Porn Troll Panics, Dismisses Pending Lawsuits

JayRott writes "According to Ars, 'The embattled copyright trolling firm Prenda Law is seeking to contain the fallout from a looming identity theft scandal by voluntarily dismissing lawsuits filed by the shell company AF Holdings. A Minnesota man named Alan Cooper has charged that Prenda fraudulantly used his name as the CEO of AF Holdings, allegations that have attracted the attention of a California judge. Ken at the legal blog Popehat broke the news that Prenda attorney Paul Duffy has sought dismissal of at least four pending infringement cases involving the Prenda-linked shell company AF Holdings. All four dismissals occurred in the Northern District of Illinois.' I don't see how Prenda thinks this is going to make one lick of difference to an already angry Judge."

Comments

Too late to run and hide now

[jo_ham]

I think this is akin to getting caught stealing money from the tip jar and trying to make it look like you were just "making change".

Too late, you woke the dragon.

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[tqk]

I've been watching this story unfold at Techdirt.com. It's the most farcical slow motion train wreck I've seen in quite a while. It speaks volumes about USA's litigious culture, the Imaginary Property regime, and the miniscule amount of value added to an individual through managing to graduate from law school and be accepted to practice law. To think that these guys spent tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for their educations, and this is what the idiots end up doing with them. Astonishing.

Kudos to the judge. I've seen a few posts from guys wishing they could have a womb implanted so they could have his children.

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[Spy Handler]

Lawyers are a protected privileged class in the USA. Everyone from the President to members of Congress to Supreme Court justices are all lawyers. If you were to shoot all lawyers, you would no longer have a United States.

(what you'd have is a nice place to live)

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[drinkypoo]

Lawyers are a protected privileged class in the USA. Everyone from the President to members of Congress to Supreme Court justices are all lawyers.

Well, kinda. They're not practicing lawyers. They've evolved into LAWYER's next form, POLITICIAN. As lawyers they learn how the law can be twisted and screwed into new shapes to benefit the wealthy, and to win at any cost and on any viable basis. As politicians, they are wealthy, and in a position to make laws.

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[noh8rz10]

What does this story have to do with porn? Is porn troll a new fetish?

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[davester666]

Prenda [or some subsidiary/shell company/whatever] started this out by suing people for downloading various porn movies. It seems they took a LOT of liberties with the judicial process to convert IP addresses to names/addresses, somebody noticed and complained to the judge overseeing the case, and then Prenda decided to try to hide who did what/owns what from the judge.

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[canadian_right]

It is all too easy to slam lawyers, but a lawyer is your best friend when you need one.

You should be slamming the ignorant electorate that keeps electing these politicians that only care about getting elected, getting rich, and pleasing the rich.

You can't waste a vote. A the only wasted vote is the one that wasn't exercised.

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[Genda]

"Porn Troll"

1. A guy who's pulled an all night bender watching truly vile fetish porn... it's 10AM, he's sporting wild hair, bloodshot eyes, morning breath and crusty T-Shirt. Example of use: "Yeah, swung by John's house this morning to invite him to breakfast with the clan, but he'd been "Porn Trolling" and wasn't fit for human consumption."

2. A porn actor past their expiration date. Example of use: "I was watching ET last night and they caught a glimpse of Ron Jeremy... you seen that guy lately... OMG, what a Porn Troll."

Here you go, new entries for your Slang dictionary... you're welcome!

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[Genda]

Well, kinda. They're not practicing lawyers. They've evolved into LAWYER's next form, POLITICIAN...

You describe them as though they're some kind of horrible parasite... good job!

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[Genda]

Until you realize the only reason you need a lawyer, is because of other lawyers...

Re:Too late to run and hide now

[drinkypoo]

It is all too easy to slam lawyers, but a lawyer is your best friend when you need one.

Wrong. A lawyer is a necessary evil when I need one, and I only need one because of the efforts and actions of other lawyers. Even a good lawyer is part of a broken system designed to maintain the status quo, and therefore part of the problem even when they try to be part of the solution.

They're not trying to please the judge

[rsilvergun]

they're trying to make sure they don't piss off another one. One their dirty laundry got out everyone's going to scrutinize their every move. Plus they're going to need to focus their resources on survival right now.

