

Brett Gibbs Gets His Day In Court — But Prenda Law Is The Star - faithful_droog
http://www.popehat.com/2013/03/11/brett-gibbs-gets-his-day-in-court-but-prenda-law-is-the-star/

======
mrmaddog
This post was enthralling, but could have used some context. Here's a quick
background I've picked up from a brief read-through of Ars Technica's
extensive coverage [1]:

\- Prenda Law is a law firm that filed many lawsuits against individuals
related to porn copyright, asking for lots of $$$ to drop the suit. Prenda's
lawyers include John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, and Paul Duffy

\- On the other side of the suit is Morgan Pietz (a lawyer representing a John
Doe), as well as Alan Cooper. Cooper filed a suit against Prenda for using his
identity (signatures, address, etc), claiming that in reality he had nothing
to do with the company. Cooper's lawyer is Paul Godfread (who is mentioned a
couple times in the article)

\- Brett Gibbs, whom this case has mostly been about, worked with Prenda Law,
though it sounds like he may have been in over his head or had actions
attributed to him which were actually the result of Steele/Hansmeier/Duffy's
work.

Do let me know if I've misinterpreted anything/missed any base details.

<http://arstechnica.com/series/whos-behind-prenda-law/>

~~~
jmillikin
First line of the OP: previous coverage of Prenda Law is at
<http://www.popehat.com/tag/prenda-law/>

~~~
mrmaddog
And there's definitely a lot of great reading material there. This earlier
piece has a great exposition, though it is on the long side:
[http://www.popehat.com/2013/03/06/what-prenda-law-is-
facing-...](http://www.popehat.com/2013/03/06/what-prenda-law-is-facing-in-
los-angeles/). I do recommend reading it—it is just as engrossing as the OP.
What I couldn't find was a 2 minute summary that could let me understand who
the main characters are in this case. Hopefully we'll have a Wikipedia page
for this case up soon.

------
Natsu
If you want to know just what a mess they're in, know this: the attorneys for
the Prenda attorneys have attorneys.

It's amazing that the guy who claims he had his identity stolen could make it
to that courtroom when the Prenda lawyers could not, but it's not like we
didn't see this coming. Perhaps some Federal Marshals will arrange for their
transport to the next hearing?

~~~
acchow
I think for Marshals to get involved, the DA would have to prosecute.

~~~
Natsu
Some commentators, like Popehat, are speculating that a criminal referral
might be in the cards. This is entirely possible.

------
ajtaylor
This write up, and the previous ones on the same site, are better than any TV
drama. Mostly because a real-life troll is actually getting what's coming to
them. Many thanks for the extensive coverage. I can't wait to see just how
hard the judge slaps them in the season finale!

------
DanBC
So, this is copyright trolling, and not patent trolling.

But why is this example of non-practicing entities using law to troll for
(copyright) damages seen as terrible by this judge, when non-practicing
entities using law to troll for (patent) damages seen as great by other
judges?

(Also, the federal thing is confusing to me, but I'm going to web search an
answer for that.)

EDIT: Thanks for submitting a Popehat article. It was really good. I like
torrentfreak, but this article had more legal "stuff"; a feeling of legal
truthiness.

~~~
jahewson
Because these guys appear to be crooks, it's doubtful that they own any IP or
have any IP-owning clients.

~~~
danielweber
No, it seems they do have the rights to the works. They had the basic right to
pursue legal action against infringers.

But they, allegedly, did all sorts of fraud and identity theft along the way,
and kept digging the hole deeper when people started sniffing around.

It's the cover-up, not the crime.

------
acchow
This was an epic story. Can't wait to hear the conclusion.

------
paranormal
There's a comment by a Brad Hicks halfway down on that article about how
ridiculous it was that Judge Wright allowed surprise testimony from the
audience. It's even stranger that it was an attorney, who would be acutely
aware of the normal consequences of something like this, who ventured to do
so!

The comment goes on to say

> _(The next place my mind went was, "well, if Prenda wants to establish
> grounds for appeal, if they need more evidence that the judge is prejudiced
> against them, didn't they just find the smoking gun?" I mean, if someone
> with only a peripheral involvement in the case had jumped up in the audience
> and called The Real Alan Cooper a liar, would the judge have tolerated
> that?)_

but has received no response on Popehat so far. As a layman, I'm wondering the
same thing.

~~~
Mvandenbergh
Judges have quite a lot of power and independence when it comes to
investigating misconduct in their own court-rooms that they don't have in
normal cases.

------
huhtenberg
I see no traces of Erlang in this story.

~~~
zapdrive
Why were you looking for traces of Erlang in this story?

~~~
chris_wot
I look for traces of Erlang in _every_ story.

~~~
zapdrive
Ha ha. I am fascinated with Erlang as well. But never really got any time to
pick it up.

------
megablast
<http://www.techdirt.com/> has been following this extensively as well, and
helped me get up to speed.

[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130311/19422822287/deep-d...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130311/19422822287/deep-
dive-analysis-brett-gibbs-gets-his-day-court-prenda-law-is-star.shtml)

If aren't a regular, techdirt is one of the more important websites to read on
a weekly basis.

------
stock_toaster
Great write up.

