Copyright trolls
Copyright trolls attempt to extort a wrong person, invite a class action lawsuit
This event was bound to happen. Two things never come together: greed and the art of quitting when it is not too late. All it takes to damage an extortionist’s “business” severely is to mess with a wrong person, and with every day, the likelihood of such an event increases. Fortunately, all the “wrong persons” to date have responded civilly, within the law. Nonetheless, the risk to mess with a wrong type of a “wrong person” is still there.
Those porn purveyors who resorted to suing their potential customers as an easy albeit unethical way to make money, have been terrorizing this country for too long, victimizing more than 250,000 people over the last couple of years. As we continue stressing every week, bittorent cases against alleged BitTorent downloaders, as they are being conducted, are nothing but extortion. And many judges agree. The systematic incompatibility between Internet and the Copyright Law as well as the social stigma attached to pornography — these are the two main instruments than make this scam a relatively easy undertaking: all kinds of opportunistic scum jumped on the wagon of this “business” — from now convicted criminal Kenneth Ford to an “elite super-lawyer” Marc Randazza. Trolls threaten to sue a person for an insane $150,000 allowed by the statute; they promise to drag his or her name through the dirt by calling families, neighbors and businesses to tell them the names of allegedly infringed “useful works,” specifically chosen to maximize damage: “Blumpkin Blowjobs,” “Teen Anal Sluts,” “Jeff cums in Colby’s mouth” etc. And all this is based on extremely unreliable “evidence.”
Until recently, we witnessed only a couple of counter-actions against trolls. In addition to few individual counter-suits, there is only a single class action lawsuit currently litigated by Dmitriy Shirokov/Booth Sweet against the “father of US copyright trolls,” lawfirm Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver.
Now we have another one.
Ken Henry is experienced in class action litigation, particularly in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act law. It is not a big stretch to compare trolls’ actions with those of debt collectors, albeit the debt trolls try to collect does not exist in the first place, which makes it an actionable offence.
Jennifer Barker and Ken Henry allege six counts, starting with civil RICO act violation. The other allegations are fraud, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and unjust enrichment.
Five porn purveyors have been named as defendants; all of them are well-known serial public assailants:
- Patrick Collins, Inc.
- Malibu Media, LLC
- Raw Films, Ltd
- K-Beech, Inc.
- Third Degree Films
(those who cannot access Scribd: download the complaint from Ken Henry’s site )
Unfortunately, the real villains, a lawyer Keith Lipscomb and his gang (Steven Eisenberg, Deborah Baker and numerous local attorneys) are not explicitly named. I hope that they will be included later, and in the end, they will pay in full for all the damage they inflicted. I’m not a vindictive person, but I won’t try to suppress jolly sounds when trolls are driven out of business and bankrupt.
To be continued… (Continued what? I mean both this case’s coverage and similar lawsuits.)
Thanks to Dan Booth and Jason Sweet for breaking the news and pointing to the Reuters’s article about this event.
Coverage
- Reuters: Porn copyright troll targets strike back in new class action by Alison Frankel.
- Wired: Porn Studios Accused of Screwing Their Fans in BitTorrent Lawsuits by David Kravets.
- BoingBoing: Porno-copyright trolls named in RICO class action suit by Cory Doctorow.
- CNET: Porn studios accused of shafting enthusiasts by Chris Matyszczyk.
- ArsTechnica: Accused of downloading porn, Kentucky woman sues the pornographers by Nate Anderson.
- Jezebel: Porn Downloaders Are Suing Porn Producers for Allegedly Shaming Settlement Money Out of Them by Doug Barry (Republished by Gawker).
- TechDirt: Class Action Racketeering Lawsuit Filed Against Copyright Trolling Porn Companies by Mike Masnick
- AVN (NSFW due to ads!): Accused Torrent Infringer Sues ‘Pornography Purveyors’.
- XBIZ (NSFW due to ads!): 5 Porn Studios Accused of Shaking Down Piracy Defendants by Rhett Pardon.
