Copyright Trolls

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They're out there. People who scour the internet looking for possible copyright violations (real or not) in the hopes of getting some $$$ from some poor soul. Certain news photographers are known for it.

Column: This porn company makes millions by shaming porn consumers​

Strike 3 Holdings is a Southern California maker of pornographic films that identifies its products as “high-end, artistic, and performer-inspiring motion pictures produced with a Hollywood style budget and quality.” It has bragged that Greg Lansky, a former owner and the firm’s leading auteur, has been called the porn industry’s “answer to Steven Spielberg.”

There’s more to Strike 3, however. Here’s how U.S. Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Washington, D.C., described the firm:

“Strike 3 is ... a copyright troll,” Lamberth wrote in 2018. “Armed with hundreds of cut-and-pasted complaints and boilerplate discovery motions, Strike 3 floods this courthouse (and others around the country) with lawsuits smacking of extortion. It treats this Court not as a citadel of justice, but as an ATM.” He likened its litigation strategy to a “high-tech shakedown.”

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Column: This porn company makes millions by shaming porn consumers

Strike 3 Holdings says it's the creator of 'artistic' and 'inspiring' pornography. Some judges call it a copyright troll that makes millions by threatening to out those who download its films.

www.latimes.com

 

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EFF Reminds the Supreme Court That Copyright Trolls Are Still a Problem​

At EFF, we spend a lot of time calling out the harm caused by copyright trolls and protecting internet users from their abuses. Copyright trolls are serial plaintiffs who use search tools to identify technical, often low-value infringements on the internet, and then seek nuisance settlements from many defendants. These trolls take advantage of some of copyright law’s worst features—especially the threat of massive, unpredictable statutory damages—to impose a troublesome tax on many uses of the internet.

On Monday, EFF continued the fight against copyright trolls by filing an amicus brief in Warner Chappell Music v. Nealy, a case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. The case doesn’t deal with copyright trolls directly. Rather, it involves the interpretation of the statute of limitations in copyright cases. Statutes of limitations are laws that limit the time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. The purpose is to encourage plaintiffs to file their claims promptly, and to avoid stale claims and unfairness to defendants when time has passed and evidence might be lost. For example, in California, the statute of limitations for a breach of contract claim is generally four years.

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EFF Reminds the Supreme Court That Copyright Trolls Are Still a Problem

At EFF, we spend a lot of time calling out the harm caused by copyright trolls and protecting internet users from their abuses. Copyright trolls are serial plaintiffs who use search tools to identify technical, often low-value infringements on the internet, and then seek nuisance settlements from...

www.eff.org

 

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Copyright trolls are out in force around the world. And the pandemic is their perfect excuse

Worldwide, cases of individuals receiving notifications for illegally downloading films and music are common. During the pandemic, with people staying more at home and the number of streaming services growing, P2P sharing technologies such as torrenting have again grown in popularity.

Along with it, there’s also been a growth of notifications sent by copyright trolls seeking to get money from users who, in fear, end up not seeking their rights and paying immediately what these trolls demand. In many cases users are wrongly notified, IPs are poorly identified or in many cases it is virtually impossible to know exactly who actually downloaded the files illegally.

The use of P2P sharing apps, such as those using the Torrent protocol, is not illegal - as in sharing personal files or files not protected by copyright. The situation becomes more complicated when file sharing of copyrighted material takes place.

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https://cybernews.com/editorial/copyright-trolls-are-out-in-force-around-the-world/

 

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IP law - whether copyright, patent or trademark - is a cesspool of gamesmanship.

 

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YouTubers Getting Crushed By Massive Copyright Violation Scams

Youtube copyright hijackers are stealing videos from prominent Youtube channels resulting in literally millions of copyright violations and the platform's administrators do nothing to stop it.

garlandrnixon.substack.com

 

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Copyright is a Civil Liberties Nightmare

If you’ve got lawyers and a copyright, the law gives you tremendous power to silence speech you don’t like. Copyright’s statutory damages can be as high as $150,000 per work infringed, even if no actual harm is done. This makes it far too dangerous to rely on the limitations and exceptions to...

www.eff.org