Copyright Troll Lawsuit Ends Badly Because Very Dumb Defendant Lied To Court, Destroyed Evidence
from the you-don't-do-that dept
We've pointed out before how stupid it was for people like Jammie Thomas and Joel Tenenbaum to fight the copyright infringement lawsuits launched against them. In Tenenbaum's case it was monumentally stupid, because he flat out lied to the court and then had to admit it in court. You don't do that. Lying to a court is not only stupid in general, but it completely taints any underlying issues that may actually be important, and predisposes the judge against you. There are often good reasons to fight back against copyright lawsuits, but if you actually infringed and then lied about it that's a really bad reason to fight back.Unfortunately, it looks like there was a similar situation in one of the big copyright trolling cases last week. Last fall, we wrote about how Judge Michael Baylson decided to force a group of Malibu Media copyright trolling cases to trial, after it became apparent that Malibu Media didn't seem particularly interested in going through with a trial (similar to most copyright trolls). Unfortunately, it then came out that one of the "selected" defendants lied, committing perjury, and (on top of that) destroyed the evidence. This is just ridiculously stupid.
In the end, all of the defendants "settled," but the case still had a sort of sham trial. Yes, there was no reason for the trial, since everyone basically settled, but the lawyer for Malibu, Keith Lipscomb, asked the court to enter a "final judgment." That basically allowed the judge to rail against the stupid defendant who lied and destroyed evidence (who deserves to be yelled at by the court for his actions), but it also now allows Lipscomb to use the "judgment" of $112,500 to threaten many others who are not in the same situation as the guy who lost. There's a good summary from lawyer John Whitaker, who found the whole thing baffling.
In sum, all of the defendants stipulated to liability before the trial. Plaintiff had already agreed not to seek damages against two of the three defendants. The third defendant stipulated to liability. Malibu Media and the third defendant asked the judge to enter a finding on damages, even though they had already agreed on what he would pay.Well, actually, he points out, everyone knows why:
So there was absolutely nothing at issue during the trial. Not liability. Not damages. Nothing.
Then there was the 'trial' itself. The only party to actually put on a witness was Malibu Media. None of the defendants even cross-examined a witness. Really?
What kind of trial is it where the defendant doesn't challenge any of the plaintiff's witnesses or even put on any witnesses of its own? A sham, that's what.
So why was there even a trial? I have no idea.
It was all about Malibu Media trying to get Judge Baylson to write a document that Malibu Media could use in all its demand letters from now on. I'll point out that, to his credit, Judge Baylson had to tell Lipscomb numerous times that he would not be Lipscomb's advertising spokesman. I think what he said was he wasn't interested in writing anything that was "commercially valuable" to Malibu Media.If the goal wasn't to be "commercially valuable" to Malibu, it looks like it failed. In the aftermath of the ruling, Malibu Media filed dozens of new trolling lawsuits. Yes, the defendant deserved to lose. Infringing by downloading the work, then lying about it to the court and destroying evidence should be punished. But it's a shame that all it's doing in this case is enabling more copyright trolling shakedown behavior.
Bad cases make bad law, and this was clearly a bad case, which was made even worse by the actions of that particular defendant. I'm not saying he should have gotten off free, but the end result here is going to lead many others to feel obligated to pay up when they probably shouldn't.
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Filed Under: copyright, copyright troll. bellwether, keith lipscomb, lying in court
Companies: malibu media
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Guess you want to escalate this then. Your choice.
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Bad cases are a given.
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I bet in the next half hour
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—Mark Twain
Thats why Mike or me or anyone else dont want to try to have a reasonable debate with you, you are irrational, and debating with irrational people only makes the whole debate irrational.
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"Never replace an argument to a fool with an explanation for a lack of argument to a fool; the fool may not be able to tell the difference."
;)
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"Don’t argue with idiots because they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."
—Greg King
Yeah, you will mop the floor with me in this idiocy contest of yours, you got the experience. ;)
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"Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience."
"Arguing with a fool is like wrestling with a pig in mud. You with only get dirty and the pig actually enjoys it."
Both are usually applicable to the trolls here, although I admit to arguing with them anyway sometimes just to point out how wrong/pathologically lying/borderline insane they usually are.
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Keep yogurting this! Yogurt that!
YOGURT!
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At worst, there's been some whining that some comments haven't show up immediately due to them ending up in the spam filter, but these usually turn up eventually and have real acceptable reasons why the filter would have caught them (several links in an anonymous comment, for example).
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Re: "whack-a-mole"
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Says the idiot using a fake name. I'm anonymous and I can sweep the floor with Mike. He's such a little chicken shit that he's too scared to ever try and match wits with me. I don't even have to log in and everyone knows it's me. I fucking own Mike. He's so fucking scared of me he has to block my IP.
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I, however, look forward to your posts. Because no matter how bad things are for me, at least I'm not you. Apparently you get off on being belittled, hated and ridiculed. If that is what you seek out every day, you are a sad little sociopath. I pity you.
