWER/APPEARANCE FEE DEFEND PRO SE DOE JOHN

    THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

    Reply

    • In a nutshell, attorneys for Does are paying appearance fees and filing motions to quash. It is my understanding thanks to IndianaDoe that all the Doe motions are going to be lumped together and a full day of hearing on them is scheduled for 7-20.

      On an unrelated note and for you newer Does to try to interject a little levity, last night I referred to Steve Jones as a old, balding washed up pornographer with no friends. This is where I got the washed up and no friends part (to fully understand some of this you have to know that Jones staged the fake “death” of one of his models, Tawnee Stone, to bring traffic to his sites) http://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1064597 Enjoy!

      Reply

      • Man, that makes for some hilarious reading! What a piece of work is Lightspeed.

        About the records of the case on the St. Clair County site, I saw that they still have Paul Duffy listed as an attorney for the defense. I emailed the court clerk and told her this should be corrected. I wouldn’t want any Does inadvertently contacting him.

        Reply

  16. So, just got a letter from these guys. I really, really can’t afford to lawyer up. What is my best option? Also, what is the worst that could happen to me?

    Reply

      • I received it today. Our building manager signed for it last week and I picked it up from her office. I’m in DC…and my ISP is Comcast. I saw that Prenda has presence in DC…I’m really freaking out so any help would be great.

        Reply

      • Received it today. Our building manager signed for it. I’m in DC and my ISP is Comcast. I’m really freaking out so any help would really be great.

        Reply

    • The worst that can happen to is that you choke on pizza and die before reading this reply. Seriously though, discussing the outcomes without attaching likelihoods to them is worthless. The probability that you die before reading this reply is almost zero, but it’s arrogant to say that it is zero. Right?

      So the worst that can happen to you in the legal sense is that you will be named and served individually. The probability of this event is a little bit higher that of a sudden death, but not by much. Read around, realize that this lawsuit is a big bluff and relax.

      Be well and don’t spend your psychic energy on fear, reserve it for anger. By having so much anger directed and them, each of these scumbags already earned his karma and will be a lint on a penis of an alien in his next life.

      Reply

      • Oh my, Hilarious. But most definately agreed, all energy should be directed at crushing these pigs, not In fear of them as they are largely jokes within their profession and without. The more you educate yourself the more you will agree.

        Reply

      • I definitely appreciate the humor. I have reading around this evening – for like 4 hours straight now. I just the biggest reason I was worried was cause there is no consensus on the best option for someone who can’t afford a lawyer. I’m hoping this will just blow over….can’t afford thousands of dollars in settlement fees when I’m already indebted in student loans with a mediocre job! Yay, America!

        Reply

        • A debate what do do if you can’t afford a lawyer makes sense in a “regular” trolling case, i.e. bittorent lawsuit. Even in bittorent cases the chance that a victim is in trouble is small, ~0.01% (given that he didn’t deliver “proof”, i.e. did not incriminate himself by pretending that he could manage a conversation with an extortionist).

          This “hacking” case is ridden with holes, and the only danger is if your employer (or spouse) is an asshole who won’t listen to the voice of reason. There is no danger of individual lawsuits, this is pure bluff!

          As a matter of fact Lightspeed is seemingly on a destruction-of-evidence spree (I’m still waiting for a bit stricter proof to publicize this fact). And remember: the best defense is attack in many circumstances, and in this case for sure.

          Reply

    • In my neck of the woods smart businessmen incorporate using their attorney as the principal so that there is no public record linking the true principal to the corporation. Steve Jones did not do this….draw your own conclusions.

      Reply

  17. Received it today. Our building manager signed for it. Says I have file a motion to quash by May 31. I’m in DC…my ISP is Comcast. I’m really freaking out so any help would be appreciated

    Reply

  18. So I was surfing around the Internet today doing research and such and stumbled on some neat facts:

    Lightspeed Media Web Page
    http://www.ls-media.com/

    http://www.arcadiasecurity.com (69.50.131.80 )runs on this platform:
    Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny9 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.9 OpenSSL/0.9.8g

    One other web site is registered at the same IP as Arcadia Security (69.50.131.80), and that’s http://www.firesoup.com

    Steve Jones lists “shanjones@ls-media.com” as his email address when he registers sites. However, this might be Shannon Jones’ email address.

    And when you do a geolocation lookup for Arcadia Security you get either Marietta, GA or New York, NY.

    Now here’s the kicker….Stevie uses the same server for 58 different domain names (including ls-media.com and cheerfan.com). That IP address is: 66.115.150.246. Using the following sites that IP address maps to:

    http://www.geobytes.com – New York, NY
    http://www.hostip.info – Atlanta, GA
    http://www.whatismyipaddress.com – Marietta, GA
    http://www.ip2location.com – New York, NY
    http://www.infosniper.net – Marietta, GA

    That last part is for the Does. If you have to go to court or need to file anything regarding this case, please refer to the IP search above and send it to the court. Then ask Stevie where exactly this server is located because IP Geolocation has no friggin’ idea where it is. I’m sure the judge would like to see a courtroom demo of this, and then ask Stevie to unveil THIEF to the court and show them where it thinks his server is. Make sure the court has video running, I wouldn’t want to miss that.

    I’ll kick over more stones in a few…

    Reply

      • I’ll call his hosting provider tomorrow to see if they have any co-los in each geography and if they offer geographic load balancing on the front-end. Usually content comes in and is then handed off to another delivery server, unless of course the architect was gouging Stevie by setting up multi-site load balancing on the front end. Most of his bandwidth consumption would be post-request and not on incoming hits.

        Reply

      • Stevie has many connections to GA, specifically the Atlanta area. Since 2003 he’s been using Atlanta as his technical contact when registering DNS names.

