Judge Allows US Copyright Group To Shakedown 23,322 IP Addresses For Downloading The Expendables

from the shakedown dept

We've seen a good trend in the various mass file sharing lawsuits lately, with judges blocking so-called "fishing expeditions" by the various lawyers filing these things. The judges are properly recognizing that these lawsuits are more about scaring people into settling, rather than any sort of reasonable lawsuit. However, not all the judges feel that way, and apparently the judge handling the latest (and biggest) lawsuit from the US Copyright Group, representing the producers of The Expendables, has apparently allowed subpoenas to go out on 23,322 IP addresses, the largest single group of people sued in one of these lawsuits. It's really unfortunate that the judge didn't realize how improper it is to lump all these defendants together and didn't realize how this is really just a business model choice by the company, rather than a reasonable lawsuit.

Filed Under: expendables, ip addresses, shakedown
Companies: us copyright group

US Copyright Group Drops A Bunch Of Cases... But Will It Refile?

from the waiting-game dept

There was some news last week about copyright trolls, US Copyright Group (really DC-based law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver), dropping thousands of lawsuits it had filed against people for file sharing. While some are declaring victory, I'd wait and see. It may simply be setting up to refile those lawsuits in the proper venues, as the firm has done in the past. It would be nice if USCG and the various studios had realized that this was a dead end strategy, but I find that unlikely...

Filed Under: copyright, lawsuits, pre-settlement
Companies: dunlap grubb & weaver, us copyright group

Expendables Producers Begin Process Of Shaking Down Thousands For Cash

from the how-to-piss-off-fans dept

As was widely expected, the producers of the big budget Hollywood movie, The Expendables have joined the coalition of the clueless with the producers of Hurt Locker in deciding to shakedown some of the movie's fans. Once again, using law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver under the name US Copyright Group (whose existing lawsuits of this nature haven't gone too well so far), a lawsuit lumping together 6,500 unnamed people accused of file sharing has been launched. As with the previous lawsuits, the intent here is just to suss out names attached to the IP addresses, at which point they'll be sent misleading and threatening letters, which suggest they pay up to have the lawsuits against them dropped. Of course, as with previous such lawsuits, I'm sure there will be a quick back and forth as someone points out that lumping all of these defendants into a single case is not proper, and it'll depend on whether or not the judge is reasonable to see if the case will actually move forward.

Still, it kind of makes you wonder what the producers of The Expendables are thinking. The studio, called Nu Image, is pretty much deciding to purposely piss off a large group of fans, just at a time when they're apparently working on a sequel. Nothing in this action will make any of those people more interested in paying money to see any more movies from Nu Image in the future. In fact, about the only thing it will do is give a large group of people an excuse not to pay to see Nu Image movies. And for what? To get a tiny group of folks who downloaded the movie to pay a few thousand dollars -- a large chunk of which just goes to the lawyers? That's not exactly a brilliant business strategy.

Filed Under: expendables, pre-settlement
Companies: dunlap grubb & weaver, nu image, us copyright group

With ACS:Law And MediaCAT Shutting Down, What Does It Mean For US Copyright Group?

from the brothers-in-arms dept

ACS:Law wasn't the first law firm to try the "send tons of 'pre-settlement' letters to people we accuse of file sharing in hopes they just pay up," business model. In fact, ACS:Law got all of its initial paperwork from another law firm, Davenport Lyons, who was trying to get out of that business. However, ACS:Law was the firm that really got much of the attention over the past few years. Just about a year ago, that business model finally jumped to the US, initially from an outfit called US Copyright Group, which was really an operation run by a tiny DC law firm called Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver along with an online monitoring company. However, with the latest news that ACS:Law and its online monitoring company MediaCAT have completely gone out of business -- perhaps in a weak attempt to avoid sanctions for their disastrous attempt to finally bring some cases to court, it makes me wonder if this is a precursor of things to come for US Copyright Group/DGW. It certainly looks like DGW has been a bit more careful with its strategy than ACS:Law (where it really seemed like Andrew Crossley got in way over his head), but it certainly should be a warning sign to all those law firms who think this sort of shakedown play is easy money.

