In Federal courtroom 9W, in downtown Minneapolis’s US courthouse, a somewhat bluster-filled hearing dealt more blows to Prenda law, and their clients AF holdings. Two bombshells stood out; That AF Holdings “CEO” Mark Lutz has gone missing, and that even members of Steele’s family are working against him.

While most of the hearing proceeded as a normal smear-fest for Steele and co, attempting to discredit caretaker-turned- ID theft victim Alan Cooper (a strategy that has largely failed in every other court it’s been attempted in) the revelations about who tipped Cooper off to his name being used really stunned some people, chief amongst them Steele himself.

Cooper was alerted by a text from a “Kim Eckenrud” (spelling unknown) who sent a copy of a document with Coopers signature on with the advice to get an attorney. Kim is John Steele’s mother in law. Steele later tried to dismiss this, saying she’s religious and a frequent poster on anti-troll sites, who disapproves of his porn work. Or it could also be the work of Anonymous Pirates on the Internet, resorting back to the claims of internet bullying that have been echoed in other Prenda/AF Holdings cases.

To underscore this, he had earlier recounted a tale where someone posted a picture of his house and child, with the message “Best caliber to kill Steele’s family? When and Where?“. That was also why he stopped practicing law, because of threats from pirate blogs, he claimed, choking up and having to stop for water. He did seem to be silent about the police’s reaction to it though.

It was not the only bombshell of the day however, as when it came time for AF Holdings CEO Mark Lutz to testify, he was nowhere to be found. It’s reminiscent of a month earlier, when he failed to show up after being order to appear in San Francisco, and no-one knew where he was. Then it turned out he was ‘detained’ at the airport for 16+ hours without being allowed to contact his attorney. This time though, no-one knows where he is. Steele went to pick him up (as they were on the same flight, and produced the boarding pass to the judge as proof) and he wasn’t at home.

While there were no rulings, as yet, it doesn’t look good for Prenda, and the associated principles. The hearing’s order stated that the burden on proof was on Steele&co to prove the documents legitimate, which they completely failed to do, providing zero evidence beyond character assassination via hearsay.Despite Steele then driving around Miami looking for him, he was still missing, and has now missed three different court-ordered appearances.

This has led some to speculate that he’s now not only been thrown under the bus, by his Prenda cohorts, but possibly under some concrete as well (although Steele did refrain for speculating that Anonymous Internet Pirates had kidnapped him)

Additionally, with Steele testifying on issues he’d previously “taken the Fifth” for in California, he may have doomed his appeal in that case, and possibly opened himself up for a contempt motion (by answering he may have nullified his 5th plea, turning it into refusal to answer a question)

All in all, not a good day for Steele and co, and certainly not a performance worthy of the ‘big leagues’.

Thanks to johnhenrylawyer and Nancy Sims for the courtroom reporting

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.

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.

Websites can be the bane of many, and they’ve not always been the friend of copyright trolls. ACS:Law was ripped apart after an attack on its website left it with a partial email archive, including admissions that their evidence was useless, and that they targeted people on their ability to pay.

Now it’s the site of Prenda / Steele-Hassemeier / Alpha Law Firm / Anti-Piracy Law Group (if you’re confused by that, this chart might come in handy)  that’s been under attack. While the Steele/Duffy/Gibbs roadshow has been eager to follow Crossleys example of speculative invoicing, they’ve put off the site-attack, or had, until now.

Fightcpyright trolls reported that on Tuesday, the site of the under-bridge-dwelling litigators included a nice little bonus – a redirect to the Pirate Bay (wherever in the world it was being hosted)

The Javascript-based redirect wasn’t the only goody to hit the site, as visitors to the stock-image-dominated site are inundated with popups for Godaddy’s previewDNS service.

This has led some to speculate that the attack was an inside job, set to garner sympathy or allow blame to be placed and attacks to be made. After all, such a move isn’t exactly unprecedented from these lawyers.