        Now, here’s the kicker–back in the 1990s me and another business partner of mine considered opening up an online porn site. So we went to Chicago to talk to some folks who owned brick-and-mortar porn shops. During that conversation the CFO told us of some of the perils involved with the “business”. There is an obvious stigma that is attached to owning, operating, and/or associating with those folks. In one instance the bank they were using in one town called them on a Friday and told them to pick up all of their accounts, they were closing them because of the business they were in. At the end of our meeting with the CFO we realized that it wasn’t a business we were interested in dealing with.

        Now, here’s the kicker–their ISP is the south, which is fairly conservative. You could disrupt Stevie’s business by outing the executives of his hosting provider. Let them deal with the fallout of doing business with a pornographer who is also a copyright troll. I’m sure their customers would love to know this information. Let the exodus begin!

        Reply

        • The type of business according to all of the annual reports filed for Lightspeed Media is Internet Content Provider. It is not registered in the State of Arizona as an Adult business.

          Reply

        • I think that the State of Arizona needs to have some light shed upon this misfiling. And ironically, there are court documents that clearly state that Lightspeed is in the adult entertainment industry.

          That burn is going to leave a mark.

          Reply

        • Well, it’s probably time to tell the Atlanta Falcons that their website is hosted with thousands of other porn sites and copyright troll. Might want to tell their charities that they house thousands of porn sites (hey, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, this donation was paid with porn). I wonder if their customers know that their data is in the same data center as thousands of porn sites?

          Reply

  19. Some interesting developments I recently heard: the ISP’s filed a request for a friendly contempt monday, which means they want to hold off revealing the names and complying with the judges order, probably until an appeal is made. The lawyer I spoke to said the judge has yet to rule on it, but implied while on the bench that he wasn’t inclined to grant it.

    Reply

  20. Also, Heidari did seem pretty knowledgeable, (and is one of 2 lawyers i spoke to who didn’t recommend settling, including most on the EFF page) and seems to have prepared a very strong case to quash the discovery, based on both jurisdiction and joinder.
    I did hear a couple of concerns for red flags as to why the judge still might not grant the motions to quash though: the judge’s refusal to hear the ISP’s arguments is a big flag, and the judge knowing the opposing council, and issuing a statement that he’s aware that all defendants will have to be named in separate suits after discovery, means he might not listen to motions well.

    Reply

    • Anon E Mous – I don’t know how you’re getting this up to date info of the goings on in this case, but thank you. Any and all updates are much appreciated!

      Reply

  22. juancarlosdeburbon:

    Is it possible, maybe with the help of an attorney to see if any of the passwords that were posted on pornbb.org match that IP address- 66.115.150.246 just for the hell of it to test the theory of some people that the passwords may have been planted??

    Reply

    • You’d have to subpoena the ISP or hosting provider to get that information, but I’m sure it’s logged. If the original post of the u/name p/word are still there, then, yes, there’s a good chance the admin of the site would have the posting IP address logged.

      However, those are his hosting sites and rarely if at all do people log onto their servers to surf the web and post crap. It’s not a very good fishing expedition.

      Reply

    • I seriously doubt the software exists in any kind of usable form. If I were named and had to go to court, I would request to see the software and have an expert review the source code. It would be somewhat costly to do, but it’s a pinprick to the heart of the case.

      Reply

      • However, with Apache, which he is using on his sites, by default it logs every incoming IP address and the requests that are made from the source browser. He really doesn’t need the software to demonstrate an IP address was on his site and what they were doing. Most servers log that kind of activity out of the box. However, Stevie is an idiot and he’s declaring that some vaporware software did some voodoo to determine who you are. That is a very weak area in his case and susceptible to devastating challenge.

        Reply

      • It’s a valid point and it would be nice to see the code and laugh, but it is essentially a moot point, since the mere fact that he is his own expert renders this lawsuit invalid in the first place. And Jones seems to pour fuel onto his burning ass by “destroying” evidence (quoted – because it’s impossible to destroy anything that was once in open on the web).

        Reply

  24. I’ve seen copies of extorntion letters in bittorrent cases where they say that you can follow a link to see whatever evidence they have against you to try and scare you into settling. Im curious if the settlement letters in this case have any specific information?

    Reply

  25. Ok here’s my questions. Let’s say i don’t file a MTQ, and those that do get them granted on appeal. In the meantime my information is released because I didn’t file. Will Prenda continue to attack me and then what are my options then. I don’t see any one trying to get the case dismissed period, that’s the only way they will stop harassing. What is the best way we can band together to get it dismissed?

    Reply

    • see my note below on what i learned about this option-
      i did talk to a lawyer who claimed to be representing a person with deeper pockets who is fighting it and it sounded like more than a MTQ, but really i have nothing more than that. It may not even be this case, obviously he couldn’t share much.

      Reply

    • Oh! and in answer to your question about if they will continue to attack you- unless there is some reason the case itself falls flat, most of the MTQ’s are relying on issues of joinder and jurisdiction. A ruling in favor of these on appeal would not really affect Prenda’s ability to harass you. It might weaken their case, but its not like that really bothers them, eh? They’d already have your information. Not as good an answer as you were hoping for, i know.

