Over the past year they’ve been hit for roughly $311,000 in damages and costs, while hitting a roadblock in developing new revenue.

Little over a month ago the ongoing saga received yet another twist when a significant blow was dealt to the embattled law firm by the mother-in-law of Prenda front-man John Steele.

After a month of deliberation the court has now handed down additional good news for five accused BitTorrent pirates. Yesterday’s ruling made it clear that there is no evidence that AF Holdings holds the copyrights to the titles they sued the individuals over.

“The copyright-assignment agreements [...] in each of these five cases are not what they purport to be. Alan Cooper denies signing either agreement and also denies giving anyone else the authority to sign them on his behalf. AF Holdings failed to produce any credible evidence that the assignments were authentic.”

As a result of this fraud, U.S. Magistrate Judge Franklin Noel ordered the company to repay the four defendants who already settled their cases, including their legal fees. In addition, the judge dismissed the suits against all five alleged file-sharers.

“The Court has been the victim of a fraud perpetrated by AF Holdings, LLC. The Court concludes that the appropriate remedy for this fraud is to require AF Holdings to return all of the settlement money it received from all of the Defendants in these cases, and to pay all costs and fees incurred by the Defendants.”

The order further suggests that there may need to be more investigation into the Prenda law firm and its principles. As a result, the court ordered the following (among other things):

The Clerk of Court shall send a copy of this order to the following individuals and entities for the purpose of further investigation:

- The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota

- The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office

- The Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board

- The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois

With the above, the ruling echoes that of Judge Wright, bringing the firm to the attention of lawyer disciplinary boards and criminal investigators.

Of course, the total amount of damages so far doesn’t even come close to the alleged $1.9 million that Prenda took in settlements during 2012, but with the IRS, FBI and even state law enforcement investigating, asset forfeiture is always a possibility.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

There’s more in this cracking filing (Number 61 on the docket) though, including some more fun over the Alan Cooper business. For those that don’t know, Alan Cooper is the name of one of the principles in the case who has signed a lot of the copyright paperwork. It’s ALSO the name of John Steele’s former caretaker, who has sued over having his identity stolen, to which Prenda counter-sued

In the exhibits filed there are some nice audio snippets featuring conversations with GoDaddy. Included in there are some people claiming to be John Steele, and in one (PDF with embedded audio), the same voice is calling himself Alan Cooper.

Is it any wonder that Alan Cooper sued for fraudulent use of his name?

There’s also audio of Steele trying to fix his site when a javascript redirect sent visitors along to the Pirate Bay, sounding rather worried and being admonished that he needed to keep his sites software (mainly wordpress) up to date.

This filing comes hard on the heels of a motion by Prenda’s Craigslist-advertising Georgia counsel, Jacques Nazaire, the day before. In Nazaire’s motion, also heavy with exhibits, he shows upset at the discovery undertaken by the defense (some of which we’ve just talked about) as well as the public comments on the case, including comments by the two other people appearing before the judge that day – Defense attorney Blair Chintella, and his expert witness Andrew Norton (Disclosure, Mr Norton is TorrentFreak’s researcher and community manager, better known as K`Tetch).

Mr Nazaire included posts describing the July 2nd hearing, where discovery was granted, by those two, plus comments on Techdirt, popehat, and fightcopyrighttrolls (although in those last three, the article itself was not included), all as part of a request to put the case under seal, meaning nothing further in the case would be public. His reason was as follows.

Additionally, the Plaintiff is respectfully requesting that any future filings in this case may be filed under seal. This case has generated much unneeded attention on the internet. Please see Exhibits N-S. While the writers listed in exhibits N-S have the right to post these articles, unfortunately, these articles and blogs have created an embarrassment, misleading characterizations and perhaps an unsafe environment for plaintiff’s counsel and third parties. As such, plaintiff is respectfully requesting that all future filings be permitted to be made under seal.

The embarrassment is mainly due to an earlier filing in the case, where Mr Nazaire suggested that the court ignore Judge Wright’s Star Trek order, because states have different laws, just like California allows Gay marriage, and Georgia doesn’t. In the same filing, he also alluded to the EFF being terrorists, and how Mr Chintella was a member, presumably to sway the 83yo judge who sat on the FISA court in the 1980s. It didn’t work.