Extreme gamblers might see it as indications that some semblance of humanity remains yet to be transformed into a troll, and is trapped in the company screaming for help. The Lottery is a better bet, though.

Of course, it could be an outside group, acting maliciously, but where is the motivation?

After all, what has this law firm ever done to anyone besides using a web of shell corporations to try and extort thousands of dollars from tens of thousands of people – some they’ve admitted are innocent – by abusing the legal system through sham litigation in an attempt to encourage out-of-court settlements or default judgement through extreme pornography and exaggerated threats, all the while bilking the court system of tens of thousands in filing fees through improper joinder? And when someone stands up to the bullies, they dismiss the case leaving the accused massively out-of-pocket. Can’t see what problem anyone would have with that. I mean, it’s not like they shared a film or anything serious like that.

Regardless, if Steele and Co are following the Crossley plan, then soon after the website attack comes disgrace, and punishment. We’ll see next week.

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

Copyright Troll lawyer John Steele tried to avoid this fate by doing a little editing of past entries on his corporate site.

Just over 4 years ago, Steele wrote an article about an opposing “bully” counsel in a family law case. However, you now can only read his complaint with some difficulty.

As noted by Fightcopyrighttrolls, Steele has deleted the post since the start of June. Luckily, the page still exists in Google’s cache, as shown here.

He does note early on that “I suppose I can see how being an ass might get you somewhere if you are up against a pro se party who has no idea of what is happening, or maybe a timid transaction attorney…”

This could explain why in recent years, he has decided to adopt that persona?

The probable reason for deletion is the last paragraph, which harms his bottom line.

“Standing up to a bully, whether some blowhard attorney, or an 8th grader feels good. Try it sometime.”

Good advice for anyone who has had one of these bullies try and shake them down.

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

Perhaps the most eye-catching is the setup used by a company called MCGIP. Unlike others, MCGIP have not produced any films themselves, but they ‘lease’ content from third parties and use this license to sue alleged copyright infringers. And that’s just the beginning.

What’s also noteworthy is that MCGIP is located in the same building as the Media Copyright Group (MCG), the outfit that collects the IP-adresses that serve as the former’s evidence. And coincidentally, MCG’s top technician Peter Hansmeier is the brother of lawyer Paul Hansmeier, who is a partner at Steele Hansmeier, the law firm that filed the lawsuits on behalf of MCGIP.

To top it off, Paul Hansmeier is also a partner at Alpha Law Firm, which also resides in the IDS tower in downtown Minneapolis, the same office where MCGIP and MCG are housed.

Last month the above findings were presented in an article here on TorrentFreak, in the secret hope that this peculiar operation would be brought to the attention of the courts. But when we decided to look at the various MCGIP cases against BitTorrent users this week, we were in for a surprise.

It turns out that in the month after our article was published, to the best of our knowledge MCGIP voluntarily dismissed (e.g.) all (but one) of their remaining cases, about a dozen with hundreds of defendants in total. This is peculiar to say the least, especially since in some cases the court had already granted MCGIP the right to subpoena Internet providers for the personal details of the defendants.

Why would they dismiss the cases when they are so close to “the money”?

Although we can only speculate as to why all these cases were suddenly dismissed, it might be concluded that our article was well-timed. There is no solid evidence to suggest that our report had anything to do with MCGIP’s sudden decision to drop their mass-BitTorrent lawsuits, but it’s yet another coincidence to add to this case.

So does this mean that BitTorrent users have nothing to fear anymore from these copyright trolls? Not per se. It has to be noted that all cases were voluntarily dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they can be filed again later on. But perhaps even more troubling, the key players are still heavily invested in other cases.

Peter Hansmeier’s Media Copyright Group (MCG) is collecting evidence in many other cases where the law firm of his brother Paul Hansmeier and John Steele are acting as legal counsel. They make their money one way or the other, and as long as it pays off we doubt that they will stop or slow down.

