One of the hottest businesses for lawyers these days is to threaten people with court actions because of supposedly infringing on copyrighted material but accepting settlement payments based on those accusations. Typically these are referred to as John Doe IP cases where lawyers attempt to bring suit in court based on just the IP addresses of those involved regardless of where they live.
One lawyer by the name of Ira Siegel has been doing this for some time it would seem but that time maybe up if one judge has his way.
In one case where Siegel came before the court the judge issued a court order telling him that he had to reveal how much money that he was making with this scheme, which Siegel has been avoiding.
Increasingly judges are beginning to see through this type of lawsuit and the judge in this case has followed suit with other judges and dismissed all but one defendant; which effectively scuttles trolling operations like this. Not only that but judges are becoming more than a little vocal about their irritation with cases like these as this judge has, and notes in his decision.
The Court’s concerns are heightened by plaintiff’s refusal to file under seal a copy of its settlement letter and related information about its settlement practices. The film sells for $19.95 on plaintiff’s website. According to public reports, plaintiffs in other BitTorrent cases, rather than prosecuting their lawsuits after learning the identities of Does, are demanding thousands of dollars from each Doe defendant in settlement. If all this is correct, it raises questions of whether this film was produced for commercial purposes or for purposes of generating litigation and settlements. Put another way, Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution authorizes Congress to enact copyright laws ‘to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts’. If all the concerns about these mass Doe lawsuits are true, it appears that the copyright laws are being used as part of a massive collection scheme and not to promote useful arts.
via Techdirt
It is always nice to see troll lawyers like Siegel get their comeuppance, something that we would love to see happen more often.