Likewise the unsafe environment argument was reportedly shot down at the hearing, when Mr Nazaire was asked why some of the contact details on the original complaint were not his, but those of Brett Gibbs, at that time Prenda’s local counsel in California. This is a big no-no under Federal rules, and the threatening behaviour Mr Nazaire was worried about? A single mocking email, he admitted to the court; we at TorrentFreak get trolled more by Piracy fans…

He has since doubled-down on these arguments as well, filing this morning that any sort of discourse or discussion (as required by law for certain things) is impossible, because

The telephone and live conversations will more than likely be taped and played on the internet. The confidential matters discussed via email will more than likely be posted as a publicity campaign on the internet.

It’s a reiteration of a claim made by Nazaire to the judge in the hearing – that of the poor bullied lawyer – and was dismissed by the judge at the time. Unfortunately it’s a technique they are too well associated with, having basically bullied thousands of defendants into paying settlements, or else have their names ‘posted as a publicity campaign on the Internet’.

While the evidence in so far is convincing, it’s by no means conclusive. Discovery won’t end until September 5th, so there’s bound to be more revelations. However, few can probably be as disturbing as the thought of a lawyer having steelefamilylaw.com on one hand, and trannyboyswholovetheirtoys.com on the other. Meanwhile a crowdfunding effort is in progress for depositions to be made of Mark Lutz, and others, to really get to the bottom of things.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

When a federal judge’s contempt for a case is illustrated via a sanctions order littered with sci-fi references it doesn’t bode well for any attorney on the receiving end. Any judge that finds the time to do this is not doing it because he’s bored, but because he’s highly motivated to do so. The shenanigans of Prenda and its associates certainly rankled Judge Wright, and prompted him to make Steele and friends the subject of derision.

In the order, Judge Wright demolishes the claims of Brett Gibbs, by doing simple things like “looking them up on Google.” To demonstrate his point, the Judge includes a handy screen capture from Google Maps, pointing out that one of Gibbs’ statements was “a blatant lie.”

Towards the end, he starts laying down the damages, starting with attorney’s fees. Judge Wright assigned fees and costs totaling $40,659.86 to be paid to defense attorneys Morgan Pietz and Nicholas Ranallo. While that’s more than many expected, he then doubled the amount as a punitive measure, meaning a grand total of $81,319.72 will have to be paid by some combination of the plaintiffs (Steele, Duffy, Hansmeier, Gibbs, the shell companies and lawfirms) on or before May 20th.

And that’s not all. Judge Wright will also be referring the matter to the US Attorney for Central California requesting a RICO (racketeering) investigation, notifying all judges where plaintiffs have cases, and, as we noted a month ago, the IRS. Finally, there will also be disciplinary requests made to state and federal bars.

While some would have liked the order to have gone even further, its restraint will make it less likely to be overturned on appeal.

The next question is whether the Prenda ‘mob’ will pay up, or have another excuse to join the legion put forward so far. For that we’ll have to wait two weeks, if not more.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Nevertheless, while the spectacle may have proven bloodless on the day, the long-term outcome is likely to be fatal. For a detailed report and all the gory details look no further than Ken White’s on Popehat.

We’ll have to wait and see what Judge Otis Wright has planned for the world’s most hated copyright trolls, but in the meantime it seems that other governmental departments might be taking a keen interest in the latest Prenda events.

A Tweet from Ken White suggests that courts in other districts are taking an interest.

…and a a response from FightCopyrightTrolls suggests that things are about to get a whole lot worse.

A free gift to anyone who can link to a comment which shows sympathy for Prenda.

No, thought not…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

After the March 11 case, many were expecting a heavy-handed battle of wits between Judge Otis Wright II and John Steele and co in court today. Popcorn was popped, the legal bloggers were in court, and fingers eagerly danced on keyboards waiting for twitter updates.

Speculation was rife beforehand as to who would actually turn up and what would be said. Would the participants even injure themselves to avoid having to speak?

