A few months after the first cases were started the tables were turned. One of the alleged pirates sued the lawyers for fraud, abuse and extortion, due to their role in the “copyright troll” scheme.

Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver were named in a class-action lawsuit together with movie studio Achte/Neunte and the German tracking company GuardaLey, who together went after thousands of people who allegedly downloaded and shared the movie ‘Far Cry’ using BitTorrent.

Through the lawsuit, spearheaded by Dmitriy Shirokov, the troll victims were seeking relief based on 25 counts including extortion, fraudulent omissions, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud and abuse, racketeering, fraud upon the court, fraud on the Copyright Office, copyright misuse and unjust enrichment.

Among other things, the “copyright trolls” were accused of building their case on shoddy evidence and a false copyright registration.

Last year the Massachusetts District Court denied the class action, which meant the case continued with Shirokov as the only plaintiff. This severely limited the scope of the verdict. However, after more than three years Shirokov did win his case.

During the proceedings, where the law firm remained as the only defendant, it became clear that Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver could not present critical pieces of evidence. The company claimed that the requested documents were lost in a computer crash.

As a result, the law firm had no other option than to concede defeat, which it did through an offer of judgement. In a recent ruling Judge George O’Toole ordered Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver to pay $39,909.95, which includes attorney fees.

TorrentFreak spoke with Jason Sweet, whose firm Booth Sweet represented Shirokov. Sweet notes that the outcome is a “bittersweet victory,” as the class action status was denied earlier. Also, the awarded fees are a far cry from those requested.

Nevertheless, Shrirokov and his legal team are happy with the outcome. Their main goal was to make it harder for copyright trolls to operate in Massachusetts, and they believe that was achieved.

“The case did accomplish what we wanted it to. That is, to deter others from starting similar cases in Massachusetts. It served its purpose,” Sweet tells TF. While the case does not mark the end of copyright trolling schemes in the United States, it won’t make them any easier either.

As for Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver, they will now have to pay their dues. The law firm has left the copyright trolling trade already, and the recent verdict makes it unlikely that they will ever return.

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

The lawyers in question track alleged BitTorrent pirates and threaten to take them to court. But, as is common with these schemes, all people have to do is pay up a settlement fee and the whole thing simply goes away.

Critics of these practices have described the people involved as ‘copyright trolls,’ and some of the defendants are fighting back. DGW, for example, is currently involved in a class action lawsuit where the law firm is accused of fraud, abuse and extortion.

Considering the above, it came as a surprise when we learned this morning that the DGW law firm is presenting an educational webinar under the umbrella of the American Bar Association. Titled “Finding Anonymous Copyright Infringers,” the course promises to teach fellow lawyers all the tricks they need to catch those pesky pirates.

According to the announcement, part of the webinar will “focus on the hot topic in copyright litigation involving federal litigation against the backdrop of torrent and live web-streaming.” During the webinar participating lawyers will learn more about “utilizing pre-discovery subpoenas [...] and a variety of other legal tools to pursue infringement claims against anonymous infringers.”

Basically it reads like a crash course on how to become a copyright troll by the very people who pioneered the scheme in the US. Lawyers who participate in the webinar are eligible for mandatory CLE credit, and we expect that the ‘teachers’ will be compensated for their insights as well.

DGW lawyers Thomas Dunlap and Nick Kurtz will be accompanied by the EFF friendly defense lawyer Paul Ticen. He is expected to address how BitTorrent users have put up a successful defense in court, which is a dangerous exercise considering the negative framing of the course.

This vision is shared by Robert Cashman, a Texas lawyer defending dozens of individuals in mass BitTorrent lawsuits.

“It seems awfully dangerous and stupid to get on a panel with the plaintiff attorney copyright trolls and tell them all of the defense’s strategies,” he told TorrentFreak.

“The way this whole thing is set up, I am afraid it will be the plaintiff attorneys versus the lone defense attorney. I expect to see bloodshed,” he added.

Whatever the outcome, we encourage participants in the course to fill us in on the details. Heck, we might even buy the CD-Rom, which will obviously be pirated by an anonymous Doe in the near future.

