New Prenda Law Shell Corp Threatening to Tell Your Neighbors You Pirated Porn

It appears that Prenda Law, freshly defeated, has formed a new shell company named the "Anti-Piracy Law Group," and has resumed sending threatening letters to supposed porn pirates. But this time, they've expanded their threats (from a letter (PDF) sent to Fight Copyright Trolls): "The list of possible suspects includes you, members of your household, your neighbors (if you maintain an open wi-fi connection) and anyone who might have visited your house. In the coming days we will contact these individuals to investigate whether they have any knowledge of the acts described in my client’s prior letter" Naturally, the letter also notes that the recipient can avoid having the list of videos they supposedly copied sent to their neighbors and family if they settle for a few thousand bucks...

Comments

Re:Haha, let them.

[MiKM]

Posted anonymously for obvious reasons.

I thought you said you weren't ashamed to admit that you watched porn.

Black mail

[Anonymous Coward]

This is black mail, and illegal.

=]

They Learned From SCO

[some old guy]

I'm sure they are perfectly aware that their claims are groundless and probably illegal. They're also aware that their lifespan is shrinking rapidly.

I think what they're doing is seeing how many poor schmucks they can scare into settling for a few quick bucks before the whole scheme implodes.

Clearly, SCO's "Linux Licensing" was a model modus operandi for trolls everywhere.

Re:Haha, let them.

[realityimpaired]

I'm not ashamed of my sexuality. I don't pirate porn, largely because the majority of it is fake and really poor quality (I'm not in the target audience), but let them tell my neighbours. They'll get hit with a defamation lawsuit pretty quickly.

And my neighbours have been able to wrap their heads around the fact that I'm a tree-hugging dirt-worshipping lesbian hippie who goes to festivals where witchcraft is practiced from time to time, I think they won't have any problem understanding that I may look at porn occasionally too.

Re:They've shot themselves in the foot legally

[ShieldW0lf]

We should just do away with copyright already. From now on, the only way to get paid for porno is by the cameraman who offers you 500 euro while he's giving you a ride to your friend's house. He'll have no way to recoup, other than taking money from investors who convinced him to release the footage on Bittorrent.

Hot Legal Teens Fucking on a BMW. Brought to you by BMW.
 
Product placement would be an easy way to fund free porn. And really, how much more Pavlovian can you get than to have someone masturbate while looking at your product?

Re:When is the scum going in the slammer?

[dgatwood]

Right about now, I'm thinking. Up until now, everything they did was at least ostensibly legal, albeit unethical. This, however, is pretty much open and shut blackmail and extortion, both of which are federal crimes in the United States and nearly every other country in the world. In the U.S., a single letter like this is enough to qualify the sender for two separate federal charges with a maximum combined sentence of three years in federal prison, on top of various state and local charges that may also apply.