We didn’t have to wait long.

12 minutes was all it lasted. Just as people were settling down from the initial speculation, the word came out.

Understandably, Judge Write was not happy and adjourned the case. What little he was reported to say was fairly scathing to the Prenda mob, although we have no transcript to put it in context (yet).

What Judge Wright has in mind though, we can only speculate. Some believe a criminal case will be opened, based on the judges response of ‘taking Steele at his word’ when he plead the 5th. Others believe he’ll just hold them in contempt.

Of course, there’s a new player in this as well. Some reports have mentioned an IRS investigator, from the Money Laundering unit there. If so, that could be an even BIGGER world of hurt than anything Judge Wright could deal out.

All in all, not a good day for Team Prenda

This is a breaking story and will be updated as we get more info.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

After their no-show earlier this month the world’s most famous trolls will now have to appear in court April 2 for what FightCopyrightTrolls is calling the Prendacalypse.

And as if matters couldn’t get any worse, Hitler just found out that the hawks are circling…

Video starring Hitler, Judge Otis, FightCopyrightTrolls and DieTrollDie, with a special guest appearance by Popehat.

Credit: @doeanonnony

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

After their no-show Monday they will all have to appear in court on March 29 to face the music, but in the meantime the U.S. copyright troll epidemic continues, this time in California.

In a fresh lawsuit filed by attorney Boden Davidson on behalf of his client Contra Piracy, it is claimed that thousands of individuals downloaded and shared the 50 Cent movie All Things Fall Apart. The anti-piracy outfit said it obtained the “enforcement rights” from Los Angeles-based Hannibal Pictures.

Contra Piracy claim to have monitored 2,919 individuals infringing All Things Fall Apart on more than 280,000 occasions. They say they cannot identify these people without the help of ISPs, so they are seeking the court’s help in this respect.

Adding interest to the case is that Contra Piracy are based in Switzerland. They say they are a non-profit group that brings together ‘independent members’ such as technology companies, law firms and copyright owners in order to reduce piracy.

Of course, a lack of profit isn’t usually a feature of copyright trolling. In this case Contra want an absolute minimum of $5,000 from each target in the hope they will reclaim at least $7,500,000. That is $500,000 more than the movie cost to make.

To collect its evidence Contra Piracy used anti-piracy monitoring company Logistep, a company that became infamous in the UK for its connections to troll pioneer law firm Davenport Lyons. Logistep was later banned from monitoring alleged pirates in its home country.

Contra Piracy / Logistep have provided the court with a huge list of IP addresses allegedly used to share the movie and it’s quite the who’s-who of United States ISPs. America Online, AT&T, BellSouth, Verizon, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Road Runner, Qwest, T-Mobile, Sprint – they’re all here. In fact, Contra want disclosure from a claimed 61 ISPs, which may well be a record in this type of case.

However, in addition to targeting thousands of regular domestic subscribers, Contra Piracy is revisiting the ‘bad old days’ of RIAA lawsuits by targeting educational establishments too.

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, private Roman Catholic arts college The College of Saint Elizabeth, the Francis Marion arts university, University of West Florida, Lamar University, Wilberforce University and Montclair State University are all listed.

Secured Servers LLC web hosting company also makes an appearance, which could possibly be down to a customer running a seedbox. The Ingersoll Rand company can also expect a call.

How the universities involved will respond to Contra Piracy remains to be seen, but they may have to be compliant in order to show that they are worthy of federal funding.

Finally, we ran a few checks on Contra Piracy and found a couple of interesting things with their domain owner “Thomas Zeeck”. Not only does he own the Contrapiracy.com domain, he also owns domains which trade on the names of the German and Swiss pirate parties – Piraten-Partei-Deutschland.com and Piratenpartei-Schweiz.org

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The company has subjected hundreds of individuals to intense misery with their actions so it was no surprise that a few hours ago Twitter was alive with people eagerly waiting news of a Prenda bloodbath.