A small battle may have been won, but the war will undoubtedly continue.

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

Last year, for example, the U.S Copyright Group ripped off the website of a competitor. They copied the design and code of the Copyright Enforcement Group and passed it off as their own. Only when we called them out on it did they remove all “infringing” content.

But the US Copyright Group are not the only infringing lawyers, there are plenty more.

The most recent example uncovers the copyright disregard of one the most active anti-piracy lawyers, John Steele. In less than a year Steele and his partner filed dozens of mass-lawsuits targeting thousands of BitTorrent users, but apparently their targets aren’t the only ones with a habit of copying content without permission.

In the settlement letters that Steele sends to alleged copyright infringers there’s a frequently asked questions section. Contrary to what one might expect, these questions were not written by Steele himself. Like the U.S. Copyright Group, Steele went for the lazy option and simply ripped off the FAQ section penned by the Copyright Enforcement Group.

Below is a comparison of the questions ‘stolen’ by Steele, which clearly reveals that they are identical.

TorrentFreak contacted the Copyright Enforcement Group to ask whether Steele has permission to use their copyrighted text, and we were told that he doesn’t. In fact, the Copyright Enforcement Group told us that they may take steps to prevent Steele from blatantly ‘stealing’ their work in the future.

So there we have it.

A notorious anti-piracy lawyer who claims to have spent as much as $250,000 to develop a BitTorrent tracking tool, doesn’t even bother to write his own settlement letters. In theory one could argue that he’s profiting from infringing the work of others, something that’s not taken lightly by the courts nowadays.

A quick search further reveals that Steele and his partner are not the only one who ripped off the FAQ from the Copyright Enforcement Group. Another group, operating under the name Copyright Action Network has done the same, again without permission from the copyright holders.

Oh the irony…

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

Lawyers, the public and consumer advocacy groups have compared these practices to extortion, but nonetheless new cases are still being filed every month. This week, however, an interesting ruling was handed down by District Court Judge Harold Baker that, if adopted by other judges, may become a major roadblock for similar mass-lawsuits.

In the case VPR Internationale v. Does 1-1017, the judge denied the Canadian adult film company access to subpoena ISPs for the personal information connected to the IP-addresses of their subscribers. The reason? IP-addresses do not equal persons, and especially in ‘adult entertainment’ cases this could obstruct a ‘fair’ legal process.

Among other things Judge Baker cited a recent child porn case where the U.S. authorities raided the wrong people, because the real offenders were piggybacking on their Wi-Fi connections. Using this example, the judge claims that several of the defendants in VPR’s case may have nothing to do with the alleged offense either.

“The infringer might be the subscriber, someone in the subscriber’s household, a visitor with her laptop, a neighbor, or someone parked on the street at any given moment,” Judge Baker writes.

Although the above logic applies to all BitTorrent lawsuits that are currently ongoing, the matter becomes especially delicate when the alleged offense is sharing rather explicit adult titles.

“Orin Kerr, a professor at George Washington University Law School, noted that whether you’re guilty or not, you look like a suspect. Could expedited discovery be used to wrest quick settlements, even from people who have done nothing wrong?” Judge Baker writes.

Judge Baker further notes that “the embarrassment of public exposure might be too great, the legal system too daunting and expensive, for some to ask whether the plaintiff VPR has competent evidence to prove its case.”

Baker concludes by saying that his Court is not supporting a “fishing expedition” for subscribers’ details if there is no evidence that it has jurisdiction over the defendants.

Although the ruling is definitely a setback for the copyright holders in mass-BitTorrent lawsuits, it has yet to be seen whether other judges will reach the same conclusion in future cases. If that happens, the end of this type of lawsuit in the U.S. may be near.

Texas lawyer Robert Cashman, who represents several defendants in similar lawsuits, agrees that the ruling can be a potential game changer.

“We may have just seen the order that may end all future John Doe lawsuits,” he commented in a response.

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