Magistrate Judge Recommends That Copyright Misuse Defense Be Allowed Against Copyright Troll Malibu Media

from the it's-something dept

It's rare, but every so often we'll see courts willing to entertain claims of copyright misuse. These are situations where copyright law is being so obviously abused for other purposes that a court slaps the abuser down. While it may not go anywhere, it appears that copyright trolling leaders, Malibu Media, who are single-handedly responsible for 40% of all copyright cases filed this year so far, may now have to respond to claims of copyright abuse. In one of its lawsuits, the defendant, Ben Miller, hit back with a long list of defenses, most of which have been rejected or set aside. However, a magistrate judge is recommending the copyright misuse defense be allowed to move forward:
Here, Defendant contends that “Plaintiff uses the same procedures of monitoring unsuspecting members of the public, directly connecting with the individual’s IP address, providing no ‘cease and desist’ notice, waiting until the evidence is destroyed, filing suit, and then offering to settle in exchange for dismissing the suit.” ... Plaintiff counters that “all it has ever done with respect to its copyrights is bring suits to enforce them; as a matter of law, doing so is not copyright misuse.”....

The Court finds that Defendant’s allegations are sufficient to support the affirmative defense. To the extent that the Plaintiff argues Defendant has failed to demonstrate, through his allegations, that the Plaintiff has “misused” the copyright law, the Court finds that such theory necessarily involves the issue of motive, which is generally reserved for the factfinder... (defendant must prove plaintiff “illegally extended its monopoly beyond the scope of the copyright or violated the public policies underlying the copyright laws”). Likewise, to the extent that the Plaintiff argues a “misuse” defense cannot be asserted if the allegation is merely that Plaintiff has filed a suit for infringement, the Court finds that Defendant has sufficiently argued more than the single allegation
The court need not go with this recommendation, but if it does, it could be worth watching closely. Remember, Malibu Media has already been in trouble for some of its practices, and others have long argued that the company is worse than Prenda with its tactics.
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Filed Under: copyright, copyright abuse, copyright misuse, copyright troll
Companies: malibu media


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  • icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 27 May 2014 @ 3:45pm

    Masnick just hates it when badly-written, overly-broad laws are enforced.

    (Did I do it right?)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 May 2014 @ 4:38pm

    Who knows we might actually finally get a court to look past the magic box told us, and look into how all of that happens.

    If there is anything the trolls hate, it is bright light looking into their caves.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 May 2014 @ 4:39pm

    I agree with Xploding_Cobra. Not enough cow bells and stupidity.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 May 2014 @ 8:07pm

    New Law

    If you are filing even 10% of the cases nationally you should be given a special "flooding the damn courts" fee.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Christenson, 27 May 2014 @ 8:29pm

    Champerty, Champerty...

    Too bad Mr Miller hadn't heard about how the monitoring firm got paid!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 28 May 2014 @ 3:09am

    and others have long argued that the company is worse than Prenda with its tactics.

    Worse as in "they provide better comedy"? If so I must disagree.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mr. Oizo, 28 May 2014 @ 5:07am

    To entertain the trolls

    WTF has Google to do with this ?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      A trol, 28 May 2014 @ 8:30am

      Re: To entertain the trolls

      GOOGLE SUX MIK LUVS GOOGL RAGERAGERAGE AT UNRELATED CRAP!
      Was that entertaining for you?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      G Thompson (profile), 28 May 2014 @ 9:44am

      Re: To entertain the trolls

      What? Troll! EffOFf

      oh .. well thats what I though the WTF meant, probably not as strange and silly as your whole comment either

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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