Popehat's report on yesterday's Prenda Law hearing is delightful and amply demonstrates why Ken is a great damn writer and you should be reading Popehat.
This really is just too good. Loved when it turned out that even the random laywer in the crowd had information to throw on the bonfire.
I'm just astounded by the combination of stupidity and balls involved in this scam. I mean, at least people who run Ponzi schemes put some EFFORT into appearing legitimate.
I understand the greed part. I just don't understand how they thought they could get away with it. Like I said earlier, if all they'd done was shake people down for blackmail money they could have gotten away with just having their business shut down; it's the layers of incompetent and half-assed fraud that are really breathtaking and liable to lead to disbarment and possible incarceration.
Technically it still exists, but every single rep took the Fifth when called on to explain its actions. Whatever litigation it hasn't already dropped is going to be thrown out and it'll never bring a successful suit again.
And we're not even to the part where the judge recommends sanctions yet.
This order is catastrophic to Prenda and its attorneys. It will be filed in every case in which they are fighting sanctions across the nation, and cannot help but have a galvanizing effect on those proceedings. The U.S. Attorney's Office will very likely launch a grand jury investigation, and the IRS CID will assist. Federal grand jury investigations are very slow, but represent experienced practitioners bringing almost unlimited resources to bear against their targets. State bars and federal bars will launch their own investigations. Prenda Law's principals will face dangerous, expensive, relentless attacks from all sides, and it is entirely possible they will face criminal charges if the feds agree with Judge Wright's conclusions.
All the best decisions have Star Trek references.
Latest allegations: the calls were coming from inside the house. Prenda was seeding the films THEMSELVES.
Which of course begs the question, is it piracy if the file is intentionally uploaded to Pirate Bay by the rightsholder?
Or, phrased more aggressively: is it fraud if the rightsholder intentionally uploads the file to Pirate Bay and then threatens to sue people for downloading it?
Every time I read this thread my brain goes "oh well I guess Prenda is the worst thing possible, they can't get any worse from here"
Comcast apparently confirms the torrents originated from within Prenda.
You know, we haven't seen a nice long Prenda post in a while. Let's fix that.
Nothing exceptionally new, but lots of updates about how they're getting savaged in six (!) different federal district courts all at once, complete with loads of court orders filled with straight-faced snark. Turns out federal judges are really, really good at writing that.
At this point, I really am surprised that they haven't tried to flee the country (under assumed names or otherwise), but I suppose there's hubris as mentioned. Also, there's the possibility that they HAVE tried, if that enigmatic comment about Lutz at Miami airport holds any weight.