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posted by azrael on Saturday August 02 2014, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the back-under-the-bridge dept.

Ars Technica weighs in one more time, Appeals court: Shell game over, Prenda Law must pay sanctions in full.

Prenda Law sued thousands of people over allegations of illegally distributing adult movies before its business was brought to a crashing halt by a series of judicial sanctions. The lawyers behind Prenda—Paul Duffy, John Steele, and Paul Hansmeier—steadfastly maintained that those sanctions were unwarranted, and they appealed.

On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the first appeals court to weigh in on their arguments. It didn't think much of them. The first sentence of the 24-page opinion suggested where things were going to go. "The first rule of holes, according to an old saying, is to stop digging," wrote Chief Judge Diane Wood on behalf of the three-judge panel.

Will we finally see this troll put to bed?

Related Stories

State Board Moves to Sanction Prenda Lawyer 17 comments

The Prenda Law porn copyright troll saga continues.

John Steele and Paul Hansmeier formed a law firm which concentrated on copyright matters, which is to say, they sued John Does and sometimes individuals for allegedly downloading or sharing copyrighted pornographic videos. Steele Hansmeier became Prenda Law, which was succeeded by Hansmeier's Alpha Law Firm. More recently, Paul Hansmeier's law firm Class Justice has been suing small businesses for allegedly illegally discriminating against disabled people.

Now the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board has petitioned the Minnesota Supreme Court to disbar or suspend Hansmeier for his antics. The 43-page petition (PDF) is an eye-opener about Prenda's tactics, and the growing impatience of judges with them.

Previous related stories:
Prenda-Linked Copyright Trolling Lawyer Paul Duffy Dead at Age 55
Porn Studio Asks Judge to Ban Talk About "Copyleft" Blogs at Trial
Appeals Court: Shell Game Over, Prenda Law Must Pay Sanctions in Full

This story is also being covered by Techdirt.


Original Submission

Former Prenda Law Attorney Disbarred by Illinois Supreme Court 14 comments

Prenda Law attorney John Steele has been disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court:

After admitting to several criminal acts, including the operation of a piracy honeypot, Prenda Law attorney John Steele has now been disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court. As a result, the troubled attorney will no longer be allowed to practice law in the state. While the decision doesn't come as a surprise, several victims of the trolling operation will welcome it with a smile.

Over the years, copyright trolls have been accused of involvement in various dubious schemes and actions, but there's one group that has gone above and beyond.

Prenda Law grabbed dozens of headlines, mostly surrounding negative court rulings over identity theft, misrepresentation and even deception. Most controversial was the shocking revelation that Prenda uploaded their own torrents to The Pirate Bay, creating a honeypot for the people they later sued over pirated downloads.

The allegations also raised the interest of the US Department of Justice, which indicted Prenda principals John Steele and Paul Hansmeier late last year. The two stand accused of running a multi-million dollar fraud and extortion operation.

A few weeks ago Steele pleaded guilty, admitting among other things that they did indeed use The Pirate Bay to operate a honeypot for online pirates. Following the guilty plea the Illinois Supreme Court, which started looking into the case long before the indictment, has now decided to disbar the attorney. This means that Steele no longer has the right to practice law.

Also at Ars Technica.

Previously:
Appeals Court Slams Prenda Law
Appeals Court: Shell Game Over, Prenda Law Must Pay Sanctions in Full
Prenda-Linked Copyright Trolling Lawyer Paul Duffy Dead at Age 55
Smut-Seeding Prenda Law Ringleader Told to Sell his House to Pay $2.9M Debt
Prenda's Paul Hansmeier Loses his Law License; Won't be Filing Bogus ADA Lawsuits for Now
Prenda Law "Copyright Trolls" Finally Getting Their Comeuppance
Indicted Prenda Lawyer Also Under FBI Investigation


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by mendax on Saturday August 02 2014, @07:49AM

    by mendax (2840) on Saturday August 02 2014, @07:49AM (#76672)

    Watch for the Supreme Court appeal by Prenda. But it's probably doomed and that will be the end of it.... for now.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by jasassin on Saturday August 02 2014, @08:23AM

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Saturday August 02 2014, @08:23AM (#76678) Homepage Journal

    I got a letter for downloading some porn (according to the ISP guy). I have no idea what that was about. Do they just send letters to random people? The fucked up thing is that in these letters it doesn't state what you allegedly downloaded. Its time, date, and some shitty troll company name. The pirates will always win... I'm pretty sure trolls can't swim.