- courier-journal.com: Louisville woman says California porn studios trying to extort her by Andrew Wolfson.
- Huff Post|Tech: Jennifer Barker Sues Porn Companies Over Anti-Piracy Litigation by Brett Barrouquere (AP).
Fight © Trolls 
One area you are missing out on are the copyright trolls at Gibney, Anthony and Flaherty, the scum that pull the same tactics in the name of Rolex. They are hell bent on running watchmakers out of business by sending extortion letters for everything relating to their crummy watches. It’s interesting when I ready the extortion letters you expose here, just how similar the ones are from the scum lawyers that troll for Rolex.
I really think you should start exposing Rolex and their corrupt lawyers here.
There was never a shortage of scammers in this country, and copyright/patent/trademark trolls come in different varieties. If I decide to cover them all, I will need to master the art of cloning myself, or, at very least, slowing the flow of time. If you happen to know people who fight those types of trolls, I’ll be happy to link to them and/or offer space, but in order to achieve good results, I have no choice but to concentrate on a narrower troll genera.
About a year ago I tried to sell a very old antique Rolex on eBay. The next morning the listing had been removed and I had an official warning from eBay. About four hours later lots more of my eBay listings, even expired ones for all types of things were removed, about half my feedback was removed and my account was suspended for having fake feedback (which was ridiculous). eBay refused to discuss the issue and I just put up with the two month suspension. I always suspected my account became, ‘dirty’ because of the Rolex thing, it was the first time I had ever had any trouble with eBay with a 100% positive and glowing feedback. After reading your comment here and then looking in to it a bit more, thank you Google, I know think I was lucky. Other people who made the error of listing genuine Rolex watches on eBay have suffered a lot more than me. Terrible watches anyway, imho, bling for the rich, but, sadly, whenever I see one I ASSUME it’s fake. The only one I am convinced is real that I’ve ever seen is the antique one I was trying to sell.
If it’s your watch then you should be able to sell it, or is this Russia? Fuck-em.
Don’t get too bummed that the lawsuit doesn’t include the Trolls themselves. Even if they stay out of this lawsuit, if their clients (the defendants in this class action) end up taking a hit for this expect them to turn and file lawsuits against the Trolls for fraud, breach of fiduciary responsibility, malpractice, etc., etc. The Trolls will go right under the bus. Maybe even expect some extrajudicial remedies as well, I sure wouldn’t want to be on Kevin Beechum’s bad side.
Reblogged this on USA Natural Born and commented:
Kewl to see this! . . . Keep up the good work sophisticatedjanedoe.
SJD – is Raw Films the same one I am thinking of? Eastern European “twink” bare backing films?
I don’t know… Knowledge about porn studios is not my strong side. Ask doecumb: he is really good in the information mining.
Apparently, the twink and bareback themes are one talent of Raw Films, Ltd. Raw Films Ltd. is the company under which Eurocreme production and distribution works. Eurocreme and the rest of the Euromedia group of properties moved under the “umbrella” of Media Partners, LLC this year. (There is a plaintiff in the U.S. called Media Products, Inc. It appears to be an entirely different company.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocreme
The attorneys representing this porn purveyor in the U.S. include M. Keith Lipscomb and Steven E. Eisenberg of Lipscomb, Eisenberg & Baker, PLC Jon A. Hoppe of Maddox Hoppe Hoofnagle & Hafey LLC, Adam M. Silverstein of Cavalluzzi & Cavalluzzi, and Jason A. Kotzker of Kotzker Law Group. The “useful works” around which the porn purveyor plaintiff’s allegations have been made include “Bareback Skate Mates”, “Bareback Street Gang”, “Raw Rescue” and “ Tooled Up Twinks”.
According to the complaints, none of these works is copyrighted in the U.S. The trolls are claiming that they are copyrighted in countries where there are treaty arrangements. I have not seen the copyright registration papers in the court papers I’ve skimmed. Media Partners Ltd. (Raw Films/Eurcocreme) have produced dozens or hundreds of titles. I wonder how many have copyright registrations.
