SoylentNews

Porn Studio Asks Judge to Ban Talk About "Copyleft" Blogs at Trial

posted by takyon on Tuesday July 28 2015, @07:50AM   
from the impartial-jury dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Prenda Law is gone, and today it's a legit porno company, Malibu Media, that files more copyright lawsuits than anyone else. Malibu sues thousands of people for downloading the company's content via BitTorrent, then asks for settlements reportedly in the several-thousand-dollar range.

The antics of Malibu and other "copyright trolls" are often documented on two pseudonymous troll-fighting blogs, FightCopyrightTrolls and DieTrollDie.

Now that Malibu has a case where a defendant is insisting on his right to have his case heard by a jury, it really doesn't want those blogs coming up at trial. Malibu's attorney Keith Lipscomb has asked (PDF) the judge in the case to ban "inappropriate references to blogs" during the copyright infringement trial, seeking $150,000 in damages from Indiana resident Michael Harrison.

"The Court should preclude Defendant from referring to copyleft blogs for any purpose, including specifically references to fightcopyrightrolls.com and dietrolldie.com," writes Lipscomb in the motion, filed earlier this week. "The blogs target Plaintiff and its counsel with vitriolic hate speech and contain comments that are biased, slanderous, and prejudicial, and should not be referred to at trial for any purpose."

In a footnote, Lipscomb explains "copyleft" for the judge, writing: "Copyleft is the polite way of describing an anti-copyright ideology. 'Freetards' is the degrading equivalent of 'copyright trolls' when used in association with copyright producers."

A gray-market company seeks the cover of law. Any 'Freetards' care to comment?

---

Original Submission

• Copyleft is something different Copyleft is something different (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @11:32AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @11:32AM (#214797)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft [wikipedia.org]

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+2
  Informative=2, Total=2
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		2

• Re:Copyleft is something different (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @12:57PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @12:57PM (#214820)

  Perhaps the FSF could sue Malibu Media for libel.

  Parent

• ...and as for ''freetards'' ...and as for ''freetards'' (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @01:55AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @01:55AM (#215182)

  Copyleft is meaningless with copyright.

  Copyleft says "I grant you an addition right to freely redistribute this work under these terms I have specified".

  -You- can only apply Copyleft to a work to which -you- hold copyright.
  The word has no bearing on this case.

  .
  As for "freetards", that is the diametric opposite of "copyright trolls".
  One wants everything to be gratis and the other wants everything to be "intellectual property" eternally and specifically claims right to which he is not entitled.

  Now, "anti-copyright advocate" would apply to each of the sites.
  Again, this is something that has no bearing on the case.

  Clearly, the plaintiff's lawyer has used words he doesn't understand--or he is purposely trying to bullshit the judge using non-applicable jargon.

  I'm hoping that the judge takes the opportunity to metaphorically slap the living shit out of a party that has submitted a document that is full of shit.

  -- gewg_

  Parent

  • Re:...and as for ''freetards'' (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @02:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @02:00AM (#215187)

    meaningless withOUT copyright.

    -- gewg_

    Parent