3 ms·

Prenda law?

loeg 7y ago
Prenda Law has basically nothing to do with the DMCA, as I understand it. They did a lot of illegal things, but it isn't clear to me that they ever sent a DMCA takedown notice to a Online Service Provider[1]: > In the 2013 civil ruling, Prenda Law and three named principals, John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, and Paul Duffy, were found to have undertaken vexatious litigation,[4]:FOF.5 p.4 identity theft,[4]:FOF.9 p.5 misrepresentation and calculated deception (including "fraudulent signature"),[4]:FOF.6 p.4, FOF.9–11 p.5, p.6–8 professional misconduct and to have shown moral turpitude. They didn't get in trouble for filing spurious takedown notices; they got in trouble for extortion. Their M.O. was to sue anyone they could identify by IP address from their own porn torrents and settle out of court for as much money as possible (and drop suits if the defendant wouldn't settle or couldn't pay — they wanted to avoid the scrutiny of a courtroom). Sending DMCA takedown notices to the Pirate Bay would (1) not get them paid, which is about all they cared about, and (2) likely not actually result in content being taken down, if I understand the Pirate Bay. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenda_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenda_Law (DMCA doesn't even get mentioned in the article)
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > They didn't get in trouble for filing spurious takedown notices; they got in trouble for extortion. As far as I saw from following Popehat's coverage of the case, they also didn't get in trouble for extortion. That was fine. They got in trouble for owning the films they were suing over. (Without letting the court know they were the copyright owner as well as the legal representation.) I've never understood why Prenda Law's legal troubles seem to be viewed as some kind of victory against copyright trolling. They did things that were bad, and they did things that were illegal, and there was no overlap between those two categories. All of their practices that we think of as "copyright trolling" are still 100% OK. They didn't get in trouble for that.

Prenda law?

loeg 7y ago

Prenda Law has basically nothing to do with the DMCA, as I understand it. They did a lot of illegal things, but it isn't clear to me that they ever sent a DMCA takedown notice to a Online Service Provider[1]: > In the 2013 civil ruling, Prenda Law and three named principals, John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, and Paul Duffy, were found to have undertaken vexatious litigation,[4]:FOF.5 p.4 identity theft,[4]:FOF.9 p.5 misrepresentation and calculated deception (including "fraudulent signature"),[4]:FOF.6 p.4, FOF.9–11 p.5, p.6–8 professional misconduct and to have shown moral turpitude. They didn't get in trouble for filing spurious takedown notices; they got in trouble for extortion. Their M.O. was to sue anyone they could identify by IP address from their own porn torrents and settle out of court for as much money as possible (and drop suits if the defendant wouldn't settle or couldn't pay — they wanted to avoid the scrutiny of a courtroom). Sending DMCA takedown notices to the Pirate Bay would (1) not get them paid, which is about all they cared about, and (2) likely not actually result in content being taken down, if I understand the Pirate Bay. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenda_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenda_Law (DMCA doesn't even get mentioned in the article)

thaumasiotes 7y ago
> They didn't get in trouble for filing spurious takedown notices; they got in trouble for extortion. As far as I saw from following Popehat's coverage of the case, they also didn't get in trouble for extortion. That was fine. They got in trouble for owning the films they were suing over. (Without letting the court know they were the copyright owner as well as the legal representation.) I've never understood why Prenda Law's legal troubles seem to be viewed as some kind of victory against copyright trolling. They did things that were bad, and they did things that were illegal, and there was no overlap between those two categories. All of their practices that we think of as "copyright trolling" are still 100% OK. They didn't get in trouble for that.