Re:They're not trying to please the judge

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure if survival is what they are trying to do, more like mitigating the damage and hoping there is something left afterwards.

Re:They're not trying to please the judge

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Not sure if survival is what they are trying to do, more like mitigating the damage and hoping there is something left afterwards.

Which is a fancy way of saying survival, in this context.

Too, they're going to have a hard time avoiding criminal charges if the allegations have merit.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[wbr1]

Patent trolling is of interest to many a nerd. Don't like it, don't read the article. I rarely read a bitcoin article. If you really, really hate it you can go over to Reddit.

It will make a difference ... a bad difference

[Anonymous Coward]

Given what's happened so far, this will probably make the judge MORE angry than he already is, and he will still expect the lawyers in question to show up on April 2nd and explain their actions so far even if they don't have a single other case pending in the country. Also, if they're madly filling requests for dismissals in other jurisdictions, it's going to be awfully difficult to offer the usual suite of lame excuses for not complying with the order (i.e. if you had the time to file these other requests for dismissal, then you certainly had the time to respond to a judge's order).

I think the only options left for these guys are either to rat each other out first and hope for leniency (standard prisoner's dilemma), flee the country, or pick a new career. And some of those aren't mutually-exclusive options.

Re:It will make a difference ... a bad difference

[achbed]

From what I've read, they are trying to minimize the possible damage. The biggest change that these dismissals make is from an ONGOING fraud on the court, to a PAST defraud on the court. Using that rationality, however, you can then conclude that the only reason to drop the case(s) is that the allegations are true. If they were false, they'd simply fight the accusation and allow the other cases to proceed (probably continued pending outcome of the allegations).

I do note however that most (not all) the relevant cases were dropped without prejudice, meaning that if they survive, they plan on re-filing the cases. I seriously wonder if the top people involved are busy buying up land in a non-extradition country. The judge might include flight risk in his next order, and get their passports revoked.

Re:It will make a difference ... a bad difference

[shentino]

Why not just flat out arrest them for contempt of court?

If this is getting into criminal territory I expect to hear some handcuffs clicking shut.

Re:It will make a difference ... a bad difference

[PRMan]

It seems like Duffy is dropping all the cases with or without their approval. I think the prisoner's dilemma has already begun.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[Fuzzums]

If all nerds stay in their basements, then you're right, but...
There is a world out there and patent trolls influence the great work we nerds do.
So if one is going down, we celebrate and drink a root beer.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

If you think porn has nothing to do with nerds, I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[gnasher719]

If all nerds stay in their basements, then you're right, but...
There is a world out there and patent trolls influence the great work we nerds do.
So if one is going down, we celebrate and drink a root beer.

You should return your geek credentials. Prenda is not a patent troll. Read about what they were doing and notice there are no patents involved whatsoever.

Who are the owners and operators of Prenda Law?

[Spy Handler]

Let's have some names. And addresses and phone numbers. Then maybe some elite Anonymous operators can obtain their credit card numbers and order a bunch of goatse porn and have it delivered to their homes.

Re:Who are the owners and operators of Prenda Law?

[ais523]

Be careful. Part of the reason that this mess came about in the first place was that they'd given false names/addresses when filing a court case. And in general, the confusion is that nobody's sure who's meant to be in charge, if anyone. The judge has spent much of the court case so far trying to work it out; and is probably in a better position to enforce a punishment too.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[SJHillman]

If you've *done* all the porn on the Internet, you'll be too sore to get anything else done.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[Missing.Matter]

If you think this has nothing to do with nerds, you're note paying attention.

The very heart of these lawsuits is the bittorrent protocol, IP address tracking, and wireless networks. These lawsuits are a dirty disgusting consequence of the technology *we* created. And the reason nerds should be more interested in these lawsuits than others is because we fully understand how absolutely absurd it is to say just because you saw an IP address on a tracker doesn't mean the subscriber to the account that was assigned that address is an infringer.

So while the Prenda lawsuits are not failing on the technical lack of merits of their absurd claims, it is nice to see this law firm imploding nonetheless.