      Reply

  26. A SETTLEMENT PROPOSAL TO END THIS MADNESS

    BEING I(ONE) OF THE 6500 CO-CONSPIRATOR DOE’S IN THIS P/W HACKING CASE, I WOULD LIKE TO GET FEEDBACK & REACTION TO THIS PROPOSAL OF A SETTLEMENT THAT COULD POSSIBLY END THIS MADNESS FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED. FOR THOSE OF
    YOU THAT MAY HAVE USED A P/W TO ENTER THE LIGHTSPEED WEBSITES, I SURE MOST OF YOU FEEL THAT THE PLANTIFF SHOULD @ LEAST BE COMPENSATED SOMETHING FOR THE DOE’S THAT D/L CONTENT & MAYBE EVEN THE DOE’S THAT DIDN’T FOR THAT MATTER. IT’S JUST THE $3,000-$4,000 SO-CALLED EXTORTION AMOUNT THAT’S CAUSING THE PROBLEM IN ARRIVING @ A FAIR SETTLEMENT. A FEW WILL PROBABLY PAY THE $4,000 AMOUNT FOR A QUICK REMEDY & PEACE OF MIND & I’M SURE THEY HAVE THEIR REASONS FOR DOING SO BECAUSE EVERY DOE’S CASE FACTS ARE DIFFERENT & SHOULD HAVE BEEN HANDLED SEPARATELY. BUT I’M SURE THE MAJORITY FEEL THEY ARE GOING TO RIDE THIS THING OUT & HOPE FOR A POSSIBLE DISMISSAL. I’M NOT SURE TO DATE HOW MANY DOE’S HAVE FILED MTQ’S THAT WILL KEEP THEIR INFO PRIVATE TO BE DETERMINED ON JULY 20 & HOW MANY DOE’S STILL HAVE TIME TILL THERE ISP’S TURN OVER THEIR INFORMATION, BUT I’M SURE IT’S STILL A LARGE NUMBER. EVEN IF THEY HAVE YOUR INFO NOW, THIS PROPOSAL CAN END YOUR MISERY OF THE HARASSMENT YOU’VE BEEN GETTING.

    MY PROPOSAL INVOLVES WHAT WOULD BE FAIR COMPENSATION TO LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORP THAT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE SENSE TO ALL PARTIES INVOLVED, BOTH DOE’S & PLANTIFF. LET’S FIRST START AT WHAT IT WOULD COST TO BECOME A PAYING MEMBER TO THE LIGHTSPEED WEBSITES. FOR $34.95/MONTH, A MEMBER WOULD RECEIVE ACCESS TO ANY 10 OF THE 32 LIGHTSPEED SITES OF YOUR CHOICE WITH THE OPTION OF CHANGING YOUR PICKS EVERY MONTH OR PAY $39.95/MONTH, IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ANY OF THE 32 SITES SEPARATELY. ALSO JOINING BY EITHER PLAN ENTITLES YOU TO NO D/L LIMITS. MOST DOE’S FEEL THAT PAYING THE $34.95, THE COST OF A 1 MONTH MEMBERSHIP SHOULD BE FAIR ENOUGH COMPENSATION, SINCE YOU COULD D/L 100% OF THE CONTENT FROM 10 WEBSITES WITH THE NO D/L LIMIT FEATURE. THIS, HOWEVER, IS NOWHERE NEAR WHAT THE PLANTIFF’S DEMANDS ARE & WE NEED TO MEET @ A POINT THAT’S ATTRACTIVE & MAKES SENSE TO ALL. TO GET MORE DOE’S ON BOARD TO SETTLE, MY PROPOSAL INVOLVES PAYING PLANTIFF WHAT IT WOULD COST TO BE A MEMBER FOR 1 YEAR OR TAKING THE MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP FEE OF $34.95 X 12 MONTHS=$419.40 & ROUNDING IT OFF TO A $500 SETTLMENT COST/DOE. THIS NUMBER WOULD MAKE BOTH SIDES HAPPY, WHERE IT WOULDN’T BE EXTORTION TO THE SETTLING DOE’S & PLANTIFF HAS THE POSSIBLITY OF BEING COMPENSATED BETTER[6500 X $500=$3,250,000]THAN IF HE RECEIVED SAY $4,000/DOE FROM THE FEW DOE’S THRU EXTORTION ROUTE. THIS IS MORE THAN FAIR FOR BOTH PARTIES. JUST FOR THE HECK OF IT, I GOOGLED THE NAME JORDAN CAPRI & GOT 70 PAGES OF FREE D/L CONTENT THAT’S AVAILABLE TO ANYONE ON THE INTERNET WITH ENTRIES DATING BACK AS FAR AS 2004. PORNBB.ORG, PEACHY FORUM, FREEONES, JUST TO NAME A FEW, ALL HAD THIS STUFF THAT WE WOULD BE WILLING TO PAY THE PLANTIFF FOR FREE. AGAIN, $500/DOE SEEMS TO BE A FAIR SETTLEMENT FOR BOTH PARTIES, WHERE BOTH PARTIES WOULD GET THE RELEIF THEY DESIRE & EVERYONE COULD GET ON WITH THEIR LIVES. DOE’S WOULD KEEP THEIR IDENTITIES PRIVATE OR END THE HARRASSMENT IN SOME CASES & PLANTIFF WOULD BE FAIRLY COMPENSATED BY HAVING MORE DOE’S AGREE TO SETTLE THIS WAY THAN THE EXTORTION WAY. PLANTIFF WOULD ALSO REDUCE HIS RISK OF GETTING NOTHING IF HE WANTS TO PURSUE THIS TILL THE END WITH A MAJORITY OF THE DOE’S NOT AGREEMENT TO THE EXTORTION AMOUNT. BOTH SIDES WOULD BENEFIT, WHICH IS THE WAY IT SHOLD BE!!

