US Requests 12-Year Prison Sentence For Prenda 'Copyright Troll' Lawyer (torrentfreak.com) 66
"The U.S. is recommending a 12.5 year prison sentence for Paul Hansmeier, one of the lead attorneys of the controversial law firm Prenda," reports TorrentFreak:
Last summer, Hansmeier admitted that he is guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering. With the final decision coming up, the Government and the defendant have now issued their sentencing recommendations. According to the Government, it is clear that Hansmeier was the driving force behind the entire scheme.... "Paul Hansmeier selected the pornographic movies for his brother to upload based upon how attractive they would be to BitTorrent users, thus deliberately encouraging the piracy Hansmeier pretended to hate," the Government writes...
With the IP-addresses that were obtained through this honeypot scheme, Prenda requested subpoenas to obtain the names and addresses of Internet subscribers. These people were then threatened into settling for figures up to $3,000. Whether they were guilty or not appeared to be irrelevant. "Hansmeier was generally content to take this step without investigating whether the subscriber was, in fact, the infringer. Hansmeier thus inflicted plenty of pain on persons who did not, in fact, download his pornographic bait," the Government writes.
In total, Prenda Law generated roughly $3,000,000 from the fraudulent copyright lawsuits they filed at courts throughout the United States. While it is by no means illegal to go after file-sharers, the Prenda attorneys crossed a line by repeatedly lying to or misleading the courts. Hansmeier also filmed and produced many videos himself, leading the court to believe that these were from a third-party company... Also, the court was led to believe that pirates caused financial damage, even though the videos were never commercially distributed.
Arguing for a sentence of 150 months, the government writes that Hansmeier "was greedy, arrogant, devious, mendacious, and consistently positioned other people to be damaged by his conduct, even as he enjoyed the proceeds of the scheme he orchestrated." Hansmeier's attorney counters that his client should spend no more than 87 months in prison, with an additional three years of supervision -- and that there should be no fine, since restitution will be paid to those damaged by his scheme.
"Either way," writes TorrentFreak, "it is clear that the Prenda attorney will likely spend several years in prison."
With the IP-addresses that were obtained through this honeypot scheme, Prenda requested subpoenas to obtain the names and addresses of Internet subscribers. These people were then threatened into settling for figures up to $3,000. Whether they were guilty or not appeared to be irrelevant. "Hansmeier was generally content to take this step without investigating whether the subscriber was, in fact, the infringer. Hansmeier thus inflicted plenty of pain on persons who did not, in fact, download his pornographic bait," the Government writes.
In total, