US Copyright Group Sued For Extortion, Conspiracy & Fraud
from the class-action dept
Well, the whole mass automated "pay up or we'll sue" legal business may be getting a bit more interesting as Evan Brown notes that one of the folks sued by US Copyright Group has struck back with a class action lawsuit alleging that the law firm behind USCG, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, is engaged in extortion, fraud and conspiracy. The lawsuit looks to include in the class the nearly 5,000 people sued by USCG for sharing the Uwe Boll film Far Cry. The lawsuit highlights -- as we pointed out earlier this year -- many of the alleged infringements happened prior to registration, meaning that there would be no statutory damages available. However, USCG didn't bother to mention that and still used the statutory damages threat in its letters:This knowing misstatement of material information was made to maximize the damage awards that Defendants could pursue, the claims for Ineligible Remedies they could threaten in demand letters, and the volume and amount of extorted "settlements" that would result.The lawsuit then uses DGW's own professed "copyright expertise" against it, noting that it clearly was aware of the rules concerning registration and statutory damages, even though it knew that it had no right to statutory damages, and thus, committed fraud and extortion.
Oh yeah... one part of the fraud, according to the lawsuit, is that DGW submitted the Far Cry copyright registration with a false "first date of publication" (which is a key date in whether or not they could go after statutory damages). Thus, the lawsuit claims, DGW/USCG actually committed fraud on the US Copyright Office.
To be honest, I'm guessing that the likelihood of this lawsuit getting very far is slim. Such is the nature of such charges in the past. However, it does appear that this one has a lot more going for it than other similar lawsuits, given the late copyright registration, which really does look bad for USCG. No matter what, this will be an interesting case to watch. The full lawsuit is included after the jump.
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Filed Under: copyright, extortion, fraud, lawsuits, uwe boll
Companies: dunlap grubb & weaver, us copyright group
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US Copyright Group Sued For Extortion, Conspiracy & Fraud
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Hell yes it's RICO.
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Hell yes it's RICO.
I love it too. I actually think it has teeth and it's not going away anytime soon. US Copyright Group shouldn't be sending out settlement letters threatening statutory damages if statutory damages aren't on the table. Shame on them. They deserve this one.
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Standing
Was there anything in there about an actual plaintiff be represented?
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Nope. I like fair play as much as the next person.
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http://reportyourcomplaint.com/us-copyright-group-lawsuit-scam-please-read-this-before-you-p ay-dunlap-grubb-weaver-anything/
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http://archive.recapthelaw.org/dcd/141583/
and discovered that I was one of the people dismissed without prejudice on 15 April 2011.
http://www.archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.dcd.141583/gov.uscourts.dcd.141583.97.0.pdf
However I just received DGW’s demand letter today and it’s dated 26 April 2011. They are trying to scam me into paying on a case they dismissed already?
Is that legal?
Should I notify the judge?
Should I just leave well enough alone???
What a bunch of scam artists!!!
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