    TO DO THIS THE DOE’S COULD UNITE & HIRE A DESIGNATED ATTORNEY THAT’S BOTH EXPERIENCED & FAMILIAR WITH THE CASE, SAY YASHA HEIDARI OR CELESTINE DOTSON TO ACT ON THEIR BEHALF. SHOULD BOTH PARTIES AGREE TO THE SETTLEMENT AMOUNT OF $500, THE CHOSEN ATTORNEY WOULD BE THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD KNOW THE TRUE IDENTITY(NAME) OF THE DOE & THEIR RESPECTIVE IP#. FOR THOSE DOE’S THAT UNFORTUNATELY HAVE HAD THEIR INFO RELEASED TO PLANTIFF, THIS SETTLEMENT WOULD ALLEVIATE YOUR HARASSMENT. AN AGREED UPON SETTLEMENT DATE WOULD BE DETERMINED BY BOTH PARTIES FIRST. EACH DOE WHO FEELS COMFORTABLE IN SETTLING WOULD THEN REMIT THEIR $500 SETTLEMENT FEE PAYABLE TO THE DESIGNATED ATTORNEY. THE ATTORNEY WOULD MAINTAIN A PAID LISTING THAT WOULD MATCH DOE NAME TO THEIR IP#. ALL REMITTED CHECKS WOULD BE DEPOSITED IN AN INTEREST-BEARING ESCROW ACCOUNT AS RECEIVED, WHERE THEY WILL REMAIN UNTIL 1(ONE) FINAL TOTAL DISBURSEMENT CHECK PAYABLE TO THE PLANTIFF ALONG WITH THE PAID IP# LISTING WILL BE MADE ON THE PRE-DETERMINED SETTLEMENT DATE. PRIOR TO SUBMITTING THE SETTLEMENT CHECK, PLANTIFF & PLANTIFF’S ATTORNEY WILL RELEASE ALL THE NECESSARY LEGAL DOCUMENTATION TO DOE’S DESIGNATED ATTORNEY(I.E.-JOINT STIPULATION THAT THIS SETTLEMENT WOULD RELEASE ALL THE DOE’S WITH PREJUDICE) & ANY OTHER LEGAL DOCUMENTATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SETTLE THIS CASE. DOE’S DEFENSE ATTORNEY FEES WOULD THEN BE DIVIDED EQUALLY AMONG THE PARTICIPATING DOE’S, WHO WILL HOPEFULLY RECEIVE A DISCOUNTED GROUP RATE FROM THE ATTORNEY OF CHOICE.

    THIS PROPOSAL ISN’T GOSPEL & CAN BE TWEAKED & FINE-TUNED TO GET THE POINT WHERE WE CAN ALL AGREE. THIS IS INTENDED TO HOPEFULLY BEING A STARTING POINT IN THE NEGOTIATING PROCESS. EVERYBODY’S INPUT IS WELCOMED-LET’S GET SOME FEEDBACK. I HOPE THIS PROPOSAL WILL MAKE SENSE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED SO WE CAN ALL GET ON WITH OUR LIVES & FAMILIES.

    PEACE,
    ROCKI DOE

    Reply

    • Typing in all caps didn’t make this any less ridiculous. Imagine that. Here’s another solution – wait it out, pay nothing, and we all laugh about this in a few months.

      Reply

      • I’m not trying to be offensive but that comment in all caps made me think troll. It’s stupid to suggest everyone settle when so many have done nothing wrong. My son the military police officer Marine certainly did not & I get that this is all about extortion. I suppose if you are guilty you may wish to settle but I say fight back. Do not feed the trolls as they are freaking criminals.

        Reply

      • Troll. Rocki Doe is a Troll. The comment is intended to stand out and convince while scaring. It has a mix of limited information and disturbance. 3 million dollars to a gang immoral schemers doing weak extortion ?

        $200 per Doe could bankroll responses and counter suits on multiple points in multiple jurisdictions. If Does can coordinate, THAT’s [ironical caps use] the action to take.

        Reply

        • Sorry anon2 but I’m not a troll. I’m a Doe Defendant in this case. Like I said before my comments were only intended to stand out for the purpose of being read & not to scare anyone.
          I’m sorry anyone took this in a negative way. I was only trying to help, not hinder the solution to this problem. I’m extremely grateful to Raul & everyone else who’s been a great help in taking the stress off of everyone on a daily basis with their input & again my intentions were the only the same. Again, sorry if I scared anyone & I wish all my co-Doe defendants nothing but the best in getting this case out of our lives.

          Reply

  27. sorry you were offended by me using capital letters to make my point, but i only did it to make sure that everybody got a chance to read it. is this better. are you an attorney or did an attorney give you the advice for your solution. if we can all be guaranteed that by waiting it out, paying nothing & in a few months we all laugh, i’m 100% behind your solution. my intention was to only explore another avenue to solve the problem. thanks for your constructive criticism. sorry you thought it was ridiculous. that should encourage others to participate & help out!! imagine that!!

    Reply

    • IMHO, your argument is flawed not because it is practically very difficult to organize Does to act. Though there was not a single precedent of that in copyright trolling cases, I don’t rule out such a possibility, given emergence of a charismatic lawyer-organizer. BUT if this happens, than there is absolutely no need to settle, with such nuclear power at hand it can even be settled the other way around! Imagine a marine pirate who takes a fee from every vessel entering a haven. What you propose is to organize all the vessels in a fleet, buy super-cannons, simply to… offer that criminal a small fee for him to go away. I bet while this idea can be valid before such fleet is armed, it would be crazy to think about it once it happens.

      Reply

    • If these Does are not guilty of a crime, there is no reason to settle. The attorneys motivation is harassment toward a settlement which is on the cusp of being investigated by the States and Federal Attorney’s General.

      This is an abuse of the court system and the attorneys and plaintiffs are putting themselves at great peril by continuing to act this way.

      So, no, there is absolutely no compelling reason to settle at all. It’s still cheaper to hire an attorney and defend yourself.

      Reply

    • not sure why everyone is so quick to call you a troll. gave you a thumbs up just to even it out. but if you are a troll.. you bastard..

      Reply

  28. I just got off the phone with Yasha Heidari in Atlanta, and all I can say is “WOW” You’ll be hard pressed to find an attorney who is more knowledgeable on the subject of copyright trolling and their tactics.. If you can afford the MTQ, then IMO he’s a great attorney to do it on your behalf anonomously!