Although there was no immediate execution, the crowds didn’t go home disappointed. Developments were relayed in detail by Ken at Popehat who described the Los Angeles courtroom as playing host to “one of the most remarkable hearings I have ever witnessed.”

The subject of the hearing was Judge Wright’s Order to Show Cause, which gave former Prenda counsel Brett Gibbs opportunity to show why he and other members of the Prenda outfit should not be sanctioned for misconduct.

Ken reported a packed courthouse with the press, Electronic Frontier Foundation and former Prenda victims all in attendance. Gibbs turned up too but John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, Paul Duffy and paralegal Angela Van Den Hemel of Prenda did not, despite being ordered to do so by the judge.

Proceedings were started by Judge Wright who turned to a deposition submitted by Prenda’s Paul Hansmeier. “There was so much obstruction in this deposition that it’s obvious that someone has an awful lot to hide,” he said.

Prenda did have an attorney present but she didn’t have much to do. Heather Rosing offered to get the Prenda guys to participate via the phone, but the Judge didn’t take up the opportunity.

Someone else physically in the court room was Alan Cooper, a former employee of John Steele who accuses Steele of stealing his identity for use in Prenda cases. Cooper said that Steele had told him he wanted to make $10,000 a day from alleged downloaders but he didn’t know much more about the plan. Cooper noted that he’d never been involved in the scheme and that signatures purporting to be his were faked.

Cooper also told the court what happened when his lawyer Paul Godfread informed Prenda that he would sue over the theft of his identity. Quickly John Steel was on the telephone time and again, texting and leaving messages. Some of those messages were played for the court.

“On hearing the voice messages, I thought there was only one reasonable interpretation,” says Ken at Popehat.

“John Steele was trying to menace and intimidate Alan Cooper to get him to back off from talking about John Steele’s use of his name. By the end of the calls, there was a stunned silence in the courtroom, and I suspected that many spectators were sharing with me a deep sympathy for Mr. Cooper and an abiding sense of revulsion for John Steele.”

And then Prenda’s position got even worse.

Judge Wright had earlier put a stop on Prenda obtaining the personal details of alleged file-sharers from AT&T and Verizon and had ordered Prenda to inform the ISPs of his order. Prenda insisted that they had done so but that was contested. Lawyers for the ISPs took the stand and said that Prenda had never given them Judge Wright’s order and had continued to press for customer identities instead. Verizon actually handed them over.

“Judge Wright made Gibbs admit that Gibbs found out that the ISPs had produced documents to Prenda Law after Judge Wright’s order, and never updated the court about that or amended his prior status report to the court,” explains Popehat. “To put it mildly, Judge Wright was not happy about that.”

In a further deterioration, Judge Wright addressed the maze of Prenda “clients” and noted that none of them made any money.

“The only entities getting funds are law firms,” he said, suggesting that by hiding their true interests in these cases Prenda were violating federal rules. Judge Wright later quipped that the seven hour-long deposition of Prenda’s Paul Hansmeier revealed nothing of any use. “Mr. Hansmeier has no knowledge of anything,” he said.

Attention then turned to Paul Gibbs who described himself as a legal contractor to Prenda Law. Unsurprisingly his relationship with the company was also less than straightforward, with Prenda also using Gibbs’ name without permission on settlement claims sent to alleged file-sharers.

After getting no joy from his request for the activity to stop Gibbs said he quit and handed over the cases to Prenda’s Paul Duffy, but Gibbs knowingly allowed Prenda to use his phone number and email address in other cases and offered help to other lawyers. “That doesn’t sound sensible to me,” said the Judge.

IP address evidence was also touched on. Judge Wright questioned Gibbs on how alleged downloaders were identified and concluded that his methodology was entirely insufficient.

And thanks again to Ken at Popehat for relaying this next gem. During the hearing a member of the audience asked to be heard, an apparently unusual event. Rather than being admonished by the Judge he was allowed to speak. He explained he was an attorney for Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper’s attorney, and gave some information on Paul Gibbs which appeared to contradict Gibbs’ earlier testimony.

“Have you noticed that every representation made by a lawyer with Prenda Law is not true?” responded Judge Wright. Ouch.