To sue for US copyright remedies you have to have a US copyright registration.
@doecumb – Thank you, I knew I knew that name. They were running writ of pure discovery cases out of FL with a boutique lawfirm and then filing cases out of AZ last time they surfaced in my “pool”. I told people to ignore them or if they were feeling generous pointing out if your going to sue for copyright infringment without US copyright its fraud.
Even if they filed for US copyright these films are at least 4 or 8 years old (i forget which as I find paying young naive Eastern European boys to play russian roulette barebacking for small sums of cash distasteful.) they are capped at actual damages. I have to imaging actual damages on a porn film that one on DVD would be in the bargin bargin basement bin and worth well less than the paper they ended up mailing out trying to terrorize people listing the wrong federal court.
For a boutique copyright firm they didn’t know shit about copyright.
@Raul – it is good to have my knowledge validated 🙂
TAC, you know I will always have your….errrrr…..back you up. 😉
Good one Raul. Humor is always a piercing tool…errr…rectifier…errr… profound remedy.
TAC-
You raise a very important point (which Raul reinforced). The Raw Films, Ltd cases to date have no U.S. copyright registration involved.
No registration-no statutory damages. No statutory damages-no genuine threat of multi-thousand dollar penalties & no recovery of troll plaintiff lawyer fees.
The maximum penalty, “actual damages” is the most they could collect even for a case that has merit (this doesn’t). At best, that cost would be about the same as a few Starbucks venti mochas.
The settlements made by numerous individual Does and clogging the courts with time spent on this suggests grave misrepresentation or misdeeds by troll representatives.
More to follow later today under General Discussions.
@doecumb – They mentioned the $150,000 in their letters, at what point do they cross the line into actual fraud here? They should have known they at best could get actual damages, but only after they got US copyrights. Suing the porn companies is nice, but I am damn well willing to bet as we speak some lawfirms are shredding documents to avoid their turn.
@Raul – behave. I’m mostly harmless…. unless your a copyright troll.
It will be interesting to see if Lipscomb follows in the footsteps of his other ethically challenged brethren and represents the defendants as opposed to doing the ethically responsible deed of farming it out to another law firm.
Another fine post about a troll whose comeuppance is long overdue. What is remarkable about Lipscomb is he, unlike most other trolls, is possessed of a keen intellect which is evidenced by his college and law school achievements. So in other words, he could have gone on and been successful in anything and yet he chose copyright trolling which makes him more derspicable than some of the denser trolls (Fiore and Duffy for example) who may not have had as many options.
Quite frankly this post was a little surprising. After reading the headline I was expecting to read about another state and another troll law firm….. . In any event, this news has made my day. Thanks!
I just checked Pacer…5 summons have been issued. I realize this is a just a preliminary step in the suit, but it certainly is good to see them issued.
And now we get to see how actually wanting to sue someone works. You don’t drag it for months trying to shakedown the defendants. If you truly believe something illegal happened you get them to court ASAP. Yet another nail (albeit small) in the coffin of these clowns. I would hope most judges would see that these extortion artists are trying to drag these cases out for long periods of time and have no intent of actually suing someone. Especially in cases with digital media time should be of the essence to sue.
Thanks SJD! Developments in this case will be closely watched not just by us, but by the other lawyers out there who have seen the blood dripping from the Trolls and can’t wait to take a bite. Even with the long time it will likely take this suit to progress. I’m sure the other unnamed copyright owners are thinking they are possibly next. What is likely to come out of this is a copyright owner telling the world the deal the Trolls made, as well as the lack of intent to ever really litigate these cases – just a business model and the court was a tool. The other copyright owners are seeing people start to fight back and this is going to reduce the number of other copyright owners who think this is a good way to increase income.
This one may move quickly because this pure bill of discovery nonsense followed by groundless “we have a lawsuit pending” BS is much stronger than what went on in the “Hurt Locker” scenario. This situation does not merely suggest an extortion scam, it is painfully clear that it is an extortion scam. Trolls are fucked.