    Reply

  29. Got a letter from our ISP stating Lightspeed Media has our IP address and they have a summons to Comcast stating they want my name and information by the May 31 deadline. Our IP address is our laptop and on the date that I was supposed to have downloaded from the site is also the date that I was on a bus heading for an international vacation and my laptop was in my carry on bag in the bus luggage sectiom. There is no way I downloaded. i am looking for some suggestion as to what to do. I have a lot of documentation showing I could not have had access to my laptop at that time.

    Reply

      • There’s always the possibility of ISP error in IP record keeping or reporting. You could ask the ISP to double check.
        The error of identifying an IP address with a person is probably much bigger. The inaccuracy of troll IP tracking methods is also probably much bigger.

        If you have documentation about traveling at the time of the allegation, you have a strong counter argument even more than many innocent Does.
        The same general choices are open to you: wait it out, file a motion, retain an attorney to file or shield you. With clear evidence of wrong allegation, there may be other countermeasures that an attorney could discuss.
        As usual, do not contact the trolls directly.

        Reply

    • Hire an attorney. At this juncture, the court could care less about what your excuse is–legit or otherwise. This is a subpoena to the ISP to release your information. Your focus should be preventing your ISP from releasing your information, and unfortunately that means you need to file an MTQ to stop it.

      The alternative is doing nothing and allowing an unscrupulous attorney access to your personal information with the sole purpose of harassing and extorting you into a several-thousand-dollar settlement. They’ll never give you the opportunity to get your argument in front of a judge.

      The the old saying goes, “Cut the snake off at the head.”

      Reply

  30. A point i forgot to mention yesterday regarding dismissing the case- the problem here is that there is a question of standing; if the does (except doe #1) even have grounds to file a dismissal. The analysis was a little (long way?) over my undergrad level law courses, but what i understood is that since we the does are not being sued outright in this case, we do not have standing to ask for dismissal. Our status is a named co-conspirator, which gives them the right of discovery but little more, but restricts our standing to pursue anything beyond personal level motions.
    If anyone wants to correct me, please feel free!

    Reply

  32. Is hiring a lawyer to handle the harassing phone calls, emails, etc. enough protection? Or do most people feel a MTQ is needed? Also, does anyone know if any of the lawyers mentioned offer payment plans?

    Reply

    • Under the circumstances I think hiring an attorney to act as a shield is a cost effective way to avoid being harassed but hold off on hiring that attorney until you get the first Prenda letter.

      Reply

      • Billy Joe Willis in Chicago is offering shield services. He seemed like a really nice guy, and knowledgeable. Not what I expected from a lawyer. He quoted me $375 to act as a shield.

        Having some experience dodging medical collections my wife and I decided to take a wait and see approach. I am being proactive in other ways, I can’t afford to join any Doe groups unless a lawyer offers a good group deal.

        Reply

  33. For sophisticatedjanedoe,

    You mentioned that “this hacking case is ridden with holes, and the only danger is if your employer (or spouse) is an asshole who won’t listen to the voice of reason. There is no danger of individual lawsuits, this is pure bluff!”

    I was curious, how they are getting individuals employer information???

    Reply

    • The old profession of a private investigator is not dead. It is even easier these days. People are reckless when it comes to keeping private information private. These two conditions enable a lot for a skillful (or just smart) person. They also can use illegal/unethical methods. Phone hacking, for example. Most people never changed default password in their voicemails.

      On the other end, I don’t think that they have either smarts or resources to learn everything about everyone, I assume they go after low-hanging fruit.

      Reply

    • One simple example. A doe receives an email from a troll casually linking to a case description or FAQ on his website. Not tech-savvy Doe does not think twice before clicking on such a link. And what happens if he is using his work computer? He just provided a scumbag with an IP address, and most businesses, private or government have static IP addresses and can be easily reverse-tracked. A couple of fishing calls, and viola…

      Reply

  34. Is hiring a lawyer to handle the harassing phone calls, emails, etc. enough protection? Or do most people feel a MTQ is needed? I’m running out of time, so I need to decide soon.

    Also, does anyone know if any of the lawyers mentioned offer payment plans?

    Reply

  35. Would Mr. Heidari take on a Doe who is residing in Oregon? I was told by local attorneys that I would need to hire an attorney in Illinois

    Reply

    • I’ve spoken with Mr. Heidari and I too am seriously considering his services. He informed me that he applied for pro hac vice for this case, which permits him to participate in this case. At least one other person on this blog has stated that he as taken on Mr. Heidari’s legal services, even though he is far from his offices in Georgia.

      Reply

      • Yes, I have hired Mr. Heidari. (I am the Doe formerly known as NHDoe.) I believe he’s now representing at least four Does in this case, possibly more.

        Reply

      • I asked Yasha Heidari for clarification on some of these questions regarding whether you need an Illinois lawyer, etc.. He said that it isn’t essential that the lawyer live in IL; you need a lawyer that is authorized to represent individuals in this particular court.

        Generally speaking, an Illinois lawyer will be licensed to practice in Illinois and can do just this. The other method is to file a motion “pro hac vice.”

        “Pro hac vice” is just a legal term for obtaining permission from the court to represent individuals in a particular case. For this case, Mr. Heidari filed a motion for pro hac vice and obtained permission to represent individuals earlier this month.

