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.
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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?
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?
Paul Duffy, an attorney for the Prenda Law, died on Monday, a Cook County Medical Examiner spokesperson said, adding that the cause of death is still pending and could take up to three months to confirm. The Madison Recorder noted that Duffy died at a Chicago hospital. He was 55.
Prenda made millions by suing Internet users for allegedly downloading porn illegally, banking on the fact that most of the people receiving its lawsuit threats would choose to settle rather than endure the cost and embarrassment of a lawsuit—even if they did nothing wrong. Duffy was considered a principal for Prenda Law, but he also worked closely with John Steele and Paul Hansemeier, who were affiliated with Prenda's litigation.
(Score: 3, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday November 17 2015, @09:13PM
Every time I see an article about this I always think that the names John Steele and Paul Hansmeier would be good porn names.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @09:23PM
Muhammed was a pedophile! Fuck that sicko!!
Allah Snackbar!!
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday November 18 2015, @03:57AM
Why do you think they are fighting so hard in court? They are fighting to make sure they profit from their home movies having sex with each other.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 18 2015, @07:18PM
Hey man, don't neglect wrist/hand strength! After watching some of those videos I totally have Steele Hans(meier).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JeanCroix on Tuesday November 17 2015, @09:25PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday November 17 2015, @09:30PM
Is it any wonder why a self policing profession such as lawyers can get away with this stuff for YEARS on end with nobody stepping up to take action. Criminal prosecution of a lawyer is virtually un-heard of, unless they pick up a gun. Anything less, and they seem to be given an unending leash to ruin lives and take money.
These guys are the posterboys for ending self-policing in the legal world.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday November 17 2015, @11:01PM
Disbarment is one way. Happened to our favorite anti gaming lawyer Jack Thompson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)#Disbarment [wikipedia.org]. I find that more satisfying than Jail as jail costs taxpayers money. This way we get to see the humiliated ex-lawyer out of a job to which they can no longer return.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday November 17 2015, @11:53PM
I know one disbarred lawyer that does legal work for not-yet-disbarred lawyers.
He makes almost the same money, its just that his name can't appear on anything.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by CirclesInSand on Wednesday November 18 2015, @11:37AM
A large part of this is that peasants want to believe in "good guys" and "evil guys". The suggestion that a prosecutor isn't on "our team, the good guys" is enough to make most people stagger with confusion. And who knows how much damage it would do to the actual court system if prosecutions of bad DAs led to doubt of their previous convictions?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @10:28PM
Sometimes the same, yes. Prenda would sue up to thousands of John Does, try to get discovery from the ISPs or cable companies, then offer a settlement which one court said was "calculated to be just below the cost of a bare-bones defense." Many defendents were never even served a summons.
But sometimes Prenda got one name, and then sued to find the defendant's "co-conspirators." In the Spencer Merkel case, they talked a guy in Oregon into agreeing to be sued in Minnesota, with understanding that Prenda would dismiss the suit against him once they had used him to locate other people to shake down. They even furnished his "pro bono" lawyer, a friend of Alpha lawyer Michael Dugas.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gravis on Tuesday November 17 2015, @10:49PM
to my knowledge, since each state has it's own bar, if they get disbarred they can just pass the bar in one of 49 other states and resume their reign of terror.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @11:28PM
How dare you. Saying "terror" triggered me.
-SJW
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @11:43PM
Passing the bar is only part of getting licensed, you also have to pass a background check and being disbarred in another state would be a huge impediment.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PocketSizeSUn on Wednesday November 18 2015, @12:54AM
Assuming they were not already licensed in other state(s) of course.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday November 18 2015, @12:18PM
You're assuming that each of the state bar associations don't talk to each other, especially when somebody new shows up and says they practiced law in another state. I mean, it depends somewhat on how much the new state's bar really cares about integrity and such, but if they do really care one of the steps they'll take in that case is say "Hey, Texas Bar Association, what can you guys tell me about Juan Tu Cheatem?" And in the case of multiple bar memberships, if one state disbars somebody, they may well call up the other states where the lawyer practiced, and say "Just so you know, we disbarred Juan Tu Cheatem for the following serious ethical violations. You might want to check out what we know."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MrGuy on Wednesday November 18 2015, @02:33AM
The complaint to the Minnesota Supreme Court is dated Oct 28th. The complaint specifies that a response is required within 20 days.
If my math is right, that means the response is due today.
If history is any precedent, he'll miss the deadline, and then file something a week or two later saying that the complaint is invalid or unenforcible for vague reasons.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Wednesday November 18 2015, @02:44AM
The linked document is an interesting read, indeed....
Quite the specific bit of insight into the kinds of shenanigans that go on in these kinds of situations.
(Not that we didn't already know, but the specificis are intriguing...)