Always suspected that these pure bill of discovery lawsuits were going to lead to direct invoicing which would result in howls of anger on this blog and that of DTD. A few howls but this development-WOW!
We have seen many instances of Trolls engaging in either stupid or unethical conduct in pursuit of the Doe dollar. Rarely do you see the stupid and the unethical conduct converge (“stupical” conduct?) as in this situation.
As delicious as this is, expect the smart troll to settle this one quickly before it spirals out of control. Of course other less than smart trolls will ignore the lesson to be learned here: Doe info obtained from pure bill of discovery lawsuits it now toxic for trolls.
Is the LMC case in St Clair County considered Pure Bill of Discovery in Illinois, and therefore, “now toxic to trolls” as you suggest? If so, wouldn’t that be not so good for Steve Jones, LMC and possibly Prenda? Does anybody think this is the direction that the new poster “Stay Intrigued” is gearing up for?
If LMC-St Clair is not considered Pure Bill of Discovery, then please disregard my post and questions. Thanks.
Sorry, need to put the 2 above comments in context because I stupidly assume that everyone knows that by suing the porn purveyors, plaintiff is actually seeing the troll by proxy.
It is not pure bill of discovery lawsuit but is equally as unethical and sleazy so as to be equally amenable to a class action lawsuit, IMHO.
The Golden Age is Trolling is Dead, Long Live the Doe Retribution!
Here’s the docket:
http://www.archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.kywd.81926/gov.uscourts.kywd.81926.docket.html
They’ve definitely messed with the wrong person in this case and they’ll definitely pay dearly for doing so. However, regarding the “wrong type” of the wrong person, statistically speaking if ~250,000 people have been sued in these types of reverse class actions, then they’ve screwed with 50,000 mentally ill people. The odds are pretty good that one of those Does is extremely violent, given that they’ve sued a quarter of a million people (and counting).
No offense, buit this class action suit is going nowhere. Here is what you are missing. Copyright infringement is a plague on the creative arts. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the owner of the IP address is responsible for the illegal download. You guys are defending people who illegally downloaded porrn. Does that make you proud? Our system of IP laws and fundamental fairness allows a copyright owner to get damages against someone who engages in illegal downloads. And Congress said those damages can be as high as $150,000 for willful infringement—and almost all of these downloads are willful. Why are you defending persons who illegally download copyrighted materials. Shame on you for creating the wrong impression in this situation. If you are progressive and if you care about people, you should be supporting the plaintiffs in these cases, who are vindicating the rights of the creative community against those who wrongly believe they should get whatever they want on the internet for free. You folks are on the wrong side of this issue—which you would understand if you ever actually created anything of value—like a great movie, song, photograph are piece of art. Bottom line—most of you are bitter because you got caught and you think the internet is the wild west. Wrong my dear. The anti-copyright troll web-sites such as this are grossly misleading the public.What exactly is wrong with copyright owners and their lawyers who pursue persons who flagrantly engage in copyright infringement by wrongly obtaining copies of copyrighted works through file sharing (bit torrent and others) without paying for the right to do so. Frankly, anti-copyright troll activitsts scare me—they align perfectly with the crazy tea party right wing fanatics who have become a plague on our system. Think about it this way—if you are a one hit wonder, do you want to get paid for the value of your song? And would you be upset if the bit torrent people come along and your number one song becomes an economic footnote in history? We need to reward and provide incentices for creativity—-and people who cheat by illegally downloading copyrighted materials should be punished. This is true whether the illegal downloads or porn or anything else—of course, the porn purveyors have a special advantage in settlement because no one wants to be associated with them—but so what. Illegal downloads of porn is no more defensible than illegal download’s of music. It is wrong, and this web-site is pursuing an agenda which is fundamental misplaced.
“In the overwhelming majority of cases, the owner of the IP address is responsible for the illegal download.”
Incorrect
“Our system of IP laws and fundamental fairness allows a copyright owner to get damages against someone who engages in illegal downloads. And Congress said those damages can be as high as $150,000 for willful infringement—and almost all of these downloads are willful.”