        Reply

  36. Apparently it didn’t like the chevrons around the HTML tags… 

    <head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered)">
<title>Introducing THIEF v2.0 Anti-Piracy System</title>
    Reply

  37. Raul Or Jaun Carlos:
    I’m a DOE in the Illinois Case- 11-L-0683 that has until May 24th to file an MTQ before my ISP-Comcast turns over my info to the trolls. I have no problem with them getting my name, etc as far it getting back to an employer since I’m self-employed & there’s no concern about it getting back to a spouse since I’m single & I think I can deal with the harassing calls & e-mails. My questions are about the MTQ process. Is Judge LeChien the judge who will make the decision on the filed MTQ’S on July 20th? If so, since he already denied the ISP’s & from what I read Plantiff’s attorney- Michael O’Malley is a former Judge & friend of LeChien’s, what do you think are the chances of this Judge being objective & the MTQ’S being successful. Also what are some examples of the reasons that a hired attorney would give a judge in an MTQ that would sway him to decide in your favor? Are they different than say what the ISP-Comcast Attorneys gave initially when they were denied? Based on the fact that I can deal with them getting my info, would you still file the MTQ cause it’s always bwetter to stay anon or would you just ride it out? Thanks for all your input to this site-it’s much appreciated!!

    Reply

    • I am also a Doe in the same case, and in similar situation to you. I have been on disability for 12 months (pulmonary fibrosis)and just officially resigned my job, I frequently communicate with my spouse so had no problem telling her about this ridiculous case, an can handle a degree of harassment. We have decided to wait it out an conserve our limited funds in the small event we get named. I wish I had money to join up with either Dotson or Heidari to help get these guys, but unless they offer a deal to get more Does on board my hands are tied. If you don’t just want to sit around and wait be proactive and write to legal watchdog societies, congressmen, attorneys generals, etc. Up until 2 weeks ago I had no idea this was going on. Lightspeed is a pornographer and he is turning our judicial system into pornography in order to rebuild his fallen empire. He built his fortune on exploiting young naive girls, now he is attempting to exploit random Americans, unfortunately for him we aren’t all naive teenagers who don’t know any better. It all boils down to your goal and your risk tolerance. If you have no risk tolerance then lawyer up. If you can handle some risk and harassment take a crack, but know that at any time you can hire a lawyer to help you. If they serve you definitely hire a lawyer. If you have deep pockets and want to become a folk hero grab Stevie by the short and curlies and start yanking one by one.

      Reply

  38. Raul or sophisticatedjanedoe :

    One other question about filing a MTQ. I’ve read different opinions on those who file & it’s possible effect on the trolls if the decide to serve you. The Doe’s that file the MTQ may be the first ones they go after because they feel you are more vulnerable & may have something to hide VS the opinion that they will stay far away from those who file because they know that you have legal representation & they don’t want to deal with an opposing attorney. What in your opinion is more likely to happen?? Also is Judge LeChien the judge that will be deciding the fate of the MTQ’S on July 20th?? Thank You!!

    Reply

  39. I’ve hired Yasha Heidari to file my MTQ. My recommendation is to call him. He will talk you through your options and is quite prepared to file a MTQ. He’s very passionate about what he does, & i personally believe in spending money on him than any remote possibility of spending a penny on a troll.

    Reply

  40. Raul or sophisticatedjanedoe

    In reading the filed Complaint for case11-L-0683 above in the Factual Allegations Section this paragraph states:
    17. In addition to logging Defendant’s IP addresses, Arcadia’s software logged other important information into a uniform database, such as the specific websites that were unlawfully accessed and the files that were downloaded during that unauthorized access.
    18. A summarization of the information gathered for Defendant is set forth in Exhibit A. A listing of the IP address, ISP, and date and time of the unauthorized access of Defendant’s co-conspirators is set forth in Exhibit B.A declaration attesting to Arcadia’s software is attachedas Exhibit C.

    In all the copies of the Complaint that I read- Exhibit A, which is supposedly a listing of the specific websites & files that Defendant accessed & downloaded has been omitted. In this referral to Defendant are they referring to just DOE#1 or is Exhibit A a listing that includes everyone. Also has anyone seen Exhibit A? The letter I received from Comcast just stated that I had been identified by my IP address in the lawsuit for allegedly uploading or downloading a movie, not any specific items as referenced to in Exhibit A. My letter also included the items referenced to in Exhibit B-Defendant’s co-conspirators IP address, ISP & date & time of unauthorized access highlighted in yellow marker & that I had until May 24th before my info is released to the trolls.

    For those Doe’s that have already been contacted by the trolls in attempting to get you to settle, have they mentioned & accussed you of D/L any specific items in their extortion plot? Would like to get a heads-up of what to expect, since I’m not filing a MTQ & my deadline date of May 24th is approaching.

    Thanks to everyone for this website. It both informative ,eases the stress & exposes the trolls as the lowlifes that they are!!

    Reply

  41. Has anyone contacted the police/FBI about extortion attempts phone calls or made any counter lawsuits.

    Reply

    • I sent a complaint to the US Department of Justice, and the IL state Attorney Generals office. I also contacted several different legal watchdog organizations (the US Chamber of Commerce Associations Institute for Civil Justice, The IL Civil Justice League, and the American Association for Tort Reform.)

      Reply

      • IndianaDoe,

        Thank you for your remarkable efforts in bitch slapping trolls. It is always a pleasure to find a fellow Doe who walks the walk.

        Reply

  42. An Excerpt From a Link provided by Raul:

    Lightspeed had to move his family once when one of his neighbors found out how he makes a living and word got around the neighborhood. Lightspeed doesn’t think they’ll have to move again, though, because they now live in a part of Phoenix where houses are far apart and he doesn’t know his neighbors. His children, he indicated, are too young to know about the family business, though he plans to clue them in when they’re older. His wife, Shannon, runs the business from a guesthouse in their backyard.

    Arizona legislators and organizations like the Arizona Family Council, Center for Arizona Policy, the Goldwater Institute, the Alliance Defense Fund, and others are all obligated to demand that Arizona strengthen, and enforce OSHA laws immediately and send Big Pornography packing.

