Anti-Piracy Lawyer John Steele Caught Copying Content From Other Anti-Piracy Lawyer

from the now-that-would-be-a-fun-lawsuit dept

Fri, Jul 29th 2011 4:05am — Mike Masnick

A year and a half ago, in writing about all the new law offices jumping into the mass "anti-piracy" shakedown lawsuit business, one of the early ones we covered was an operation called the Copyright Enforcement Group -- or CEG. Oddly, we haven't seen many stories of CEG in action threatening people... but we do keep coming across stories of other such lawyers copying content from CEG. Almost exactly a year ago, we wrote about how US Copyright Group had copied large parts of CEG's website into its own website and, now, TorrentFreak has pointed out that infamous, mass-suing lawyer John Steele has been caught copying parts of CEG's website as well. This is doubly ironic, given Steele's usual bravado and talk about the evils of copyright infringement. From Steele's website

From CEG's website

TorrentFreak asked CEG about this and it claimed that this was not authorized and that it might have to "take steps" to prevent Steele from continuing this copying. Now wouldn't that be an interesting lawsuit to follow?

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Filed Under: copying, copyright, john steele
Companies: copyright enforcement group

31 Comments

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The eejit (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 3:38am

Remember, Mike, the Golden Rule: good artists copy, great artists steal.
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- someone (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:24am
  
  Re:
  Those with the gold make the rules
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  - The eejit (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 10:06am
    
    Re: Re:
    NonononononoNO. That's the Rule of Gold, silly!
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The Devil's Coachman (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:24am

John Steele must die
Not that I actually wish him harm, but sooner or later he will die, and will only be remembered as a money-grubbing POS whose remains will be at the bottom of a three-holer, getting all the respect due.
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- Fickelbra (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:43am
  
  Re: John Steele must die
  As well as John Barleycorn. (Had to)
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 5:17am
  
  Re: John Steele must die
  three-holer?
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  - Rekrul, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:32am
    
    Re: Re: John Steele must die
    three-holer?
    
    From the context, I'm guessing that they're referring to an outhouse/latrine.
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abc gum, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:51am

Irony

- Copytard stealing the work of other copytard.
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- Prisoner 201, 29 Jul 2011 @ 5:10am
  
  Re:
  The biggest question is whether he is a freecopytard or copyfreetard?
  
  I mean he is obviously pro IP, but also obviously a thief (by his own definition, no less).
  
  And dear god, what brand of apologists do we call people who defend him?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:52am
    
    Re: Re:
    Hypocritard
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    - RD, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:29am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      "Hypocritard"
      
      Stop stealing my phrases!!
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      - Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:46am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I didn't steal it. I'm actually you.
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 10:42am
  
  Re: Copytard
  "Copytard stealing the work of other copytard."
  
  Actually, ANTI-copytard stealing the work of other ANTI-copytard!
  
  Which makes him a hypocrite as well!
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  - Zot-Sindi, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:12pm
    
    Re: Re: Copytard
    Hee! it's copytard simply because they copy just as much as anyone else does, and that's okay, they are being creative/innovative, but when someone else copies (god forbid copies THEM) they are suddenly the most sorry worthless scum of the earth with no creativity to speak of...
    
    so, they are a retarded copier, since they can't decide if copying is good or not
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    - Zot-Sindi, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:13pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Copytard
      also, i think it was actually short for "copyrightard", IIRC, but either way works
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 5:35am

what an idiot!
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That Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 5:45am

Its only breaking the law when we have tenuous proof you did it.
When we do it, we do it in a huge obvious way and its totally okay.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:02am

It's like a perpetual motion machine lawyers.
Positive feedback at its best.
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Gabriel Tane (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:54am

News Story
Top story today� a black hole has appeared in a local courtroom. Scientists are still working to determine the exact cause of the phenomenon. They believe that this all started over an �intellectual property� lawsuit. For those of you who don�t know, �intellectual property� is the artificial term applied to an idea for the sole purpose of keeping anyone else from benefiting for that idea. Let�s go to Tom in the field for more details. Tom?

