Cases
There are a couple of cases filed by Prenda Law on behalf of a pornographer Lightspeed Media Corp.
Florida Miami-Date county court:
- 12-05673 CA 05
Illinois St Clair countly court
- 11-L-0621 11/03/2011 LIGHTSPEED MEDIA VS AT & T
- 11-L-0683 12/14/2011 LIGHTSPEED VS JOHN DOE
Complaint was amended on 8/2/2012, naming Anthony Smith, AT&T and Comcast representatives as defendants.
On 8/9/2012 removed to Federal Court (ILSD 3:12-cv-00889 – see below).- Complaint — original quality, no exhibits.
- Complaint— scanned, all exhibits.
- Comcast’s motion to quash subpoena and vacate order granting discovery (incl. memorandum in support) (3/19/2012)
- Memorandum in support of motion to quash and/or motion for protective order by Embarq and Verizon — first 16 pages (3/20/2012)
- Consolidated motion & memorandum to dismiss by Jason Sweet (June 2012)
- First Amended Complaint (08/03/2012) — AT&T and Comcast are named as defendants.
- The Supreme Court of Illinois
- Emergency motion to stay (5/22/2012)
- Motion for supervisory order (5/22/2012)
- Explanatory suggestions to the Motion for supervisory order (5/22/2012) — Appendix contains many IL 11-L-0683 filings
- Lightspeed’s Objections to motion for supervisory order (5/29/2012)
- Reply [to objections] brief of moving ISPs (5/29/2012)
- Supervisory Order (6/27/2012)
- Audio recording of the hearing before the Illinois Supreme Court in the LMC v. AT&T
Southern District of Illinois
ILSD Lightspeed Media Corporation v. Smith et al 3:12-cv-00889— state case (11-L-0683) was removed to the Federal level upon defendant’s request. Dismissed 3/19/2013.Lightspeed Media Corporation v. Lukas Shashek 3:12-cv-00860-WDS-DGW— state case (12-L-927) was removed to the Federal level upon defendant’s request. Dismissed 2/15/2013.
Maricopa County Superior Court (State of Arizona)
- CV2012-053230 11/03/2011 LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORPORATION v. WORLD TIMBERS, INC., an Arizona Corporation, and JOHN DOE
- Defendant World Timbers, Inc.’s Motion to Dismiss (07/03/2012).
- Ruling denying Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (11/02/2012).
- LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORPORATION v. ADAM SEKORA (CV 2012-053194)
Case history from the Maricopa county state court- 07/10/2012 Answer to complaint
- 12/10/2012 Ruling
- 12/17/2012 Status conference set
- 1/7/2013 Order to compel Lightspeed to produce forensic logs
Superior Court of the State of California
- LIGHTSPEED MEDIA CORPORATION v. Jеssе Nаsоn (voluntarily dismissed)
Defendant attorney: Morgan Pietz of Pietz Law firm (post about this case)
Relevant pages:
Relevant posts:
- Lightspeed Media Corporation v. John Doe: a quick Q & A
- Attorney’s opinion: Lightspeed’s claim is a farce
- Lightspeed Media v. John Doe: a quick follow up Q & A
- Lightspeed v. Doe news. Early Halloween scare: Unusually lame demand letter
- Prenda Law starts using robocalls to intimidate its targets. Will IARDC continue keeping its head in the sand?
- Illinois Supreme Court ends justice mockery, kills the farcical Lightspeed v. Doe case
- Lightspeed Media Corp. v. John Doe, St. Clair county 11-L-683: A behind-the-scenes look (and it ain’t pretty)
- Lightspeed Media v. John Doe: a must-read motion written by a real IP attorney
- “Guava” and “Arte de Oaxaca” scams hit Cook County court
Media coverage:
- ArsTechnica: Illinois Supreme Court nixes latest porn trolling scheme by Timothy B. Lee
- XBiz (may be NSFW due to explicit ads): Lightspeed Media Adds AT&T, Comcast to Lawsuit by Rhett Pardon
- ArsTechnica: Porn copyright troll sues AT&T and Comcast, says they side with pirates by Timothy B. Lee
Announcements
- Please take an effort to document all the interactions with the plaintiff. Copy and file mailings, record conversations, preserve voicemails. This information may really help in a possible counter-action.
- This request does not cancel the advice not to answer any questions over the phone. Be extra careful.
- Mind the state wiretapping laws. Illinois, for example, requires consent of both parties to record a phone conversation, so if you are recording a call, start your conversation with a polite warning and suggest that continuing the conversation implies consent to record. If you reside in a “one-party” state and the incoming call is originated in a “one-party” state or the caller ID is masked, no such warning is necessary. Certainly, preserving voicemails does not violate any laws. Further reading.
in maricopa county in az the LMC vs world timbers shows a “Judgment Of Dismissal ” on 5/8, and in the lmc vs sekora case shows the same on 5/15, don’t know exactly what’s up because the dockets don’t show motions from plaintiff asking for permission to dismiss (in both cases parties had answered and in atleast one i am pretty sure counter claims were filed) so all i can assume from the bare dockets is that a settlement was met and lightspeed pony’d up some dough.
http://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/docket/CivilCourtCases/caseSearch.asp and search lightspeed under business name. bottom 2 cases are these (cannot link directly to dockets)
i think the only lightspeed case left that they haven’t tried to dismiss the one in miami dade county court, which has been idle for almost a year…..if anyone in phx could get these dismissal judgements for us to read i am sure we would all be soo happy.