Incorrect again. The $150,000 is for commercial theft (i.e. bootleg CD’s or DVD’s)
“Why are you defending persons who illegally download copyrighted materials. Shame on you for creating the wrong impression in this situation.”
Why are you defending the unethical troll lawsuits?
“If you are progressive and if you care about people, you should be supporting the plaintiffs in these cases, who are vindicating the rights of the creative community against those who wrongly believe they should get whatever they want on the internet for free.”
There are many individuals that have been wrongly accused. There are also many plaintiffs and their attorneys that are abusing the legal system. Why do you think there has not been a jury trial yet?
“Bottom line—most of you are bitter because you got caught and you think the internet is the wild west. Wrong my dear.”
Nobody is advocating piracy here.
“What exactly is wrong with copyright owners and their lawyers who pursue persons who flagrantly engage in copyright infringement by wrongly obtaining copies of copyrighted works through file sharing (bit torrent and others) without paying for the right to do so. Frankly, anti-copyright troll activitsts scare me—they align perfectly with the crazy tea party right wing fanatics who have become a plague on our system.”
This isn’t about political affiliations. Fuck off….
” It is wrong, and this web-site is pursuing an agenda which is fundamental misplaced.”
You are clueless…Go troll GFY
I’m excited: it’s actually a milestone. This site exists for 14 months and this is the first time we witness a righteous strawmen fighter visits us, albeit a very weak and ignorant fighter. TorrentFreak, ArsTechnica and Techdirt have plenty of clueless “critics,” and now we are reaching their level in this regard.
Your online visibility is definitely on the rise, be flattered. The avalanche is just beginning. Only an idiot, a troll or a unicorn does not see how this is going to end.
Late to the con but cannot resist: Smart attorneys are amassing evidence of massive fraud utilizing the federal postal service and wire services, there is a huge upside in going for the clawback for class action attorneys.
LOL
Feel free to post links to enough judgments on the merits to show that the ‘overwhelming majority’ of these cases are brought against a guilty party. Unless a case is decided the defendant is not guilty, that’s the way American justice works. We do have a judgment in the Wong v. Hard Drive Productions, Inc. case that says Wong did not infringe Hard Drive’s copyright. If the plaintiffs believed defendants were guilty they would litigate the cases, simple as that. But they won’t actually go forward with a cases even when judges tell them to.
Copyright law only allows for statutory damages up to $150,000 if the work has been registered in a timely manner. Something that was not done in many of the cases brought, particularly by Prenda Law, Inc.
If they were progressive and cared about people, the plaintiffs in these cases would not be exploiting young women.
As far as one hit wonders go… Well… The rest of us have to go to work every day for our whole lives. We don’t get to work for a few weeks or months or even a few years and then just call it quits and have money appear forever. We have to continually work and produce something of economic value in order to get paid and support ourselves. If copyright’s great selling point is that it keeps people from having to work, I’m not impressed.
“What exactly is wrong with copyright owners and their lawyers who pursue persons who flagrantly engage in copyright infringement by wrongly obtaining copies of copyrighted works through file sharing (bit torrent and others) without paying for the right to do so.”
If there was an effort to actually pursue the right person in the first place, you might have had a point. This site is for people who were pursued, and were not the right person, but have been pretty much treated as criminals before any determination of guilt or innocence.
There is nothing on this site that advocates illegitimate obtainment of content. However, copyright owners in these cases – the RIAA, MPAA or Lightspeed – are wolves howling for their pound of flesh, and they’re not picky where they get it from or how they get it. This is an extremely disgusting and unethical position to take regardless of who you are and where you stand on copyright issues.
You’re a joke. If IP address identified users and got them bang to rights there would be no reason for plaintiffs to dismiss lawsuits. According to plaintiffs, lawsuits are the result of the accused refusing to settle. Why would the plaintiff dismiss a lawsuit meant to recoup losses if they found the right person to demand money from? Hint: It’s not because they’re being magnaminous. If the industries in question are dying on their feet as we are often led to believe they’re not really in a position to dismiss loss-recouping lawsuits, are they?
