Lawsuit Against First US Copyright Trolls For Extortion Ends In Victory

from the nicely-done dept

A few years ago, we wrote about how a guy named Dimitry Shirokov, with help from the law firm of Booth Sweet had taken on the "fathers" of copyright trolling in the US, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, who had formed an organization called US Copyright Group, which initiated the first round of mass copyright trolling in the US (before the likes of Prenda and others entered the space). Shirokov had tried to make his lawsuit a class action against the lawyers, claiming fraud and extortion. And while the class action part was unfortunately rejected, the case has ended with a victory for Shirokov, with the judge ordering DGW to pay $39,909.95 ($3,179.52 to Shirokov and the rest in attorneys' fees to Booth Sweet).

The money to Shirokov was a result of DGW basically caving (it has long since dropped its copyright trolling efforts), and offering to pay up to settle the case and close it out. The latest ruling was just about the attorneys' fees to pile on top. While Booth Sweet notes that the victory is bittersweet because they'd hoped for the class action to fly and because they'd sought a lot more in attorneys' fees, it is still a victory on the books against trolling, which hopefully will come in handy in other such cases.

Filed Under: copyright trolling, dimitry shirokov, dunlap, extortion, grubb, weaver
Companies: booth sweet, dunlap grubb and weaver, us copyright group