So what does all this mean? The general consensus is that Prenda are in big trouble, but we’ll have to wait to find out exactly how much when Judge Wright files his response in due course.

“[Judge Wright] could probably sanction the Prenda Law parties under his inherent authority based on their supervision of Gibbs. But I suspect Judge Wright will go further than that, with criminal referrals and messages to various state bars,” Popehat notes.

“There could also be further orders to show cause, or even bench warrants. Judge Wright didn’t seem inclined to give them warning. But every indication is that they are in real legal peril.”

If the remarks on Twitter last evening were anything to go by, no one outside Prenda themselves will be disappointed if the punishments are as harsh as possible. To be disliked is not uncommon, but Prenda appear to have not a single supporter, an indication of how reviled they have become.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

They ordered WordPress to hand over the IP addresses of everyone who has used both sites for the last two years. But, after a little panic, WordPress stepped in to calm the nerves.

“No cause for concern. As a matter of policy, we closely review all subpoenas, don’t respond to overly broad requests, and push back on fishing expeditions,” WordPress’s Paul Sieminski told DTD.

“Here – dietrolldie has already let us know that the subpoena will be challenged. In cases like this, we don’t turn over any information until the user’s legal challenge has played out.”

What is becoming apparent is that for every heavy-handed and/or suspect action taken by Prenda, even more adversaries come on board. Lawyer John Whitaker from the Whitaker Law Group deliberately ‘outed‘ himself as a DTD and FCT user yesterday, and BitTorrent defense lawyer Robert Cashman is more critical than ever before.

As yesterday’s article outlined, Monday will see Prenda hauled before a Los Angeles court on the orders of Judge Wright after he appeared to become somewhat tired of the firm’s apparent shenanigans.

Well, that was the plan. Unsurprisingly, Prenda have other ideas.

In an ex parte application for relief filed by John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, Paul Duffy and Angela Van Den Hemel, Prenda argue that they shouldn’t have to come to court on Monday. In their application, Prenda roll out a variety of excuses for not attending.

First, in a move that’s likely to further inflame an already irritated Judge Wright, Prenda claim that the Judge has no jurisdiction.

“Even where the court seeks to adjudicate issues between parties, it must have personal jurisdiction over them. Here, Steele, Hansmeier, Duffy, and Van Den Hemel are not parties and have not otherwise participated in this litigation. As such, the public policy behind the need to determine personal jurisdiction is arguably at an elevated level because, as individuals, they effectively have ‘no dog in this fight’,” the application reads.

Prenda go on to argue that since they’re not parties in the action they can only be witnesses. And since witnesses can only be required to appear if they are “resident within the state at the time of service” (and Prenda aren’t, apparently), then “the court lacks jurisdiction to order them to appear.”

Second, Prenda say that attending would be particularly inconvenient. They write that the court is being “fundamentally unreasonable” in giving short notice and that attending court could upset their clients.

Prenda go on to argue that they haven’t been told why they have to attend so cannot adequately prepare, a situation which deprives them of due process. They also complain that they are entitled to get paid for attending but the court order makes no mention of who will foot the bill.

“For these reasons, even if the court had jurisdiction over the parties, the notice would be unreasonable to them and the court would, at a minimum, have to withdraw the order and issue a new one for a future date that would afford Steele, Hansmeier, Duffy, and Van Den Hemel reasonable notice of the hearing, their rights, and the purpose for their appearance,” Prenda conclude.

Ken, a writer over at the respected legal blog Popehat, is not impressed.

“Considering they have had several days to put a brief together, I find this motion rather half-hearted and meager, particularly given the gravity of the situation and what they are trying to accomplish. If this is all they could pull together, I am surprised they didn’t file it sooner, like Wednesday,” he writes.

Ken adds that the record shows that jurisdiction is not an issue and Prenda are only making matters worse.

“The evidence clearly shows that Steele, Hansmeier, and Duffy have directed Prenda Law litigation activities in California. A federal judge has ordered them to appear here and explain those activities.