Was great to read the support you guys had for me, I am Mr. Smith that went through this hell for what felt like years. I’m glad that people are out there looking out for innocent people and to stop others that try and bully them.
Claire Suddath interviewed me over the phone a couple of times and wrote an amazing article about my whole experience. Its a very imformative read if you care to take the time.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-30/prenda-law-the-porn-copyright-trolls
Thanks again
Thanks for chiming in and glad this nightmare is over for you. I wrote about the Clair’s piece (which is indeed very good) in one of my recent posts.
Best wishes.
This site was one of the first sites I stumbled across (from Clair’s article) and helped me start to look around for help. So you guys really did help on getting this case dismissed.
Here’s an article I stumbled upon about former Judge Michael O’Malley, the retired Judge who was the first Lightspeed Attorney on the case before he quit & turned the case over to Kevin Hoerner.
The article involves O’Malleys daughter:
Former St. Clair County judge’s daughter had drug charge expunged
http://madisonrecord.com/news/256638-former-st-clair-county-judges-daughter-had-drug-charge-expunged
Drugs are just the tip of the iceberg in St. Clair and Madison Counties
http://madisonrecord.com/arguments/256573-drugs-are-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-in-st-clair-and-madison-counties
Traffic charges against alleged heroin dealer dropped by Christ day before becoming judge; Cook approves
http://madisonrecord.com/news/256358-traffic-charges-against-alleged-heroin-dealer-dropped-by-christ-day-before-becoming-judge-cook-approves
on 7/11/13 in the miami dade case(13-2012-CA-005673) a FWOP notice was generated (for want of prosecution). so if i am reading the docket correctly the case will auto dismiss on 10/18/2013. this date also happens to be around the time that the statute of limitations will start kicking in for the ip’s involved in the complaint.
The other Lightspeed case in miami dade (2011-34345-CA-01)had its FWOP hearing yesterday but I don’t see what happened. Basically, both of these cases haven’t had any activity in over a year…
Case 2011-34345-CA-01 has now been dismissed For Want of Prosecution. It appears that no one showed up for the hearing and the case was automatically dismissed. I expect case 13-2012-CA-005673 to be similar dismissed at its FWOP hearing in October.
Case 13-05673-CA-05 10/18/2013: ORDER: TO DISMISS FOR LACK OF PROSECUTION!
Thanks for the update!
I believe this is the last of the bill of discovery cases to be dismissed. Additionally, all of the cases are past or quickly approaching the two year statute of limitations so these cases are all but done!
As of fairly recently (will not mention exact date), the statue of limitations ran out for me. I am officially clean off that douchbags list. And I can honestly state that I did not do the things that my IP was credited with doing. May his soul, and the souls of all the other trolls suffer all their remaining days. That is my wish. May it be.
On October 25, Anonymous posted the following.
“Case 13-05673-CA-05 10/18/2013: ORDER: TO DISMISS FOR LACK OF PROSECUTION!”
Can we assume and that the ’13-05673 CA 05′ was a typo instead of ’12-05673 CA 05′, and also can we assume that the trolls extortion efforts have now officially been ended for this case. The briefness of the message might still beg the question of finality to some. Could someone please verify and possibly elaborate further that it’s really over. Thanks.
Actually, the right case number is 2012-5673-CA-01 but basically yes, the cases in Florida are now dismissed. Additionally, most everyone in these cases have now, or will soon pass the two year statute of limitations and cannot be prosecuted. I think it’s safe to say that Prenda is done in Florida.
That is so good to hear, thank you very much.
In the ILSD Lightspeed v. Comcast, et al sanctions proceedings (12-cv-889) on 1-29 Judge Herndon made the following order setting some new dates:
ORDER re [107] Joint MOTION for Contempt , or in the Alternative, for an Order to Plaintiffs’ Counsel to Show Cause Why They Each Should Not be Held in Contempt filed by ComCast Cable Communications, LLC, Anthony Smith, SBC Internet Services, Inc., ComCast Corporate Representative #1. The defendants are DIRECTED to file a reply to [111] RESPONSE in Opposition filed by Paul Duffy on or before 2/6/2014. Further this matter is set for a Show Cause Hearing on 2/13/2014 at 09:00 AM in East St. Louis Courthouse before Chief Judge David R. Herndon. Signed by Chief Judge David R. Herndon on 1/29/2014. (kbl, )THIS TEXT ENTRY IS AN ORDER OF THE COURT. NO FURTHER DOCUMENTATION WILL BE MAILED.
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how do you bypass the lightspeed system without getting caught.