Troll has done a wonderful job of discussing Harm. Gotta give credit where it’s due: you used the word ‘plague’ twice! Plague is such a great metaphor, very visual. There’s a touch of Inherency as well. Yes, “piracy” is a problem today that needs to be dealt with. Blablabla … Hell, you even throw in a bit of politics with talk of progressives and tea baggers for some appropriate red herring spinoff discussions.
Where you fall down is Solvency. In making a case for justifying porn trolling, the topic you refuse to acknowledge is that your tactics don’t solve the problem. In fact, your tactics exacerbate the problem. Copyright trolls have found a way to exploit the legal system to maximize profit and minimize risk – there is no trial, no jury, no justice, no opportunity to prove one’s innocence. There is only threat and fear, and the bank account to make it go away. The only people who profit beyond the troll lawyers are the copyright holders themselves. When copyright holders profit from theft of their product, they have an incentive to allow the activity to continue – as we’ve seen with your work, Steve Jones, teen-porn-peddler.
…
“Oh, people are exploiting a vulnerability in my failing internet titty-empire. We’ll just let it ride a bit so I have a bigger list of people to THREATEN to sue.”
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Douchebag
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Oh yeah. PORNOGRAPHY. All of the companies in this suit are PORN OUTFITS. “Creative Arts”? “One hit wonders”? The hell they are. This is oh baby oh baby do me in the pooper and jizz in my eye! Yeah! Twist my titties and fuck my left nostril till it BLEEDS! This isn’t creative arts, this is the Red Light District of the Internet. The bottom of the barrel dregs of society where even the most bravehearted will see shit that makes them cringe.
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Fear. Threat. Shame.
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Nobody wants their name to go down as a defendant next to something like that. Why do you think the little teenie-boppers you like to exploit always use fake names?
It doesn’t matter if John Doe #3,216 downloaded “Fucked up fucktoys with daddy issues #57” or not. He just doesn’t want to be accused publicly of it. There’s a thousand and one ways for your little homegrown half-baked IT outfit to have gotten the wrong name paired up with that IP Address, but there’s only two ways for that name to NOT be dragged through the public square: either pay a few grand to the extortionist blowing up their phone, or cross their fingers and hope the judge comes to his senses.
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Did I mention that you’re a douchebag?
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Douchebag.
Wow, that was so sincere and heartfelt that I have changed my mind. I was convinced Trolls are evil but now I see the light and I will repent and pay my settlement.
Snort.
Actually the lawsuit will go quite far. You see the agents of these studios broke the law. They mislead and lied to get paid. Raw Films holds NO US COPYRIGHTS. But they threatened to sue, so they could get paid. So alleged infringers are evil but studios and lawyers who lie are okay with you?
You pretend everyone accused is guilty, I’ll see you 4 80+ old ladies, a blind guy, and a handful of other high profile cases where they accused didn’t do anything, but were told they had to pay anyways.
Pron is in decline because they got fat and stupid. They used to innovate and push technology, then they made DVDs and stopped. Now people have phones with better cameras than many porn companies and real people are making porn and making money. The industry isn’t dying because of piracy, its dying because watching the same people mechanically fuck is boring. Watching people people for free or a small price on a tubesite is way more interesting than any big budget blockbuster from any porn house.
Oh and I hold 2 copyrights so I’m guessing that means my vote counts for at least twice as much as yours. I’d rather people see my work than to worry if I got paid for each view, because I can market new things to those people. I call them fans, I treat them well… in return they treat me well.
Its nice to see you play the moral high horse card, trying to pretend file sharing is theft. That the problem with Intellectual Property, every time we discuss it people get less Intellectual. Sharing is not theft, just because you could get $60 a title in the 80’s doesn’t mean the market can still bear $60 for porn which is readily available from multiple sources now at much lower if not free.
The agenda of this website is the unfair tactics being used by sleazy lawyers lying to courts, victims and the studios who hire them. They can not say who was infringing and they attempt to terrify people into paying them to go away. The Mob does things like that, its called extortion its illegal. So your supporting illegal activities stealing money from people who might not have done anything wrong. Where is your moral dilemma now?