Thanks Sue� I�m standing (well!) outside a local courtroom where a miniature black hole has appeared. No one is sure exactly how this happened, but checking the videos stored electronically off-site has helped scientists form a hypothesis on how this happened.

John Steele, a lawyer known for suing over �copyright theft� and other IP-related �piracy� had copied a Q&A section from a website for the Copyright Enforcement Group, or CEG, regarding copyright infringement. CEG had taken John Steele to court over the matter. It appears that CEG�s legal filing was actually mostly copied from some of Mr. Steele�s own filings. When Mr. Steele noticed this in the courtroom, he hurled insults at CEG�s lawyer� and these insults were apparently "stolen" from CEG's lawyer from another lawsuit involving CEG. The resultant vortex of copy stupidity collapsed into a singularity.

One of the local scientists comments: "the space-time continuum was not meant to handle this level of concentrated stupid and just broke under the strain". Back to you, Sue.

Thanks Tom. And in related news, advocacy groups known for speaking out against IP-extremism are petitioning to have all current patent lawsuits moved from east Texas to this courtroom. More on that story at 11.
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- The eejit (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:02am
  
  Re: News Story
  Now, if only this would happen....
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HothMonster, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:06am

"TorrentFreak asked CEG about this and it claimed that this was not authorized and that it might have to "take steps" to prevent Steele from continuing this copying. Now wouldn't that be an interesting lawsuit to follow? "

Please Daddy! Its all I want for Christmas
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:37am

Do as I say, not as I do.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 8:42am

Johnny Boy....Care to comment on this one? Or, are you too busy in the steam room at The East Bank Club, getting rubbed out by some dude?
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alaskaguy (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 11:29am

and another thing...
the copyrightsettlements.com (aka 'trolls') website very proudly displays the authorize.net logo, in order to assure their victims that their payments will go to the right pockets (any of those on the jeans of the copyright holders?) Note that authorize.net (not a company that means anything to me, even after reading the wiki on it) cannot and will not verify the trolls. :-) too funny.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jul 2011 @ 6:23am

You are such a buffoon, Masnick. That language is standard boilerplate used by ISPs and other copyright law firms.

Google it, you fucking idiot.

And why aren't you screaming "fair use" like you usually do for all your freetard buddies?
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- abc gum, 30 Jul 2011 @ 7:41am
  
  Re:
  What is it about hypocrisy that you do not understand?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 30 Jul 2011 @ 9:00am
    
    Re: Re:
    What hypocrisy? It isn't copyrighted content. It's legal boilerplate. Lawyers use the same legal language all the time.
    
    It's funny how you tards feel the need to defend even the stupidest of Masnick's posts.
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    - abc gum, 31 Jul 2011 @ 7:18am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      "What hypocrisy? It isn't copyrighted content. It's legal boilerplate. Lawyers use the same legal language all the time."
      
      I was unaware of this exclusion to the copyright clause you refer to as "boilerplate". Let's see if I can summarize it. After something has been stolen multiple times by multiple people it becomes known as "boilerplate" and is no longer subject to copyright, or alternatively it automatically becomes a CC licensed item. Is this correct?
      
      "It's funny how you tards feel the need to defend even the stupidest of Masnick's posts."
      
      Pointing out hypocrisy does not imply the taking of one side of a debate over the other, not sure why this is misunderstood.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2011 @ 12:27am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        There's no hypocrisy, you hopeless box of rocks.
        
        Masnick might as well complain about Steele speaking words that someone else already spoke.
        
        The post was yet more evidence that Masnick's a joke and so are you.
        
        Thanks to both of you for willingly providing daily evidence of that. The bait was set a year ago and you all have obliged flawlessly.
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        Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 2:08am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        What Mike posted, or the fact that Mike posted, is of no relevance.
        
        The fact is that CEG has now declared that John Steele was not authorised to copy that paragraph and considered taking action, fair use or otherwise.
        
        So why aren't you supporting CEG and attacking Mike instead? Aren't you always supporting the rightsholders?
        
        Douchenozzle.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jul 2011 @ 7:39pm

"Anti-Piracy Lawyer John Steele Caught Stealing Content From Other Anti-Piracy Lawyer"

fixed for you
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