Re:Stopping Prenda Law is not enough

[achbed]

I would seriously hope that "sanctions" includes:
(a) permanent disbarment in ALL states for the primary lawyers (and suspensions for the rest of the plaintiff lawyers),
(b) disgorgement of all settlement income from all entities involved as it was obtained by the fraud,
(c) reversal of all assignments of copyright as they were clearly made to further the fraud,
(d) complete closure of all business entities involved after reassignment of copyright and disgorgement of income, and
(e) the top people involved should be unable to open any more businesses of any kind ever,
(f) referral to state attorneys general and DOJ prosecutors to bring criminal charges.

Not hoping for jail time, but a message needs to be sent to these law-twisting nasties and all their ilk that this is not acceptable and will be punished. You don't often hear of lawyers being punished, simply because they're "in the club". The law community needs to seriously start thinking about an internal purge of these types of lawyers.

Re:If you notice on the front page of ""slashdot""

[mwvdlee]

Sadly, copyright and patent law has a LOT to do with nerds. Especially those of us who develop software either for a living or as a hobby.

I can't include any code in a commercial project without first checking whether the license allows my intended use and what I need to do in order to comply. Similarly I don't release any significant amount of code to the public without first attaching an appropriate license to it (or atleast explicitely releasing to the public domain).

If I don't, some asshole (like the one in TFA) that has never produced any net positive to society will try to turn my efforts into a net negative. Some minimal understanding of copyright and patent law should be a minimal requirement for any software developer.

It's the price you have to pay for allowing border-line sociopaths to walk around freely.

Porn troll porn

[AliasMarlowe]

Is porn troll a new fetish?

That would be "troll porn", probably a relatively obscure fetish.
This story is tending towards "porn troll porn", which might even become widely known.

Re:I'll slam BOTH, thank-you....

[Miseph]

I'm sorry you and your buddy have only met truly reprehensible lawyers. I know several who are good, honest, thoughtful people who genuinely try to make the world around them a better place. Granted, I've also met a hunch who are slimeballs I would just as soon push in front of a bus, but I've met a lot of people who are slimeballs that I would just as soon push in front of a bus who aren't lawyers, so it doesn't seem fair to say lawyers are necessarily any worse than the rest of humanity.

If anything, I've met a greater percentage of sales and corporate management types who would contribute more to the benefit of mankind by dying messily than I have lawyers, but YMMV.

Re:I'll slam BOTH, thank-you....

[loneDreamer]

In particular, I have a friend who IS a good, honest, thoughtful lawyer, and HIS opinion after working in the field is that lawyers, in general, should be pushed in front of a bus. My astonished question was: Hey man, that includes you, you know. His answer was: Nevertheless, it would be for the common good.

United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II

[Required Snark]

The federal judge hearing the case is a real piece of work. He is a former US Marine and LAPD police officer. He was appointed to the bench by first by Schwarzenegger and then by George W. Bush.

Here is a site where people can anonymously comment on their experiences in his court room. He gets a score of 2.5 out of 10. He has a few high ratings, and lots of one and two ratings: http://www.therobingroom.com/Judge.aspx?ID=1555

This is a rather articulate comment from the site:

Judge Wright, a jurist largely devoid of judicial, or "people" skills, is an equal opportunity abuser. Routinely arrogant and abrasive, he pontificates down at the lawyers unfortunate enough to have to appear before him. He rules with an iron fist, and a tin-foil mind. He has demonstrated beyond doubt that that he has a short fuse, a hair-trigger, and poor marksmanship (because he rarely manages to hit the right target) with his slings and arrows. What he does hit, however, he hits hard and hits mercilessly! He appears to delight in making lawyers come in for motion "hearings," which are nothing more than a 45 second diatribe by a judge who clearly has not read the papers or done his homework. If Charles Dickens were still alive and writing today, he would be hard-pressed not to create a judge-character based upon this bench-warmer. I also have no doubt that his % of cases reaching trial is very low, caused by parties who have either precipitously been thrown out of Court during motion practice, or by parties settling in a last-ditch effort to avoid the caprice, uncertainties, vagaries, and whims which a trial with Otis presiding portends. There should be a flashing red neon sign above his Courtroom door that warns lawyers, in Dantean terms: "All hope abandon ye who enter here."

I can't imagine a more appropriate court for Prenda Law. It will be a collision between out of control bottom of the barrel scum sucking lawyers and a judge who's legal background is inadequate and has a tendency to use the bench to crush anyone who appears before him. It's literally karma in action, with Biblical style thunderclaps and lightning. What could possibly go wrong?