You’ll notice the screaming being done by the MPAA and RIAA, they seem to be who your trying to model in these lawsuits, while having the biggest years ever they are screaming piracy is killing them. Notice the CEOs are making more and they are spending more money on their lobbying arms. They might be lying. They are starting to actually answer consumer demand in some areas and its actually paying off… if you give the customer what they want, when they want, how they want you make money.
In closing, nice attempt…. but did you really think your ‘but your all evil pirates who deserve it’ mentality would fly in comments on a story where someone innocent is suing the shit out of the bad guys?
To TAC’s list of troll bad deeds, it could be added that trolls have “identified” among their Doe allegations U.S. SOLDIERS deployed overseas, undercover POLICE, and DEAD persons.
The errors by trolls are so big that these examples of comically obvious innocence keep being reported.
“Copyright infringement is a plague on the creative arts.”
Creative art? You’re seriously calling porn “art?” It’s sure as hell not creative. Guy screws girl, wow, something that happens every day in beds across America is somehow “creative” if it’s on a recording medium? You are seriously deluded if you believe a video of some seriously misguided 19 year old giving a blowjob is creative artwork. By your standards, ANYTHING is art. Go back to work, Prenda employee.
I knew class action was coming, I just thought it would have started in FL first.
I’m not sure how this will pan out for those people who are not “named” defendants. That’s the loophole the trolls are using to avoid counter-suits. If you haven’t had any litigation filed against you, you don’t have the opportunity to counter-sue. You would need to initiate a lawsuit against the trolls, and that would be cost prohibitive.
However, after reading the document it looks like this is just the opening salvo. Methinks I’m going to be calling that law firm tomorrow to see if I can be party to this.
I can definitely emphasize with the content owners’ point of view. Unfortunately, the means that said recoverance of monies is more than questionable. Drag-netting the ocean to grab anything and everything is a method of fishing that represents a desperation for food and which rapidly depletes all known aquatic ecosystems, thus rendering a once abundant ecosystem to an aquatic desert. I see the stark similarities in trolling. When you throw your net out you catch everything: the innocent, the guilty, the ones who hosted the internet service but were not the guilty party, and even the ones who’s IP’s were not truly involved in the first place but were a result of software anomylies. All these parties are extorted equally and are swooped down upon with presumed guilt, harassed into settling through threat of public exposure, and their lives shot into turmoil for months and months, with the fear another round may come their way.
The treatment that befalls the innocent can onloy be acurately described as an act of terrorism, nothing less. Maybe the trolls do not realize this. Maybe they have never been terrorized, yet.
I know in my case a very destructive virus overtook my computer system at around the same time frame that my IP was logged to have entered the LMC website. I can show how my computer had to be taken back to factory default to rid the system of the bug long before I ever knew there was anything going on with a lawsuit. But I have no intention of proving my innocense. You (trolls) must prove my guilt, and if you come after me, harass me, threaten me, or in any way make my life any more miserable than it has already become as a result of these acts of domestic terror, then I swear to your fucking pagan God I will come after you with a lawsuit and group of lawyers so fucking wide that your little world will be utterly fucking torn apart. I will not only own your homes both here and abroad but I will fucking own you as well. You will be my retirement account. You have no idea how pissed I am. I do not have LMC media and never had. From what I have seen of it as snippits on the net, it’s crap, and uniteresting at best. If you think for a microsecond that the image of a drug addict pretending to be a high school cheerleader running around topless in your backyard turns me on then you obviously need to rethink your educational level because it is obviously too low.
As I stated earlier, I can understand the view of content owners and loss of potential sales. But when you lay a drag-net on web sites that have essentially lost any revenue building potential due to stagnation, hire asshols for attorneys, perform KGB style mass subpoenas for IP’s, and then prepare to reel in the haul both innocent and guilty alike, then I have no sympathy for you and I hope to your pagan fucking God that you suffer through the myriad of counterlawsuits that are sure to come your way. You will be asset-less when this is over. All I can say to those who go after these scumbags is please do not accept their settlements. Go all the way and utterly fucking destroy them in court.