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I discuss the merits all the time. See, e.g., https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130614/23172323482/al-gore-says-nsa-surveillance-is-unconstituti onal-not-american-way.shtml#c275
It's Mike the Coward that has to block my IP address because he HATES how I can discuss the merits and he can only spread idiotic FUD.
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Try again, you pathetic failure of a person.
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Stupdity
When I read that the harddrive was wiped the verdict does not surprise me.
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I've said MANY times that awards are excessive.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121009/17431520668/judge-calls-copyright-trolls-bluff .shtml#c106
This is the famous "bellweather" case! If you'll take the link, you'll see that I wrote there was WITH Mike on view.
But I do have questions here: "Infringing by downloading the work, then lying about it to the court and destroying evidence should be punished."
1) Should infringement on its own be punished? Not THIS much, but you loaded it with conditions up there, so YES OR NO on just PLAIN infringement?
2) IF Mike answers yes, then a far more serious one for the fanboys: MIKE SUPPORTS COPYRIGHT! What are you pirates doing here?
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Re: I've said MANY times that awards are excessive.
So download an album that sells for $15, max fine would be $150, not the thousands(if you're lucky) that it currently is.
Put simply, the act of simply downloading a file should not be considered a crime serious enough to financially ruin someone for the rest of their life; people who commit crimes with verifiable harm get off lighter than that.
Regarding #2, yes, he does, so what? What he, and almost everyone here other than the copyright abolitionists are against is not copyright itself, but abuses of it and how insane it has gotten, not the core idea itself.
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Re: I've said MANY times that awards are excessive.
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Re: I've said MANY times that awards are excessive.
Few of us regulars differ with him over his reasonable, fair-minded approach. We just get annoyed when the maximalists go over the top.
NOW do you get it?
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...
That would be funny if it wasn't so very sad.
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This AC's posts are repetitive, not related to the content of the blog, irritating, and irrelevant! They seem to be a very bad personal promotional campaign for for a deranged individual. The posts certainly meet my definition of spam.
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No it isn't.
It isn't going to do anything of the sort. You just made that up. No intelligent lifeform is going to pay/admit guilt for something they had no connection to.
If they're guilty tho, they'll pay.
And that's what really upsets you and your paymasters at Google.
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When you can just settle why would you go to court and take huge risks?
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Stop pretending there aren't infringers and that no one is getting caught.
You people are so intellectually dishonest; it's hilarious.
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No one has ever been terminated for their porn habits.
The burden is on the accused to prove a negative, that they did not infringe. And when lawyers start talking about bothering all of your neighbors asking if they downloaded some of the "high quality art" using your connection... yeah.
You really suck at this. I mean kudos for getting me to respond, but in the end your still just an impotent little man raging as loud as you can about a world you don't understand.
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Masnick and Google are thick as thieves. In more ways than one.
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Glenn Britt's told in public that they dowright pay or threaten content producers to keep content out of reach of competitors, now the DOJ is apparently looking into the matter, it probably ends with nothing, but it shows you just can't run your mouth bragging about how anti-competitive you are.
https://secure.dslreports.com/shownews/Justice-Department-Eyes-Cable-Industry-Practices-1246 51
At least not for now, we have fallen a lot but you can't just say you are a monopolist and will do whatever to stop competition from rising.
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Cluck!! Bawk!!
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120818/01171420087/funniestmost-insightful-comments -week-techdirt.shtml#c1210
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Does that sad excuse for a hardon come in the adult size?
I am assuming your the same asswipe who runs around demanding Mike debate you then mocking him because you claim he won't... but when he challenges you directly and answers things you keep moving the goal posts trying to pretend he isn't actual paying attention to you.
So other than getting your nut off this evening did you have anything to add or did you just stop by to blow your sad little troll load and fuck off?
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I'd have blocked him ages ago, but as I pointed out on another post, I think Mike lets them roam free here to prove his point: maximalists have no better arguments than the trolls who pop up here making animal noises and spouting tinfoil hat FUD when they're not dismissing genuine concerns.
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You still have not proven that you are not a cheat.
Your understanding of copyright and it's associated laws suggest that you need your mommy to read them to you. you should get her to explain what it means as well as just read it to you
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You're just repeating their lies
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Someone needs to investigate...
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Re: Someone needs to investigate...
Lots and lots of Lipscomb's douchebaggery took place during these months, and I'm stunned that he emerged unpunished. But we did not forget, and certainly did not forgive.
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Meds
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Judge's Ruling nails it.
Personally, I guess I'm happy this is finally over. I'm pretty sure this 'ruling' is going to be trumpeted by Lipscomb for years to come. Still, it doesn't mean anything to those of use who understand what actually happened. The problem is, most of the people who receive these threatening letters don't understand what really happened.
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Re: Judge's Ruling nails it.
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Re: Re: Judge's Ruling nails it.
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