    Here’s some people to contact:

    US Senator John McCain (R)
    US Senator Jon Kyl (R)
    Rick Renzi (R) – Arizona’s 1st Congressional District
    Trent Franks (R) – Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District
    John Shadegg (R) – Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District
    Ed Pastor (D) – Arizona’s 4th Congressional District
    Harry Mitchell (D) – Arizona’s 5th Congressional District
    Jeffrey Flake (R) – Arizona’s 6th Congressional District
    Raul Grijalva (D) – Arizona’s 7th Congressional District
    Gabrielle Giffords (D) – Arizona’s 8th Congressional Distri

    Here’s a couple interesting articles about the porn business in Arizona & the LAW:

    http://www.azpolicypages.com/marriage-family/arizona-pornography-and-obscenity-laws/

    http://www.kpho.com/story/17148750/porn-industry-would-break-az-law-montgomery-claims

    Reply

    • Feel free to use the following as a guide if you wish to contact any of the above mentioned agencies.

      To Whom it may concern,

      Recently a corporation from the state of Arizona has been brought to my attention. The name of the corporation is Lightspeed Media Inc. According to a search of the Arizona Corporation Commission Database this company is registered to Steve Jones and is headquartered [address redacted]. Normally a home based business would not concern me, but this business is in the business of providing content for internet pornography websites. Of additional concern according to an article in the Wall Street Journal
      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114441900916020032-Ho7GX_b6DPtDWqLDdXewKIcVFl0_20070413.html
      Mr. Jones has children living in the same house where he conducts his pornography business. This is quite troubling to me. I sincerely hope that someone can please look into this business. I truly hope that I am misinformed and this pornography business is not being operated in a residential neighborhood where children are present.
      Thank you in advance for your concern,

      Reply

      • Indianadoe:

        That Wall Street Journal Article was a great find. Maybe the author might be interested in writing a follow-up to his April 2006 story about the Trolls & their extortion scheme. The Journal is a great forum to reach out to the judges & law enforcing agencies, who probably subscribe to the Journal & maybe unaware that this kind of thing is happening in our country today. The author left this as a contact address:

        Write to David Kesmodel at david.kesmodel@wsj.com

        Reply

    • Ol Stevie is quite the dirtbag. It’s really hard to imagine someone so desolate of character but there he is. If I ever get to meet him in court, I will have a plethora of character devastating materials to present before the judge. I don’t think judges take too kindly to scumbags like that. Faking deaths to bring in site traffic!!! Even people in his own industry think he is a scumbag. So, that must literally make him the scummiest scumbag around. Sorta ironic that his wife runs the business end and she is a graduate of a religious high school. Bet they all go to church on Sunday, lol. If he had just walked away from his failing porn biz and started up a legit software company that would be respectable, but to do what he is currently doing is reprehensible. He is not a very smart person, not smart at all. Just a fly by night crook whose has burned his candle at both ends and in the middle.

      Reply

  44. Steve Lightspeed…

    “So to anybody who thought Steve Lightspeed had any taste or credibility, you’ve been played along with anybody that cared about Tawnee. Everybody who thought Steve Lightspeed was a tasteless moronic piece of shit that would say anything if it got him additional hits to his websites, well you’ve been proven 100% correct.” This ia a quote from a Tawnee Stone Peachy Forum thread back in Dec 2010 when this fake story broke. Here’s the link to some irate reactions from
    Tawnee’s fans @ Peachy Forum in regard to the hoax:

    http://peachyforum.com/t/tawnee-stone-128021/6.aspx

    Reply

  45. This is the page where the Florida federal cases are discussed:

    https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/discussions/discussions-by-state/florida/

    Go there & read what’s happening in FLMD. Here’s the archived docket for this case:

    http://ia700800.us.archive.org/29/items/gov.uscourts.flmd.268129/gov.uscourts.flmd.268129.docket.html

    Magistrate Judge Douglas N. Frazier granted expedited discovery on 3/12/12. If you received notice from your ISP, see if the notice mentions a date. Check with your ISP legal department to see when they released or plan to release Doe information, if there are no motions.

    If your information has been released, trolls already have what they want (discovery). An MTQ will no longer be helpful. The FLMD has given recent favorable ruling to mass copyright cases. Similar cases have been trashed in many courts for improper jurisdiction & other things.

    Review the FAQ & resources for a more full picture on how these scams operate.

    FLMD has had more activity than many districts. FLMD is fairly close to some troll lawyer groups and has seen some troll friendly decisions in 2012. Think about consulting (sometimes free or low fee for first consultation) with an attorney. Here is the Florida listing, though you can use a lawyer out of state for some things.

    http://www.eff.org/issues/file-sharing/subpoena-defense
    Florida

    Kubs Lalchandani kubs@lslawpl.com
    Carlos A. Leyva cleyva@digitalbusinesslawgroup.com
    David Magana dmagana@addmg.com
    Jeffrey P. Manners lawmanners@aol.com
    Bradford Patrick bap@baplegal.com
    Danny J. Simon danny@lslawpl.com
    Graham Syfert graham@syfert.com
    David Tamaroff david@tamarofflaw.com
    Richard M. Viscasillas rmvpa007@gmail.com
    William R. Wohlsifer william@wohlsifer.com

    Lalchandani & Simon, Syfert, Tamaroff, & Viscasillas (alphabetical order) have been mentioned (favorably) and or posted/tweeted SJD. The others may be good too.

    If your contact information has been released to trolls, the thread (“demand”) cycle may start soon. DON’T talk to the trolls. Read DTD & other advice. Wherever you live, trolls would have to file a case naming & serving you to follow through. Trolls don’t want to go to court. Why spend months trying to win a case (with weak or no evidence) that pays at most tens of thousands for one Doe, when they can make a few extortionist type phone demands that collect $3000 from hundreds of Does? If legal advice is needed after contact information is released, a lawyer from you region may be best.

    http://dietrolldie.com/newbie-noob-start-here/

    [sjd — this comment was filtered by the spam guard. False positives happen once in a while. Email me next time you don’t see your comment immediately]

    Reply

    • Also even though Jurassic Pornographer has taken down the logo we still have his witty statements such as :

      Yes I do. And thank you for noticing!
      Welcome to my first advertisement for THIEF v2.0!
      __________________
      Abra-cadabra!