Now you think about that Mrs. Troll client (wife to one of the largest douchebags on the planet).
Oh, and one more thing. If you did indeed have any brains at all you would pull the plug on this entire scam before the number of counterclaims destroys you completely. You think your little software side ventures are the answer???? When you have liens against homes, wage garnishments, a constant barrage of debt collectors calling you day and night, etc etc etc………..Is that living? Is that any kind of life? I wouldnt want that. That is not freedom. all that is, is total bullshit. So pull your heads outof your asses and get on with your lives and stop fucking with te lives of others, especially the ones who will fight back and come after you with a vengeance.
And one last thing………Anyone who has an above average IQ knows that our economy is on the brink of another collapse. One that will make 2008 look like fun times. This will begin to unfold this fall, probably in September or October. The elite are well aware of this and are scrambling to safeguard their assets. Assholes like these trolls are probably aware of the gloom to come and are trying desperately to gather as much themselves before the shit hits the fan. The problem is that absolutely everyone (Government, rich, big business, trolls), are all mass exploiting the working man and woman at terrifying levels right now to steal as much wealth as they can before the SHTF. Only the dense have no clue what is about to happen in this country, or those who refuse to see what is plainly unfolding before their eyes (they will perish quickly).
If anyone doubts how much they need to safeguard what few remaining assets you have, especially from these troll cocksuckers, then let me remind you that the yield on 2 year German treasuries is 0%. That is unprecedented. That never ever happens, ever. In other words, people are merely looking for a place to stash their cash without gaining any interest for doing so.
The rich are literally stashing their cash under their matresses to ride this out. And you will hear none of this on mainstream news, ever.
Pretty much everyone’s comments after anonymous @ July 9, 2012 at 10:11 pm have said it all- start suing individuals in court if copyrighted material was willfully taken. If they feel so strongly that a wrong was done, stand up for yourself in the courtroom. I’m sure those who’ve been wrongfully accused, myself included, would do so if need be
Kudos to SJD,
By linking this post which includes a discussion of racketeering with the post in which Judge Wright opines that copyright trolling is essentially extortion is genius. News services and the blogosphere have picked up on the linkage and the message is loud: trolls are thieving scumbags. We are quickly approaching the tipping point thanks to SJD and DTD as well as all other bloggers who monitor this gruesome exercise in pure greed.
SJD, DTD and Doe1of18,
I am on the iPad so cannot cut and paste but do you not think that this attorney would be interested in K-Beech’s copyright shenanigans last year?
I hope that Ken Henry knows that already: he reads us: I don’t know if everyone missed it, but he notified us about his lawsuit in the comments to this page.
Cool!, had missed it somehow.
Huff post covered this today. Good to see the trolls getting some major light shined on their extortion racket.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/jennifer-barker-porn_n_1664041.html?utm_hp_ref=technology
I was approached by Brett (the author), called him, but he did not want to talk to me unless I would reveal my real name. Not that it was something he wanted, just some bizarre policy in AP.
SJD and All,
Apologize for the non-linkage (again) but http://www.whas11.com has posted a video about this where both Henry and Lipscomb are interviewed. If you can listen to Lipscomb’s mealy, whining without wanting to jam knitting needles into your ears you are a better person than I.
Likewise there is a hot and heavy thread beginning about this post over at gfy.com
There are quite a few people who posted under a number of threads on GFY who at least have a clue about what’s going on (like the ones who think Jones is an idiot) but only a couple who actually understand the ethical and legal issues surrounding these suits. Then there are the complete idiots like the pornographer who posted on the thread about Barker suing Patrick Collins et al. He suggested a solution to copyright infringement that would require us to chuck the Constitution and Bill of Rights, rework our entire legal system to that of what I would imagine exists under Huge Chavez, and finally force the ALI to draft a new edition of the Restatements of the Law.
This was great too read