Mass Infringement Lawyer: Never Mind The Facts, Just Pay Up
from the it's-what-year-now? dept
John Steele, the former divorce lawyer who jumped into the mass copyright infringement game feet first, and who seems to keep running into problems with judges who actually understand the law, seems to be at it again. Chris sends in a report of how Steele has been sending out pre-settlement letters with totally screwed up dates, talking about a correspondence allegedly from 2007 and a lawsuit from 2006, neither of which appear to be accurate.There are also other factually dubious statements in the letter:
The letter continues with a statement that claims that Mr. Steele's office has been unable to get in touch with the recipient.This is incredibly sloppy on the part of Steele, and with errors abounding in his letters that doesn't bode well for his lawsuits:
Odd thing is, the e-mail address that is listed under the mailing address on the letter is not the e-mail address associated with the recipient's ISP. The only way Mr. Steele's firm could obtain the address would be by asking for it during a phone call. One of the five calls which Mr. Steele's firm would like to pretend never happened.
Personally, I believe that the implications of this letter are extremely disturbing. For one, Mr. Steele's firm appears to not bother proof-reading any of its letters. Mr. Steele is comfortable with asking for thousands of dollars from people, but he can't take 10 seconds to at least review the first sentence of his settlement letters.There's a suggestion that some of the date errors may be due to whatever software Steele is using, but that also raises questions: if the software for creating these letters is so filled with errors, is the software he uses to track what IP addresses are sharing files also riddled with errors?
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Filed Under: errors, john steele, lawsuits
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I have seen other accounts of him voluntarily dismissing "does/IPS" after settlement, with one IP address being located in China. I am sure it is a typo. As you mentioned above, very disturbing.
Look at this thread. It is on a forum called "Go Fuck Yourself" for adult webmasters and porn industry people.
http://www.gfy.com/showthread.php?t=987547
Of special interest is post #8, from Steve Lightspeed one of Steele's clients.
John Steele commented in post #37
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Hardcore avatars abound on that thread.
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IIRC a lot of these guys submit their own work to tube sites, albeit only a few minutes, with the intention of the viewer wanting to see the rest of the film. The viewer clicks a link and pays for the film.
now that is ironic
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"Lightspeed - Btw, all the work being done by our lawyers is on contingency, so I really have nothing to lose here."
I would point out to Mr. Lightspeed that he is talking about a contract written by a man with the most tenuous grasp of the law. Seriously look at Steeles filings. And the whole the shit won't splash on me ideal world... doesn't exist. The lawyer represents your brand to the outside world, him being a moron lets consumers know your a moron as well. He might be a competitor but tell me what Lucas has done lately... other than saying me too to several of the LMH/CF propaganda messages his studio is in decline.
I might have pointed out elsewhere, this piece from xbiz. While they are often just the propaganda office this piece is actually well thought out.
http://www.xbiz.com/articles/educational/131701
Sadly they have had a big ole glass of the koolaid, served up by Steele, Stone, Randazza. What they did not tell you was that they didn't use sugar, it was HFCS and the more you drink the worse its going to get. That it is not going to be easy money, that your brand is going to suffer, and the deeper down the rabbit hole the closer you get to being ignored.
Change is scary, and they all quote the mantra of its theft and compare it to physical objects. They do not understand that the scorched earth tactics being employed don't just deter the "pirates", people who would have paid you see the gloating about sticking it to people and look elsewhere.
Well but I am the only one doing pyro-trapeze upside down etc. Have you met the internet? Rule #34. If there is a demand, it will get filled by someone somewhere.
While your busy demonizing fans who share your work, somethings you haven't considered -
They aren't making the thousands of dollars you think sharing your work.
They are sharing it because they LIKE IT, they like it enough they want others to see it.
There is TONS of porn out there, and in the grand world of signal to noise they picked your production as something they liked and wanted to share it with others.
That some of the demons who might download a movie, might like your work or artists and want something more than the less that super rips available online... (that means they will BUY stuff from you).
And your answer is ZOMG I HAVE TO SUE THEM OUT OF EXISTENCE!
While your all busy listening to the lawyers and advisers have you once considered talking to the people on the otherside of the fence? Some will demand it all for free blah blah, but some of us are willing to talk. We get that your in business, but we can point out where your not meeting the consumers desires. If you work towards what the fans want the fans respond. The fans respond you make more money, and you get loyalty. And given all of the free sources of free porn (tube sites not torrents) if you can't get them loyal, they will just find a replacement for you.
But then I may or may not be one of them evil pirates, who understands both sides of the equation and might have all kinds of good ideas to share... if you can stop trying to sue me long enough to listen.
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We wouldn't know, because Steele hides behind the "trade secret/proprietary design" curtain whenever someone tries to call him on it. And since he hasn't brought anyone into court yet using the evidence he has generated, he isn't obligated to actually reveal the workings on it yet.
(Assuming it even gets to that point - seems to me if you're suing people based on evidence you've generated with a program that you had a financial stake in creating for the purposes of suing people for large amounts of money, that's a pretty big conflict of interest.)
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The proprietary system could just be bingo calling balls lined up to look like IP addresses.
Why hasn't any judge demanded proof from an outside source that the "system" is reliable before ordering ISPs to turn over potentially innocent peoples information?
One wonders if they might be the source of these seeds sometimes.
But they get a free pass to just be given a list of people to attempt to shake down outside of the court system.
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We wouldn't know,
Oh yes we would - ALL software is riddled with errors! Without disclosure of the source code the results of such software should not be used in court.