“By responding with a jurisdictional argument now, they have utterly eviscerated their credibility and the credibility of their enterprise permanently in every court in the United States of America,” he concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Their work is appreciated by few outside of their inner circle and often frowned upon by fellow law firms, copyright owners and the public, who see their work as one step away from outright extortion.

While they have enemies everywhere, some of the trolls’ greatest adversaries are their victims. Once you’ve threatened to turn someone’s life upside down with a claim for thousands of dollars, pounds or euros, relationships aren’t really the same ever again. And an enemy empowered by the Internet, one of the greatest game levelers today, soon gets momentum.

In the United States some of the most motivated troll fighters are to be found on two sites, FightCopyrightTrolls and DieTrollDie. Their aims are simple. To keep the public and fellow victims informed and to ensure that through activism, trolls make as little money as possible.

Needless to say, trolls do not like this kind of opposition. It hurts their bottom line. And now, in the middle of what is probably the most bizarre case there has ever been in troll history, one outfit is coming out fighting – possibly for its life.

Prenda Law is in the middle of a mess so massive that to adequately describe the case in enough detail one needs to write many thousands of words. Fortunately, for those who want to catch up, the sites mentioned above have been keeping up to date, complimented brilliantly by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick and Ken’s excellent summary over at Popehat.

The TL;DR is that there is going to be an unprecedented showdown in a Los Angeles court on Monday that could lead to someone associated with Prenda going to prison.

“Based on the evidence presented at the March 11, 2013 hearing, the Court will consider whether sanctions [for Prenda Law] are appropriate, and if so, determine the proper punishment. This may include a monetary fine, incarceration, or other sanctions sufficient to deter future misconduct,” Judge Wright explained.

But while the blood of trolls may indeed flow on Monday, in the last few days Prenda have been going on the offensive.

Earlier this week FightCopyrightTrolls and DieTrollDie had a nasty surprise. Prenda decided to file three defamation lawsuits which according to FCT’s SophisticatedJaneDoe are “designed to chill free speech by burying [Prenda's] critics in massive legal fees.”

Two of the targets in the lawsuit are people involved in the proceedings due to go ahead on Monday, but also listed were a total of 10 John Does. So who are these mysterious characters?

Well, none other than the operators of DieTrollDie (DTD), FightCopyrightTrolls (FCT) and commenters on their sites. The beef? Seems Prenda don’t like criticism, or ‘defamation’ as they prefer to frame it.

On Wednesday, one of the cases – John Steele v. Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper and Does 1-10, FLSD 13-cv-20744 – was dismissed without prejudice by John Steele. The other two remain. Then yesterday, more surprising news.

It transpires that Prenda Law have sought information about DTD’s and FCT’s readers and commenters from WordPress, and not just the odd detail either.

“Dear Custodian of Records,” the Prenda subpoena to WordPress begins.

“Enclosed, please find a subpoena issued in the above-referenced matter, which is currently pending in the Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial St. Clair Couty, Illinois.

Our client is requesting all Internet Protocol addresses (including the date and time of that access in Universal Coordinated Time) that accessed the blogs located at diretrolldie.com and fightcopyrighttrolls.com between January 1, 2011 through the present.

Please provide this information in an Excel spreadsheet.”

That’s right, somehow Prenda want *everyone’s details*, whether they are involved in the lawsuit or not. DTD hope that WordPress won’t comply but are preparing their readers for the worst.

“As there is a possibility that a release could occur, the public IP address (date/time stamp) could fall into the hands of Prenda. I would expect that they would then try to cross-reference the IP address with their list of alleged BitTorrent infringement IP addresses,” DTD warn.

“If you have ever gone to this site or Fightcopyrighttrolls.com since 1 January 2011, you may want to contact WordPress and tell them you want them to refuse this overly broad request and at least wait until the issue of the case being removed to the Federal court is answered, before releasing ANY information,” DTD concludes.

So, faced with organized opposition from DTD and FightCopyrightTrolls, Prenda now appear to want to shut them down and quieten the critics. History tells us it won’t work.

This attack against all readers of those sites will only add fuel to the fire and serve to make the possibility of a terrible outcome for Prenda on Monday an even more delicious prospect.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.