tmm0804Premium
join:2009-01-23
Haskell, NJ | Copyright Trolls Nearly a year ago I started this topic:
»Cablevision and Copyright Trolls
And on the front page of DSL Reports, there is this article:
»Copyright Troll Prenda Appears in Court, Pleads Fifth
Unfortunately, a year later and my case is still open in the Miami-Dade County Court. I ended up hiring a lawyer in FL for $750 to file four motions on my behalf. I'll probably never see that money again, and it was all to defend myself against a bunch of corrupt scammer attorneys.
A word to the wise: If you get a letter like the one I got from CV, you have to fight it. Ignoring court notices can leave you with a default judgement against you. Just this past week someone who blew off the court got hit with a $150,000 fine. You can't plea poverty or dodge that fine. Your opportunity to do so is in court.
For additional reading on this see these two excellent sites:
»fightcopyrighttrolls.com
»dietrolldie.com |
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 MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY | Were you actually sued by Prenda? |
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tmm0804Premium
join:2009-01-23
Haskell, NJ | No, Prenda and the rest of the copyright troll don't actually sue people. It's not part of their business model.
They grab a bunch of residential IP addresses. They present "evidence" to a sympathetic court. The court issues subpoenas to ISPs requesting subscriber information. When the trolls get this they send out threatening "settlement" letters. 30% of the people settle for around $3K each. They usually group several hundred to thousands of IP addresses together. 30% of 1,000 = 300 X $3,000 = $900,000 all for one court filing.
I think in all, less than 10 people have actually been sued in Federal Court (the proper venue), and most of those cases have been dismissed.
I am dealing with another troll lawyer in Florida with the same business model. Prenda got on the radar for being arrogant idiots. I am hoping that with their case the troll in Florida will be put under considerable scrutiny.
And, no, I wasn't sued. The troll got the court to send subpoenas to Cablevision requesting my personal information. I filed with the court in FL with another FL attorney and prevented that from happening. |
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 NormanSPremium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
kudos:6
 ·SONIC.NET
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| reply to tmm0804
I checked out your old topic, and followed the link to the .pdf doc you posted containing the letter from CV (letterhead greeting). The letter was dated March 20, 2012, but the data requested by the subpoena shows putative violation dates from late in 2011!
CEO of my ISP (Sonic.net, LLC) noted similar, with the "suit-o-matic" subpoenas being filed months after the putative violation, while LEO requests were coming in under 14 days. So the company log retention policy is now a mere 14 days; long enough for John Law to chase down Internet lawbreakers, too short to do Dyck, Tyte, and Butz to file mass John Doe subpoenas.
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
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MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY | reply to tmm0804
And now we have this gem »torrentfreak.com/verizon-asked-t···-130402/
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[Sig removed by Administrator: signature can not exceed 20GB] |
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tmm0804Premium
join:2009-01-23
Haskell, NJ | Lipscomb is harassing Verizon. They won't reveal that information and have gone on the offensive against him. They've been fighting court orders on behalf of their subscribers, stopping trolls in their tracks. They make these cases a bureaucratic nightmare for the trolls and they hunt out lower-hanging fruit.
As you can imagine, I've been following these kinds of cases for a year. This is the beginning of the end of this kind of trolling, and Lipscomb is trying to find new ways of fleecing people and harassing ISPs to surrender your personal information. |
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| said by tmm0804:Lipscomb is harassing Verizon. Yeah, perhaps. But... "If you collect it, they will come."
Six strikes has ... ahem ... encouraged service providers to collect a lot of information on their subscribers. And like all information sitting out there only needs a court order to get released regardless of what the original intent of collecting the information was.
It'll happen... If not for trolls, **AA, law enforcement trolling, divorce attorneys, etc. |
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