Guardaley | X-Art
(Audio) In order to win, at very least you must pick up the fight – an encouraging story of a fighting Doe
This is a story of a John Doe from Pennsylvania, who was an extortion target in a mass trolling lawsuit K-Beech v. Does 1-78 (5:11-cv-05060) filed by a pornotroll Christopher Fiore. As it happens with any such lawsuit, it was dismissed without prejudice after trolls extorted enough money from those who succumbed to fear, those who did not realize that they were duped by a con artist and virtually nothing would go differently if they decided not to pay. To create a smokescreen of legitimacy and in a hope to wrestle more payments, trolls sometimes file individual lawsuits. So, Fiore filed 9 such lawsuits against IP addresses that were dismissed earlier. Our Doe was targeted in one of those.
Armed with the fact that the truth is on his side, John Doe picked up the fight and filed motions in both lawsuits (mass and individual), and, although the judge sided with K-Beech and denied the motions, finally the troll dismissed this lawsuit with prejudice and moved forward to shakedown fresh meat.
I don’t want to go into too many details, you will hear them. In addition, DieTrollDie wrote a post about this case around the time of its filing: reading the comments to this post, you will get the details of this story unfolding.
Hacker Public Radio is a podcast radio that runs community-contributed shows every weekday, and our Doe recorded a very articulate story about his ordeal. I like it in its entirety, but one particular analogy is hilarious in its precision:
Picture yourself driving in the city at night and you stop at a traffic light and there is a prostitute standing on a corner; and she just turns her head and looks in your car. Just as she does, there is a guy across the block who takes a picture of the two of you, and then later on he gets a hold on you and threatens you: that if you don’t pay him, he’s going to tell everyone that you are soliciting a prostitute, and that may be embarrassing. So, whether you were or weren’t, it does not matter: since he says he has a picture of the whole thing. So, you just give him the finger and say “you don’t have a proof, you just have a picture, that does not prove anything.” But what would your family think if they heard about you involved with a prostitute, or what would your neighbors think, what would your boss think? Or, you just may pay him to go away. And enough people pay: that’s the business model of the copyright trolls.
I hope that those victims who are still confused will find comfort and encouragement to stand against bullies. For a curious passerby who wants to understand the anatomy of the legal plague, which we call copyright trolling, this is a very good introduction. Enjoy!
Fight © Trolls 
Nice post and admirable story. This is quite the blast from the past as I was also engulfed in what can be called the Second Massive Wave of Troll Lawsuits which is the time frame presented here. It is breathtaking for me to glimpse back via DTD’s post to September of 2011 and see how much progress Does have made since that date in terms of education, publicity and turning the judicial group-think in another direction. Both SJD and DTD deserve tons of credit for this very quick evolution. Freaking amazing!
One other thought to pick up on SJD’s post title: that should be every Doe’s response. The best defense is a good offense.
Great post. It was neat to reread my Sep 2011, posting. I was just ramping up my site at the time and still learning so much about these cases. I’m still learning and adapting to the Trolls. I’m still sickedned that Plaintiff (K-Beech) and the Trolls (Fiore, Kotzker, & others) would go after the Does with a invalid copyright; knowing full well that what they were doing was criminal. Virgins #4 was NOT original work AND it doesn’t come close to being a derived peice of work – http://dietrolldie.com/2012/04/02/single-pro-se-doe-makes-k-beech-troll-jason-kotzer-dismiss-him-with-prejudice-111-cv-02371-virgins-4-colorado/ As stated by Raul, a good offense is the best place to start.
DTD 🙂
That is it, I’m so sick and tired of my mothers phone having a voice-mail from this “law firm”. This is plain harassment and negligence. These firms need to be sued for this sort of behavior. These “professionals” are only one bad media covered injury or suicide away from seeing this go to a case of negligence on there part. I can already see that Proximate Cause is checked off the list and that they are not acting with “limited duty”..mmm what else do we need to prove this.
I have to reiterate my deepest thanks and appreciation to DTD and SJD for their countless hours in educating the masses.
Truly the pen is mightier than the sword!
Perhaps, that is not really a good analogy though as the troll’s “sword” really only amounts to a toothpick.
I now return each day to read about the new guest star on today’s episode of ‘As the Stomach Turns’. Many days it is better than the drama that the other areas of Hollywood can put out.
The only thing worse a mother could hear than that you are publicly caught up as an innocent John Doe in a mass copyright lawsuits is that you are the Troll bringing the suit. I don’t think you would be welcome to Thanksgiving dinner after that. 😦 Nor Christmas, etc. But to give the Trolls some hope I’m sure that could go to local Church hosting something for the homeless. Oh, that is right, they even try to sue the homeless! So maybe there would be no reception their either.
It must get lonely living under the bridge!
Thanks for posting this. If I had known it would get so much exposure, I would have put together a more professional-sounding recording and presentation (also, it’s weird to listen to yourself).
I mentioned before, I actually recorded this back in the spring, when events were a little more fresh.
Obviously a lot has happened in anti-troll proceedings since then. And my cases were just a tiny part of it all.
Best of luck to everyone in the fight.
I enjoyed this forum, Extortion Letter Info, all about how to deal with extortion letters of all sorts, in all fields, for its literateness and good information (so far as I can tell):
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=p2rv49cqfdqmlfljjende022u4
Other opinions welcome.