Filed Under: pre-settlement, uk, us
Companies: acs:law, dunlap grubb & weaver, mediacat, us copyright group

US Copyright Group Lawyers Suggest They're Allowed To Lie To People They're Demanding Cash From

from the perhaps-a-court-could-disabuse-you-of-that-notion dept

Back in November, we wrote about how the lawyers behind US Copyright Group, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, were being sued for extortion, conspiracy and fraud. While we doubted the lawsuit would get all that far, it did seem to have a slightly stronger legal basis than similar lawsuits in the past, due mainly to the fact that the producers of Uwe Boll's Far Cry screwed up with the registration of the copyright, meaning that many of those sued could not be hit with statutory damages -- and yet DGW falsely claimed they could. While defenders of these pre-settlement "pay up or we'll sue" campaigns like to claim that it's not extortion if the party demanding the cash has a legitimate legal claim, it's a lot harder to make that case when they don't really have a legitimate legal claim, but simply say they do. That sounds a lot closer to extortion.

Ars Technica notes that DGW has filed a scathing response (though, oddly, Ars Technica does not provide the actual filing). Apparently, there are two key arguments made by DGW: First, that the guy suing, Dmitriy Shirokov, has no right to sue DGW, because they're just the lawyers "simply doing their job," and you can't sue for that:

"Although an attorney may be accused of defrauding opposing parties, knowingly committing discovery abuses, lying to the court, or purposely and maliciously defaming another individual, if it takes place during the course of litigation, the conduct simply is not actionable,"

That's quite a claim, in large part because it's misleading. DGW is playing a little game of misdirection, and assuming everyone else is stupid (a dangerous game for lawyers to play). The main problem is that the actions that DGW is being sued over here are not actually "during the course of litigation." The complaint is about the "pay up" threat letter, which is not directly a part of the litigation, but an attempt to avert litigation. To claim that demanding cash based on a factually incorrect legal claim is immune from a legal complaint seems like a stretch. If DGW's legal theories are correct here, it would mean that a lawfirm could resort to outright, blatant extortion, just so long as it somehow connected it to the threat of litigation. That's a plainly ridiculous outcome that I find hard to believe a court would buy.

Separately, DGW says that no "harm" has come to Shirokov since he hasn't actually settled. That, again, seems like a questionable tactic. If true, the only way that someone illegally or unfairly threatened could sue is if they first give in to the threat. It seems that just the threat itself, if it truly was made maliciously with false information for the purpose of getting people to pay up, should constitute clear harm in itself.

Of course, not all DGW's claims seem that crazy. On the question of racketeering and other criminal complaints, DGW points out that individuals can't bring criminal complaints, only the government can. This point goes in DGW's favor, and I'm a bit surprised that Shirokov's lawyers focused on criminal statutes in their complaint. However, the complaint covers plenty of areas that aren't criminal in nature, and there's no reason why the case shouldn't move forward on those issues.

Finally, DGW, in what appears to be becoming standard practice for the firm, is demanding sanctions against Shirokov and his lawyer for filing the lawsuit in the first place. Talk about obnoxious. DGW, in this filing, appear to be claiming both that they can effectively do whatever the hell they want to threaten someone if he doesn't pay up (so long as they can claim a loose association with ongoing litigation) -- and that anyone who then claims that this amounts to a form of fraud or extortion should be punished. In other words, it seems that DGW believes it can act beyond the law in the course of litigation, and anyone who sues them over it should be sanctioned.

Hopefully, a court sets DGW straight on all of that. I'm still not convinced this case will get very far. I'd be surprised if courts, while sympathetic to those charged in such "settle or we sue" lawsuits, went to the other extreme and claimed that the efforts behind them directly broke the law. I'd be thrilled if I'm proven wrong on this, but it just seems unlikely.

Filed Under: copyright, extortion, fraud
Companies: dunlap grubb and weaver, us copyright group

US Copyright Group Finally Files Some Other Lawsuits... In Minnesota

from the let's-wait-and-see dept

We've been waiting for US Copyright Group to refile some of its lawsuits in the proper jurisdictions, fully expecting that the operation (really DC law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver) would file a few lawsuits here and there to prove that it really was suing some people, though we doubt it'll match the scale of the original, "shock and awe," 5,000 people at a time filings. Apparently US CG has now filed two lawsuits in Minnesota, outside of its home base in DC. I would expect more like this, though let's see how far the lawsuits really get. It's no secret that the only purpose of the lawsuits is to convince people to pay up to avoid a lawsuit.

