In an unexpected and rather desperate move, in the midst of growing public’s and judges’ impatience regarding Prenda’s conduct, this “law firm” has commenced three libel lawsuits designed to chill free speech by burying its critics in massive legal fees.

Initially those lawsuits have been filed in state courts so loved by Prenda (St. Clair County IL, Cook County IL, and Miami-Dade FL), but were promptly removed to the federal level by the defense lawyers. So, now we have:

• Paul Duffy v. Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper and Does 1-10, ILND 13-cv-01569 — Jason Sweet and Erin Russell represent Paul and Alan.
• Prenda Law v. Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper and Does 1-10, ILSD 13-cv-00207 — Jason Sweet and Erin Russell represent Paul and Alan.
• John Steele v. Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper and Does 1-10, (dismissed) FLSD 13-cv-20744 — Brad Patrick represents Paul and Alan.

Here is one of the complaints (the other two can be found in Jordan Rushie’s blog post):

 

Alan Cooper and his attorney Paul Godfread are the main targets, obviously because they brought some uncomfortable questions to the daylight. Stifling the criticism of Prenda’s actions is the second, but not a secondary goal.

Who are the Does 1-10? If you read through largely identical complaints, you’ll see the answer: us. Us: me, DieTrollDie, dozens of community members who spend our personal time and resources to keep public aware of the predatory practice known as “copyright trolling” — abusive lawsuits with a declared goal to stop online piracy, but in reality designed to coerce quick settlements from alleged file-sharers, guilty or not. This is achieved by leveraging the social stigma attached to pornography and by insane, disproportionate statutory fines meant to be applied to large, commercial-scale infringement. We have been diligently reporting on lawsuit abuses, and it is not a surprise that those who benefit from such abuses are eager to shut us down.

I will avoid commenting on these three cases for the time being; will restrict myself to only reporting facts. Anyone with half brain can see all the flaws and the real goals of these cases anyway (as well as the answer to the question: “Why are there three nearly identical lawsuits, not one?”). Feel free to discuss these lawsuits, but be aware that if discovery is granted, your identity will most likely be revealed to the plaintiffs (I cannot do anything about it), so don’t say what you would not say openly.

As for me, I stand by everything I wrote. Maybe the words I have chosen were overly emotional, but everything I said has been based on provable facts and good faith. In addition, I never tried to smuggle my opinions as facts.

This country is still a world leader in free speech, and I hope that the outcome of these lawsuits will only strengthen my and many others’ pride.

Updates

3/6/2013

At least one of the cases, John Steele v. Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper and Does 1-10, FLSD 13-cv-20744 was dismissed without prejudice by John Steele today.

3/7/2013

As DieTrollDie reports, WordPress has notified us that it received a ridiculously overreaching subpoena asking for all the blog visitors (not even posters, visitors!) since 1/1/2011. Note that the subpoena is issued from California and signed by Duffy in connection with St. Clair county case. This case was removed to the federal level.

3/8/2013

Happy International Woman’s day!

This is the email I received from WordPress this morning:

Hello,

Thank you, we’ve received your response and will take no further action on this subpoena until the judicial process is completed.

Thank you,

WordPress.com

Followups

• EFF announces its intention to fight the subpoena, and WordPress refuses to comply with this subpoena.
• EFF to represent bloggers against copyright troll.
• Answers are filed in the Prenda’s defamation lawsuits.

Coverage

• TechDirt:
  • Prenda Law Sues Critics For Defamation by Mike Masnick.
  • Prenda Law Issues Subpoena For IP Addresses Of Every Visitor To Critic Blogs For The Past Two Years by Mike Masnick.
• ArsTechnica:
  • Trolling firm digs deeper hole with defamation suit against critics by Timothy Lee.
  • Prenda Law wants IP address of every anti-troll blog reader by Joe Mullin.
• Slashdot:
  • Copyright Trolls Sue Bloggers, Defense Lawyers.
  • Copyright Trolls Order WordPress To Disclose Critics’ IP Addresses.
• Salon: “Die, troll, die” goes to court by Andrew Leonard.
• BoingBoing: Copyright trolls facing legal sanctions for in-court fraud file defamation suits against identity theft victim and online critics by Cory Doctorow.
• DailyDot: Copyright trolls demand list of everyone who visited blogs by Kevin Collier.
• TorrentFreak: Copyright Trolls Order WordPress To Hand Over Critics’ IP Addresses by Andy.
• Linuxexpress (cz): Copyrightový troll chce po WordPressu adresy kritiků by Lukáš Jelínek.
• InfoSecurity: Copyright trolls will not go quietly.
• Philly Law Blog: Prenda Law, John Steele, and Paul Duffy file suit against Alan Cooper, his lawyer Paul Godfread, and anonymous John Does by Jordan Rushie.
• Copyrightclerk: Paul Duffy, John Steele, and Prenda Law strike the anti-troll community.
• TorrentLawyer: Prenda Law Inc. sues the anti-troll internet community by Rob Cashman.
• Legal Satyricon Alleged Copyright Troll Sues Critics by Jay Wolman.
• Popeheat: Prenda Law Researches Streisand Effect, Says “I Gotta Get Me Some Of That” by Ken White.
• Cheapass Fiction: Copyright Trolls Going Too Far by Aelius Blythe.
• niko[pik] (fr): Un organisme anti-piratage somme WordPress de fournir les adresses IP des visiteurs de sites opposants.