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

This scheme was pioneered in the US by the law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, aka the U.S. Copyright Group (USCG), but recently it has been replicated by several other lawyers across the country. A few days ago, USCG filed a round of new lawsuits on behalf of another major client, Nu Image, the studio behind the action flick The Expendables.

After The Hurt Locker, The Expendables is the first major film release associated with this type of legal action. It is also one of the largest mass P2P lawsuits that was ever started, with a total of 6,500 unidentified defendants (Does). All defendants are suspected of having shared The Expendables on BitTorrent in recent months.

The complaint, filed by Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver at the District Court of Columbia, further appears to be copied from previous cases. It starts off with describing how BitTorrent works, and goes on to explain how the defendants have used this technology to distribute The Expendables without permission of the copyright holder.

As with previous cases, the true purpose of the lawsuits is not to start a full trial, but to obtain the personal details of the customers who are linked to the “infringing” IP-addresses. A classic pay-up-or-else scheme, or exploiting the legal system for commercial gain as others have described the process.

There is no doubt that involvement in this type of lawsuit will lead to the creation of a negative image for the studio among the general public, but on the flip side the revenue potential is enormous. If 80 percent of all defendants pay a $2,000 settlement, the plaintiffs would earn more than $10 million, which equals 10% of the total box office grosses in the US.

And there is potential for even more revenue.

Even today, five months after a high quality copy of The Expendables became available on BitTorrent, the movie is still being downloaded by a few thousand people every day. This means that there’s enough potential to sue tens of thousands additional BitTorrent users in the future, if the courts permit it of course.

The latter is a question that is likely to be answered in the months to come. Already, law firms involved in these mass lawsuits are meeting resistance from consumer rights organisations and judges. With more cases being entered month after month, the pressure on the legal system is increasing at a rapid rate too.

In the UK, where these pay-up-or-else practices began back in 2007, legal setbacks, incompetence and pressure from the public eventually led to the fall of the most prominent anti-piracy law firms ACS:Law. With the spotlight now on the US, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver and the other law firms that are involved better brace themselves.

BitTorrent users who receive a subpoena are advised to contact a legal representative, the EFF has some good advice to start with.

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

After having attacked the RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, BSA, ACS:LAW and many others, attention shifted towards the US law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver this week. The firm, which started thousands of lawsuits against BitTorrent users under the name US Copyright Group (USCG) this year, is best known for pursuing alleged downloaders of the Oscar-winning movie The Hurt Locker.

Two days ago a group of Anonymous/4chan users called for a DDoS attack on the website of the law firm under the flag of ‘Operation Payback’. Minutes later it was taken down together with their email server. Although the site slowly recovered after a few hours, the trouble for the Leesburg-based law firm were far from over.

Thursday afternoon an email containing a bomb threat was sent to the law firm, whose employees contacted the police. In a swift response from the local police, members from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Loudoun County Fire Marshall’s Office evacuated the building.

Several dogs trained in detecting explosives were brought in, but after a thorough sweep of the office no explosive devices were found. After the building was cleared detectives remained on the scene and the police said they will investigate the threat further.

Police spokesman Chris Jones said that the content of the bomb threat email was vague and that no specific reasons for targeting the law firm were given. However, considering the previous DDoS attack on the firm and the prank calls other anti-piracy outfits received, the sender of the email could conceivably be connected to (or inspired by) Operation Payback.

Earlier this week TorrentFreak spoke to one of the people connected to the (DDoS) operation to find out why Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver was included as a target. “They’re all anti-piracy lawyers,” was the non-disguising answer we got. “Think of Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver as of ACS:Law, but in the USA,” Anonymous commented, linking the Leesburg firm to the UK lawyers whose emails ended up on the streets after a DDoS attack.

According to the police report, no direct link between Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver’s anti-piracy efforts and the bomb threat has been made yet. Leesburg Police Department is offering a cash reward to anyone who can help solve the case. People are encouraged to report leads to the police by calling (703) 771-4500. Anonymous calls can be placed at (703) 443-TIPS.

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