Filed Under: copyright, lawsuits, minnesota
Companies: us copyright group

Mass Infringement Pre-Settlement Lawyers Team Up To All Fail Together

from the good-luck dept

We've noted how in the past year, a bunch of "pay up or we'll sue" law firm operations have popped up, signing up confused and short-sighted copyright holders, who believe that shaking down fans is a business model that can work. Of course, to date, this legal strategy has been failing pretty spectacularly in court. It is true that some folks just pay up but as these lawsuits continue to have trouble in court, people will begin to realize that paying money to someone who just demands it probably isn't a smart move. Of course, one of the issues is that none of the law firms actually have the manpower to follow through and sue people, so it should come as little surprise that some of the law firms who have recently been losing in court, including Kenneth Ford, the lawyer for Axel Braun, as well as Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver (which is the law firm behind US Copyright Group) are teaming up to try to work together. I guess they figure it's better to fail together, rather than to watch each fail alone.

Filed Under: copyright, pre-settlement
Companies: us copyright group

Expendables Producers Decide To Demand Cash From Fans Who Downloaded

from the how-to-lose-fans dept

Most of the movie producers who have jumped onto the "pre-settlement" letter bandwagon, whereby they simply demand cash from people, who might have downloaded the film, in exchange for not suing them, have been either small time producers or porn producers. The one exception, so far, had been the producers of Hurt Locker, who suggested that anyone who suggested this move might backfire was naturally a "moron and a thief." Others in Hollywood had seemed to recognize that suing people, who downloaded your movie and demanding that they pay thousands of dollars to avoid a lawsuit, might lead to a serious backlash. But, apparently that's not true of everyone. The producers of the "let's get together a bunch of has-been actors and make a film" action flick, The Expendables, have apparently signed up to be the next big name movie to extort money from fans. Even though these types of threats and lawsuits haven't been shown to work all that well so far and often lead to a massive backlash among fans.

In related news, US Copyright Group is now insisting that it really, really (no really!) is planning to start suing people in a variety of different jurisdictions. They've promised this for a while, but there have been some doubts. I'm sure that some lawsuits will definitely be filed, but I'm guessing that the number won't be nearly as big as has been suggested in the past.

Filed Under: copyright, expendables, pre-settlement
Companies: us copyright group

More People Calling US Copyright Group's Bluff

from the where-are-the-lawsuits? dept

Mass copyright lawsuit filer US Copyright Group (really, DC law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver) has been claiming for a while that it really, really was going to file lawsuits against the thousands of folks they've sued in the specific jurisdictions where they're located -- though many have questioned whether or not it would really do this, since it would be quite expensive and DGW is a tiny, tiny law firm. More importantly, as has been seen elsewhere, the business model of "pay us or we'll sue," doesn't work so well if you actually have to sue people. After it was more or less required to drop thousands of the lawsuits for individuals not in Washington DC, we wondered if the company would live up to its promise to refile the lawsuits elsewhere. Thomas Dunlap told some reporters that those lawsuits would be refiled last week. But that didn't happen. So, it seems like more people are believing it's all a bluff. Dunlap has backed down and said that they'll be rolling out the refiles much more slowly -- meaning it's probably still desperately seeking regional law firms to handle a few "example" cases, but may be having more trouble finding them than it thought. I wonder if the regional law firms it's been approaching have noticed how much damage has been done to the reputation of any lawyers who get involved in these sorts of "pay up or we'll sue" shakedowns. In the end, I don't doubt that a few more regional lawsuits will be filed. Dunlap/USCG wants to have its "demo" cases it can point to, so that people will pay up, but it's increasingly sounding like the vast majority of those originally sued will not see those cases go anywhere.

Filed Under: copyright, lawsuits
Companies: us copyright group

US Copyright Group Drops Thousands Of Cases... But Will It Refile?

from the we-shall-see... dept

There's been some talk about the news that US Copyright Group has dropped thousands of people from the mass lawsuit it filed over file sharing the movie Far Cry, instead focusing just on 140 individuals who it believes live within Washington DC where USCG (really law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver) are located. Of course, this isn't a surprise. DGW has been saying they planned to drop the non-local defendants and refile the lawsuits in specific jurisdictions when it had that information. What remains to be seen is whether or not DGW actually follows through on that threat. The law firm had claimed to be retaining lawyers around the country to work with it on the local cases, but some have questioned whether or not that's really happening. If it's true, it'll certainly raise some questions about the whole USCG business model, which promises to get filmmakers money from forcing file sharers to pay up. Except, the economics of such plans don't work all that well if you ever have to take people to court -- which was illustrated nicely in the UK with ACS:Law, which never actually took anyone to court over file sharing. I could certainly see DGW/USCG trying to "make an example of" a small group of folks in DC, but if people realize that it's only really going after DC residents, that could lead anyone outside of the area to ignore USCG, once again cutting into its "business model."

Filed Under: copyright, jurisdiction
Companies: us copyright group