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Stones letters and movement scared people, but many people are contributing on many boards breaking down the flaws in the case and getting people to take a breath and think about the real issue - he wants you so scared you settle guilty or not. Showing people his picture, and basically doxing him like Anon would helped people get over the fear. He was someone pretending to be something he wasn't... competent. Stone is now facing a Judge for another case where he violated the courts directive and was shaking people down with fake subpoenas. It did not help his case when he insulted the Judge for making sure the Does had someone representing their rights.
Randazza for some reason managed to ramp up the fear factor with his we have 35K, er wait 40K, er wait a billion IP addresses. He leveraged coverage by xbiz, the advocate, and a few other places to add to the mystique that he is hiding in your closet and going to get you. His delusional denial that it could possibly have negative affects, an unnamed "therapist" told him it wouldn't happen only helped to rally even more people to the defense of "kids" he has targeted. He is hoping that the fear of being outed to ones family, something that sometimes involves violence, would get more people to sign up for the silly amnesty he offered. Then he tried amnesty round 2 when they only got a couple of nibbles. There has been a flurry of paperwork filed, and a majority of it is NOT filesharing related. He makes suggestions of connections of P2P in them, but that seems to be an attempt to be able to enhance any award they might get.
Randazza went public and big, and this sent shockwaves. The result is I know myself and several other people are trying to calm the nerves of people considering "final" options to avoid what they think will happen. So the "therapist" obviously was incorrect. If you threaten a 17 yr old with being outed and sued, you kind of smash their world. Now you can make the argument that they deserve it, they are filesharing scum. I'd like to point out that if your precious IP is not worth more than a human life, and to think otherwise maybe you need to see a "therapist".
Because 17yr olds grow up, move to college, get jobs and when they find a studio putting out stuff they like... they get a subscription. 17 yr olds who see their friends terrified of the studio... they avoid it like the plague.
Randazza drank the koolaid he mixed up, he wants money he thinks he can get for a small investment of IP owner reports. The downside is the negative perception of the studio as a whole is reaching its pinnacle. So you might manage to get a few bucks, ruin a few lives, and they deserved it. The fact people are dropping subscriptions and leaving the LMH/CF websites behind is a direct result. The studio even announced a whole new format, possibly because they finally noticed people were bored of the same wooden contrived scenes over and over. But it is not going to matter, people are actively and vocally against CF material now. So Randazza wins, they are going to stop sharing your content. They are going to stop caring to see your content. They are actively going to discourage people from doing business with LMH/CF. So for your pieces of silver today, your brand is going to fade away.
Good plan, well played.
If you know someone targeted in these things, do your best to help them get informed. There are articles here, ars, torrentfreak, and a few other places... all of them show the players behind the curtain and the scam they are running. It helps when you can show them the "win" rate of zero in court, that they want to "settle"(extort same thing) out of court because otherwise it will cost them money and put their whole operation under the microscope.
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Steele after filing mass lawsuits in Illinois, now he's doing the same thing in California, filing same cases with new IP addresses in California. The sad part is a new round of shakedowns will start with Mark Lutz at the helm. Now if those IP address owners are California residents, they most likely be scared and end up settling, without doing much research on the internet to learn about the scare tactics that Steele has been using since last year.
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File a complaint
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Mark Lutz is a criminal
http://current.com/http://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetails.do;jsessionid=3878208A957A9EEB7 2C27049C9E738C1.render6?caseNo=1997CM705062&countyNo=40&cacheId=B8E43CE3747AECB130653509C290 AC2D&recordCount=6&offset=4&mode=details&submit=View+Case+Details
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So someone fleeing the law can find a safe place working for a lawyer?
Or is the law only important when one can use it to extort money?
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Someone should send this to the judge handling this case.
What a dolt....
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Apparently jerking it makes you mean...at least in John's world
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Apparently jerking it makes you mean...at least in John's world
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He made the following comment on page two.
Great article. I was too busy coming back from a hearing with the 4th judge this week to grant discovery to read this when it first came out. Yep, the thieves are averaging 1 judge out of 8. Keep up the great work!
John Steele
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"Plaintiff used geolocation technology to trace the
IP addresses of each Doe Defendant to a point of origin within the State of California. This Court also has personal jurisdiction over non-resident Defendants under the California long-arm statute"
What people are not understanding is this: even if he files individual lawsuit, no court will grant him $2900, maximum he may get if he wins, will be a few hundred dollars which will not be enough to cover the filing fee of the case. That's why he will never file individual cases.
Anyone who gets those letters, should first read those forums before making any settlement with him.
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Tick Tock Johnny Boy!
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Is John Lawrence Steele a PEDOFILE?
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steele-law.com PORN
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Now that the Illinois judges caught up with his scheme, he found another low life lawyer (supposedly a tax lawyer) in California, one named Brett L Gibbs, and started filing the same lawsuits in California. The same harassment will continue for a few months with those California lawsuits and then he will start again in another state.
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How man pissed federal judges does it take to lose your license to practice?
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What to do if sued by John POS Steele
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HCP vs DOES 1-1000: Status?
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An oldie but goodie
"In his letter, he explains how he is willing to sue the parents of Bittorrent users, inexperienced computers users who do not know how to secure a wireless network, business owners who use free wi-fi as a means to draw crowds to their stores, and even individuals who download mislabeled internet files(try to download a PBS video and end up with porn? Mr. Steele will sue you in a heartbeat)."
He's disgusting. A true low life.
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1-800-BAD-JOHN
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