    --
    jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @09:11AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @09:11AM (#76686)

      I guess about once a week, I get some letter that looks extremely like a business making an urgent appeal to be seen by appearing to be a legal document. Once I open the envelope and look at the thing, its an advertisement. I have kept a few. Sometimes I even return them with "payment" by enclosing one of the sample checks that my credit union passes out ( no name or routing numbers on it, but it sure looks like a check ) and having the product sent to the local police department's address. Before you do that though, examine the documents they send you thoroughly and photoshop any identifying information from it and replace it with something else.

      Incidentally, photoshopping forms is a great way of "defanging" the "business talk" they like to put in fine print on the back of the form. Change it to something more to your liking. If they can claim that tiny print on the back of their form has legal teeth and if I did not read it, that's just too bad, then I feel justified in claiming the same thing, and if they accepted it, that's just too bad.

      • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday August 02 2014, @03:42PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday August 02 2014, @03:42PM (#76736)

        That's a brilliant idea.

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday August 02 2014, @04:00PM

      by edIII (791) on Saturday August 02 2014, @04:00PM (#76739)

      It doesn't state what you downloaded and then acts like you should care simply because it's porn *gasp*?!

      I would write them back and ask if they have a link history on you. Say you're interested in acquiring it since you can't find that one Brazillian fart porn video you found last month.

      It never ceases to amaze me that some people really do care that somebody is watching porn out there and needs to be shamed for it.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @08:51PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @08:51PM (#76768)

        some people really do care that somebody is watching porn out there and needs to be shamed for it.

        America is full of prudes who get off on forcing their "values" on everyone else, by law if they can get away with it.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by mendax on Saturday August 02 2014, @08:33AM

    by mendax (2840) on Saturday August 02 2014, @08:33AM (#76680)

    I just finished reading the court's judgment. If you have a spare half hour, read it; it is worth reading. It's well-written (as you would expect from an appeals court) and contains a bit of legalese, but it's also filled with some funny, snide comments about the Prenda Gang's frivolous and bogus legal arguments the cover up the court's anger. You see those in court judgments sometime when one of the parties is doing shit, as in this case.

    It probably is no surprise that in the many cases I've read dealing with the court actions in which the government is one of the parties, it's the government's attorneys who are the clowns and you can just hear the rage of the judge seething in the judgment.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Saturday August 02 2014, @01:15PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Saturday August 02 2014, @01:15PM (#76703)

      Diane Wood, the lead judge on the case, is widely considered to be a strong candidate for a SCOTUS nomination [scotusblog.com]. She's been running the Seventh Circuit court for a while, accepts no nonsense, and has a record of being able to form a consensus with her fairly conservative colleagues. Her decisions are usually upheld on appeal as well.

      And if you read this opinion, you'll see that she's very politely saying "Prenda Law are blatantly lying to us, we've caught them, and they have no business practicing law."

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 2) by mendax on Saturday August 02 2014, @10:17PM

        by mendax (2840) on Saturday August 02 2014, @10:17PM (#76782)

        And if you read this opinion, you'll see that she's very politely saying "Prenda Law are blatantly lying to us, we've caught them, and they have no business practicing law."

        These jokers need to be disbarred, both by the Illinois bar but also the federal one. They indeed have no business practicing law when they have been caught abusing the courts and the legal process so badly.

        --
        It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    • (Score: 2) by MrGuy on Saturday August 02 2014, @03:01PM

      by MrGuy (1007) on Saturday August 02 2014, @03:01PM (#76724)

      I love the fact that the judge directly cited an article on dietrolldie.com, and separately an article on Ars Technica called "Judge Smash: Prenda's porn trolling days are over."

      The citations alone are enough to make me love this judge.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @09:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 02 2014, @09:54AM (#76688)

    TFA noted a bond for less than 300k. That covers all, sanctions and opponents' legal expense? Sounds like peanuts to me.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by tonyPick on Saturday August 02 2014, @02:21PM

    by tonyPick (1237) on Saturday August 02 2014, @02:21PM (#76715) Homepage Journal

    Given that, as a company they've been doing this since 2010, and, to quote an earlier AT article:
    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/10/prenda-massive-trolling-take-revealed-at-least-1-9-million-in-2012/ [arstechnica.com]

    As part of his argument showing his relative distance from the scheme, Gibbs has evidence showing Steele and Hansmeier's firm links to Prenda. That includes a spreadsheet showing Prenda's income from the "pirates" as being more than $1.9 million in 2012. Steele and Hansmeier collected about $1.3 million of that, according to Gibbs.

    And at this (linked from) TFA
    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/prenda-linked-lawyers-pulled-in-4-4m-but-now-say-theyre-broke/ [arstechnica.com]

    Third, Steele admitted that Steele Hansmeier, Prenda Law, and Prenda-linked shell Livewire Holdings received a total of $4.4 million in settlement payments.

    Then $300k after four years? That doesn't seem a particularly harsh punishment. Depending on what comes next, this might still be a profitable business model FFS.