      Reply

      • Very nice indeed, I was going to mention that maybe his ghost was the mover behind the logo takedown seeing how it has just recently occurred (this week).

        Reply

  47. Originally Posted by AdultKing-Melbourne, Australia in GFY Forum in Raul’s Link:

    I’m pretty sure Steve Lightspeed spends most of his time plotting how he can seek revenge on those freeloaders who run

    1. IRC networks. (which existed before the web mind you),

    2. Search Engines (hey Yandex tried to index a link from another site and the http error code was 401) – evil stuff right there.

    3. Surfers. They didn’t realise that this particular password link wasn’t a promo password link like so many others.

    4. John Doe. Because everyone hates John Doe.

    Sheesh, someone should set up a zillion Chinese served doorway pages into his sites just for the shits and giggles of watching him have a nervous meltdown

    Footnote: It’s ok Steve, we understand that when you’re washed up the only thing left is to sue the world

    …..for every password sharer, tawnee stone dies a little inside (again)

    Lightspeed is a wanker, always has been always will be.

    Reply

  48. Steve runs Arcadia Data Security Consultants, but he can’t stop anyone from entry into his sites?
    Any real website owner can stop let multiple logins using the same account name and password at the same time from different IPs.
    IMO, Steve leaked passwords and had his pay sites allow entry to show off his new security software, sue and collect thousands of dollars from John Does, and be a popular web personality again.
    Seems like a simple case, why not some kind of class action suit against him?

    Reply

    • According to Jones’s declaration, “T.H.I.E.F. 2.0” is simply a collection of queries to analyze logs — something that any IT student with basic knowledge of SQL or RegEx would write in no time. Moreover, anyone who analyzes long logs, inevitably writes some helper tools for own use. Offering such tools for sale amounts to a scam. I.e., it’s a big bluff to even call it “proprietary software”. No wonder Steve is now foolishly trying to cover his tracks. What an idiot.

      As for the class action, I have a feeling (and maybe more than feeling 😉 ) that something is slowly brewing, we’ll see.

      Reply

      • So on 4-27- Jones starts a thread on gfy.com to blatantly market “T.H.I.E.F. 2.0” where he and his software are greeted with applause and heartfelt thanks from his fellow members in xbiz (page 2 is especially heartwarming). http://m.gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1066323 Soon I hope to have commenting privileges at gfy.com so I can add to the conversation.

        Reply

    • Good! I encourage others to follow this example and click on links in the article above. There are many more interesting discoveries await you! (Hint: links are red and when the mouse is hovering its tail over, they become underlined.)

      Sorry, couldn’t help. On a serious note, I sincerely encourage relevant repetition: it’s better to point to something 10 times than not to point at all 🙂 Peace and thank you.

      Reply

    • would be funny if this wasn’t so annoying. Scratch that it is kind of funny… Incorporated 09/2011 a mere 2 months before creating a lawsuit just so that they could refer to their ‘forensic expert’ as a company rather than by the same name of the plantiff.

      Should amend the petition:

      “Steve’s company is suing these people because steve collected logs and confirmed they were accurate. When the question of legitimacy of these harvested IPs was raised, steve agreed with steve that steves forensic prowess was unquestionable and without a doubt the 6500 ips steve collected were without error. Steve has asked that any additional questions for steve about the work steve’s company did for steve be directed to steve.”

      No, the person who owns the company suing for damages totally doesn’t have a conflict of interest if another company owned and solely operated by that same person was the one providing the ‘expert opinion’ of whether or not the harvested IPs used as the basis of the lawsuit are legitimate.

      Reply

  50. To obtain a civil remedy under CFAA, a plaintiff must satisfy as follows:

    Plaintiff should retain a licensed computer forensics firm, which should do two things. First, it should secure the computers so the evidence will not be tainted. Securing the computers includes preventing anyone else from using the computer to investigate on his own.(Steve Jones investigated Steve Jones). Second, the computer forensics firm should conduct a thorough investigation and perform the work necessary to respond to and remediate the problem.(Mitigate the damages-stop the people from entering his sites, NOT CONTINUE TO HARVEST IP’S). The computer forensics firm actually has to perform the work. Speculation about work that likely will be required in the future will be insufficient to constitute a loss.

    IN SUMMARY
    An independent computer forensics firm should have been hired instead of using Plaintiff’s own company-ARCADIA DATA SECURITY CONSULTANTS. This created a conflict of interest because the Plaintiff’s computers must be secured so the evidence will not be tainted. Securing the computers includes preventing anyone else from using the computer to investigate on his own. Since Lightspeed & Arcadia are one & the same, NO INDEPENDENT & NEUTRAL COMPUTER FORENSICS FIRM SECURED THE PLANTIFF’S COMPUTERS TO INVESTIGATE THE DAMAGE NOR WAS ANY EFFORT MADE TO REMEDY THE DAMAGE. Instead Plantiff ACTUALLY PERFORMED THE INVESTGATIVE WORK on his own, didn’t Mitigate HIS Damages & instead perpetuated his so-called problem by continuing to HARVEST THE IP’S. Therefore Plaintiff failed to meet the requirements of a loss under CFAA.

    Reply

    • To summarize the above post:

      Crappy Causes of Action + Crappy Evidence + Crappy Damages = Lightspeed Media Corp. v. John Doe Lawsuit

      Reply

    • not just any independant forensics firm either, but one that has dealt with preparing tech reports for court cases before. some chump who runs his own “IT company” would not be anywhere near good enough. so why would anyone think that some guy who hosts websites is a qualified forensic tech expert??

      Reply

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