The case is one of the porn-based BitTorrent lawsuits filed late last year by Ira M. Siegel using evidence from the Copyright Enforcement Group, ostensibly to ‘protect’ the work entitled Danielle Staub Raw – a sex tape featuring reality show star Danielle Staub.

The case, filed in the northern district of California, has piqued the judge’s attention on several fronts, no doubt in part due to the involvement of the EFF.

At a hearing late August, Judge Bernard Zimmerman expressed unhappiness with the lack of progress in the case, as well as the possibility that the case is really just a fishing scheme to get money. Siegel took umbrage at the suggestion, and went on to lambast the EFF as wanting “freedom from the tyranny of having to pay for content.”

The jurisdiction issue was another sticking point. Judge Zimmerman had trouble with Siegel’s claims that being in a BitTorrent swarm subjects people to nationwide jurisdiction. There was also concern stemming from the Plaintiff and the lawyer being based in southern California, while filing in northern California.

At the end of the hearing the Judge made an order requiring the presentation of several items of information including details of any settlements paid (the previous week Siegel had dismissed 68 defendants with prejudice, indicating a settlement), copies of all settlement demands sent out, details of the distribution of the work, and the hiring of the Copyright Enforcement Group.

Zimmerman’s concern; that courts are being used as collections agencies.

The response to this motion was due by the end of August but not only did Siegel miss the deadline by filing late, he failed to respond as required, and refused outright to reveal how much he has received in settlements. Furthermore, he began his lengthy response with a surprising attack on blogger Sophisticated Jane Doe, a defendant from another case who posts on the FightCopyrightTrolls.com blog.

Sophisticated Jane Doe has been covering developments in the current case and Siegel is clearly unhappy with that. He describes Jane Doe as someone “who wants to see roadblocks in the way of copyright enforcement” and takes issue with ‘her’ (Siegel points out that sex should not be taken for granted) use of terms and phrases such as “Troll”, “he extorted”, “most sinister” and references to “shameless” honeypot schemes.

“This is brought to the Court’s attention because it further illustrates that with which we are dealing: people pirating copyrighted works and otherwise engaging in tortious activity behind what they hope is the shield of anonymous IP addresses and the hurdles and expenses to which a copyright owner must go to uncover their identities,” Siegel writes.

Ironically, while Siegel criticizes FightCopyrightTrolls for having an anonymous WHOIS protected domain, Copyright Enforcement Group, the company Siegel works with in these cases, protects its domain in exactly the same manner.

Despite the attack, Sophisticated Jane Doe is pleased with the attention.

“Have you ever heard about [the] Streisand Effect, Mr. Siegel? The sole reason of my fight is to make sure my (and other victims’) side of the story is heard by judges, not to influence them, but to make sure their decisions are fair and balanced,” she writes in response.

“Now I have a huge helping hand from the least expected player: a troll! Thank you Mr. Siegel! Given the significance of this help, I even forgive you for the veiled threats you’ve extended towards me. I’m immune against threats, you should have known it if you read this blog carefully.”

Interestingly, according to Robert Cashman, a Texas lawyer defending dozens of individuals affected by these mass BitTorrent lawsuits, the late filing of a response in the case may have been deliberate.

“The question I keep asking myself is 1) was the late submission of a reply a purposeful attempt by Ira Siegel to give Judge Zimmerman a pretext to dismiss the case on grounds such as failing to properly respond?

“And, 2) would Siegel be willing to throw this case and risk it being dismissed in order to shield from the court how much money his client has made from settlements?” Cashman writes.

“In sum, there is a lot that is going on in these cases, and some days it feels more like drama, deception, and posturing rather than discussing the case on its merits. Judge Zimmerman appears to be trying to remedy this,” notes Cashman.

“While we will now wait and see if and how Judge Zimmerman responds to what he will no doubt see as blatant disregard to his order, I expect that Siegel’s latest move will result in a dismissal of his case. Perhaps it will even create some ripples in his other cases as well,” Cashman concludes.

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

The Czech dubbed version of The Simpsons Movie made it to BitTorrent trackers a few hours after its world premiere, followed by a Pirate Bay celebration. Due to the Czech Republic screening movie premieres on Thursdays, the Czech fans were amongst the first people worldwide to watch the movie.

The Bontonfilm company – the official Czech distributor of the movie – was apparently a bit surprised when a CAM version of the movie made it to various torrent sites including the Czech tracker MegaTorrent.cz and Sweden’s The Pirate Bay, just a few hours after its premiere.

As for quality, it’s a typical CAM version. People who have already seen this copy are saying that sound quality is satisfying for a CAM version. However, English speaking citizens are likely to be disappointed, its dubbed in Czech and there are no subtitles.

Representative of Bontonfilm Kristina Maixnerová said: “We’ve received an announcement from Czech Anti-Piracy Union that there has been made a recording of this movie directly in the cinema. At this point, it’s still unclear in which cinema, or who made the recording. As far as we know, this is the first case of this type of leak whatsoever in Czech Republic.” She also said that Bontonfilm will make a prosecution against the unknown offender (John Doe) on Monday.

Apparently, the guys at FOX international didn’t like the work of this unknown Simpsons fan either. As Maixnerová said: “Foreign reputation of Czech republic really suffered due this case. As FOX International stated, this will means tightening the security measures in Czech movie distribution.” Night vision goggles, anyone?

This is not the only piracy controversy to hit the Czech republic recently. A DVDrip of Czech film Vratne Lahve (Empties) leaked to the internet a few days ago. The special watermarked copy was originally sent by the Director of the movie to the Czech Culture Department for the purposes of review. Just after this it started showing up on BitTorrent.

As a Czech Homer Simpson might say: “SáákryÅ¡!”

(doh!)

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

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