5 ms·

Prenda Law used a similar tactic when they uploaded films to pirate bay and then sued anyone who downloaded them. You can bet if Schneider loses the case, she'

Prenda Law used a similar tactic when they uploaded films to pirate bay and then sued anyone who downloaded them. You can bet if Schneider loses the case, she'll be left holding the bag as Virgin Islands-based Pirate Monitor Ltd disappears. Creative folks who hire these law firms that specialize in pirate hunters or "monitoring" companies need to realize they have incentives to pirate your content to keep your business. And when you sue people off information they provided you, it's your name on the lawsuit. Sure you can try to sue the companies after you lose, but good luck with that.

runlevel1 6y ago
It was even shadier than that. They were also producing content solely to upload to The Pirate Bay and sue whoever downloaded it. After years of running the scheme and raking in millions, they finally got caught when a defense attorney noticed some oddities while trying to identify who Prenda was representing. The Prenda attorneys continued to be evasive about the identity of the complainant in court. Pulling that thread eventually unveiled their shenanigans. The judge then referred the Prenda attorneys to the US Attorney for criminal indictment. Two of the attorneys behind Prenda were convicted and sentenced last year: One for 5 years, the other for 14. [1][2] [1]: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/florida-attorney-sentenced-60-months-prison-multi-million-dollar-pornography-film https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/florida-attorney-sentence... [2]: https://www.startribune.com/judge-throws-the-book-at-minneapolis-lawyer-who-ran-a-porn-trolling-scheme/511302022/?refresh=true https://www.startribune.com/judge-throws-the-book-at-minneap...
- imglorp 6y ago
  > Two of the attorneys behind Prenda were convicted and sentenced Thank you. A little heart warming sanity.
- freeflight 6y ago
  > They were also producing content solely to upload to The Pirate Bay and sue whoever downloaded it. In 2013 Germany had a pretty high-profile case where a company bought up the rights to some movies on RedTube and then proceeded to send out C&D letters to anybody who streamed them [0]. The situation was extra nasty due to the nature of the content: Getting caught watching porn is already embarassing enough for a lot of people to simply pay up and not pursue any legal means. [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmann-Abmahnaff%C3%A4re https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmann-Abmahnaff%C3%A4re
- jobigoud 6y ago
  > They were also producing content solely to upload to The Pirate Bay and sue whoever downloaded it Holy crap that's a brillant business model. I'm always amazed by how much out-of-the-box thinking can be made when you remove ethics from the equation...
- spacemanmatt 6y ago
  You're making me miss GrokLaw, where the best coverage of the Prenda debacle went down in discussion sections.

runlevel1 6y ago

It was even shadier than that. They were also producing content solely to upload to The Pirate Bay and sue whoever downloaded it. After years of running the scheme and raking in millions, they finally got caught when a defense attorney noticed some oddities while trying to identify who Prenda was representing. The Prenda attorneys continued to be evasive about the identity of the complainant in court. Pulling that thread eventually unveiled their shenanigans. The judge then referred the Prenda attorneys to the US Attorney for criminal indictment. Two of the attorneys behind Prenda were convicted and sentenced last year: One for 5 years, the other for 14. [1][2] [1]: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/florida-attorney-sentenced-60-months-prison-multi-million-dollar-pornography-film https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/florida-attorney-sentence... [2]: https://www.startribune.com/judge-throws-the-book-at-minneapolis-lawyer-who-ran-a-porn-trolling-scheme/511302022/?refresh=true https://www.startribune.com/judge-throws-the-book-at-minneap...

imglorp 6y ago
> Two of the attorneys behind Prenda were convicted and sentenced Thank you. A little heart warming sanity.
freeflight 6y ago
> They were also producing content solely to upload to The Pirate Bay and sue whoever downloaded it. In 2013 Germany had a pretty high-profile case where a company bought up the rights to some movies on RedTube and then proceeded to send out C&D letters to anybody who streamed them [0]. The situation was extra nasty due to the nature of the content: Getting caught watching porn is already embarassing enough for a lot of people to simply pay up and not pursue any legal means. [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmann-Abmahnaff%C3%A4re https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmann-Abmahnaff%C3%A4re
jobigoud 6y ago
> They were also producing content solely to upload to The Pirate Bay and sue whoever downloaded it Holy crap that's a brillant business model. I'm always amazed by how much out-of-the-box thinking can be made when you remove ethics from the equation...
spacemanmatt 6y ago
You're making me miss GrokLaw, where the best coverage of the Prenda debacle went down in discussion sections.