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Living Room / Re: Prenda Law shall troll no more.
« Last post by 40hz on April 04, 2013, 03:37 PM »Did anybody stop to wonder where they originally got the IP addresses of the people they extorted?-app103 (April 04, 2013, 10:48 AM)
Yes. And it was this same federal district judge by the name of Otis Wright - who basically called BS on the core approach Prenda Law was taking.
In his Order to Show Cause ruling back in December of 2012 he openly challenged the use and veracity of nothing more than an IP address when filing a lawsuit such as this one. He also noted the potential for harm and coercion if it were allowed to go forward.
The Court is concerned with the potential for discovery abuse in cases like this. Ingenuity 133 accuses the Doe Defendant of illegally copying a pornographic video. But the only information Ingenuity 13 has is the IP address of the Doe Defendant. An IP address alone may yield subscriber information. But that will only lead to the person paying for the internet service and not necessarily the actual infringer, who may be a family member, roommate, employee, customer, guest, or even a complete stranger. Malibu Media LLC v. John Does 1–10, No. 2:12-cv-01642-RGK-SSx, slip op. at 4 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 10, 2012). And given the subject matter of Ingenuity 13’s accusations and the economics of defending such a lawsuit, it is highly likely that the subscriber would immediately pay a settlement demand—regardless whether the subscriber is the actual infringer. This Court has a duty to protect the innocent citizens of this district from this sort of legal shakedown, even though a copyright holder’s rights may be infringed by a few deviants. And unlike law enforcement in child pornography or other internet crime cases, the Court has no guarantee from a private party that subscriber information will not abused or that it would be used for the benefit of the public. Thus, when viewed with the public interest in mind, the Court is reluctant to allow any fishing-expedition discovery when all a plaintiff has is an IP address—the burden is on the plaintiff to find other ways to more precisely identify the accused infringer without causing collateral damage.
Thus, the Court hereby ORDERS Ingenuity 13 TO SHOW CAUSE in writing by December 31, 2012, why early discovery is warranted in this situation. No appearances are necessary. Under Ninth Circuit precedent, a plaintiff should ordinarily be allowed discovery to uncover their identities, but discovery may be denied if it is (1) clear that discovery would not uncover the identities, or (2) that the complaint would be dismissed on other grounds. Gillespie v. Civiletti, 629 F.2d 637, 642 (9th Cir. 1980). Ingenuity 13 must demonstrate to the Court, in light of the Court’s above discussion, how it would proceed to uncover the identity of the actual infringer once it has obtained subscriber information—given that the actual infringer may be a person entirely unrelated to the subscriber—while also considering how to minimize harassment and embarrassment of innocent citizens. Ingenuity 13 must also explain how it can guarantee to the Court that any such subscriber information would not be used to simply coerce a settlement from the subscriber (the easy route), as opposed to finding out who the true infringer is (the hard route).
I am really starting to like this judge.
Otis D. Wright II may be the person who finally gets this nonsense sorted out once and for all.
) as it is a question of economics and the "fix vs replace" calculation. The old adage: Speed/Price/Quality - pick any two! has never been so true as it has with computer hardware. The simple truth is you pretty much get what you pay for. And people are not willing to pay too much in the way of a premium just to get reliability. Most would just rather replace something when/if needed. And that lower reliability does keep the upfront costs down. So in an era of financial management where getting your boss to even look as far down the road as the current quarter (as opposed to the current month) when it comes to spending and "making the numbers" is quixotic at best, cheap less reliable hardware wins the day.