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Class-Action Suit Claims Copyright Enforcement Company Made Harassing Robo-calls
An anonymous reader writes Morgan Pietz, one of the lawyers who took on Prenda Law, has a new target in his sights: copyright enforcement company Rightscorp. In a class action suit (PDF) Pietz claims the company made illegal, harassing robo-calls to people who were accused of illegal downloading and by doing so Rightscorp broke the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which limits how automated calling devices can be used. "They robo-called Jeanie Reif's cell phone darn near every day for a couple of months," Pietz said. "And there could be thousands of members of this class."
Can we also sue the Business Software Alliance?
and weren't a complete waste of taxpayer money these robo calls would never happen. I have for YEARS been getting the same pre-recorded message call to my cell phone promising me to lower my credit card payment. Searching the internet shows hundreds of folks complaining about the same -- down to the very spoofed caller ID number. I've filed numerous complaints online at the FTC and yet fuck all happens.
Not a long time ago, I was just a normal internet user that surfed various news sites like Sladshdot, reddit, or wsj.com. I read a story, perhaps clicked onto some links it contained, and I was mostly happy with my life.
Then, one day, I surfed Slashdot. It was one of those days you will remember for the rest of your life. So, as I surfed Sladshdot, the title of a story got my attention. I read the summary. The topic seemed interesting, so I decided to read further. I read:
Read on below for the rest what Bennett has to say.
Usually I don't read first line of a story which contains the user who has submitted it. On that day, I didn't neither. As I've only read that bottom line, I asked myself: who is this misterious Bennett? I decided to click onto the "Read the comments" link to read more of the story that was, as it seems, written by some Bennett. During reading, I was already impressed by the clear and detailed but still concise structure of the text. As I finished reading, I was convinced it was the best story I've ever read on Sladshdot, or any comparable news site. I asked myself: perhaps this misterious Bennett has contributed more frequently than just once?
To find that out, I went to Sladshdot's search bar and searched for "Bennett". I clicked the second entry, and it began with:
Frequent contributor Bennett Haselton writes
I searched for the "Read on" line, and I was happy when I found it. As it seemed, he was a frequent contributor. However the story was on a topic completely unrelated to the topic of my article. Would the other article still be as insightful as the first? And the other stories in the search result? Would they be also by Bennett? Or someone else? I decided first to be happy to have found such an insightful article, and decided to make a photograph of me, before I read the second story.
I still have that photograph of me and I can see the hope and the satisfaction in my eyes, the hope that the other stories are also written by this brilliant author called Bennett, and the satisfaction of having read such an insightful article. As I've read the first couple of stories by Bennett, I couldn't believe what my eyes saw: all the stories were as insightful or even more insightful than the original story I read. I asked myself whether the spectators in the Globe theatre would have felt the same way when they watched a piece by shakespeare: Witnessing history of writing. I realized Bennett is one of histories great writers.
As I've finished reading all contributions by Bennett Haselton on Sladshdot, I went back to the first Bennett story, and read them a second time. I sat three days straight, missing all social events during that span, only reading Bennett's stories, and reading them again and again. During that time my eyes opened to the fact that my whole life, I've known nothing. Bennett's stories explained every aspect of very complicated things in such detail, that I formed something in my mind. First, I couldn't describe it what it was, but years later I know that, for the first time of my life, I formed something called "opinion" on a topic. Previously, I've only adopted opinions from others, but Bennett's stories enable people to make their opinions for themselfes, to form them. With his stories, Bennett gives you the material to form your own opinion on your own. I know you will say that you can form your opinion on your own, and that you don't need Bennett for that. I
disagree with you. What you call opinion, is in reality just ideology you imitate from others. You don't form your opinions, you don't have them.
Every time Bennett writes a new story on Sladshdot, I take a free day and spend it reading the story
Copyright seems to be turning into a religion for those who "believe" in it. This sort of fervent love for something, to the point where you call every damn day, is only typically found in religion, and even then, only in the more extreme sects.
I guess it makes sense. Both are believing in the unprovable. One believes in a supreme being (usually) that is mystically omnipresent but we are complete oblivious to it, the other believes in the mythical being of "lost profits" and that they are mystically unwavering in their regeneration and ability to be had if the evil do-no-gooders would be hanged.
These places tend to be asset-less companies that do not care about being sued, they simply form another shell and fold.
No sir I dont like it.
When people associated with the music and film industry break the law, the cops need to get off their asses and do their f**king jobs.
When /.ers break the law... well, everyone here agrees it shouldn't have been a law in the first place so that doesn't count. Aren't there any rapes, murders that need to be investigated?
If only we had robotic defenses against robotic phone call attacks...
Ezekiel 23:20
Very rarely do news articles saying "X is against the law" ever actually cite the law in question. The applicable law in this case, if I understand correctly, is 47 U.S.C. 227.
Last time someone harassed me calling every day, after a week, I changed the damn number. Problem solved.
I finally got sick of robocalls at election time, being in a swing state, the phone rang basically non-stop from about 9am to 8:59pm (at least they didn't call after 9, for the most part). I discovered that my provider is compatible with nomorobo and gave it a try. I wasn't expecting much because we got numerous spammy robocalls even before the major increase added by all the political calls, but it actually seems to be working. Very few if any robocalls ring more than once now and I haven't noticed any false positives so far either.
Unfortunately it still won't work with many traditional voice services, but is compatible with most VoIP providers and they seem to be adding more over time.
Blocking individual numbers is fine and all, but these idiots call from seemingly random numbers, and a few times had our own phone number show up on caller ID (come on, how stupid do they think I am?). Having the phone still ring once is not perfect, but a service that aggregates all the data, automatically determines which calls are robocalls, and blocks them was long overdue so I'll take what I can get, and if enough people use it maybe the morons will eventually get the hint and stop their stupid scams when their illegal profits dry up.
You find that the new number you get is one previously discarded by someone else for the same reason (and you're also probably shafting the person who eventually gets your old number assigned to them). It's also a pain in the ass to update your contact info in 30 different places.
A better answer is to block the calls. The best I've found so far is Nomorobo, but it doesn't work with all providers. If that hadn't worked, my next plan was going to be to port my number to Google voice and screen there, but I wasn't really thrilled about that option.
I guess there are also some hardware devices that let you block as many numbers as you want, but that seems kind of like a band-aid since many of these jerks call from a variety of numbers, sometimes spoofing the numbers of legitimate companies who they aren't related to in any way. A free service like Nomorobo seems like a step closer to the right direction (until the telcos/voip providers/fcc pull their heads out).
Regulations, like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, are for little people. This is about corporate profit and we will decide which regulations we will observe and which we will ignore. And if you don't like it, by your own legislators and regulators.
Regards,
Your Friends at RIAA/MPAA
"...harassing robo-calls..."
Also known as 'robo-calls'.
Time and time again I explained to them that I wasn't the person they were looking for. Then I'd launch into a tirade about their business practices - which I'm glad to see they have been called on.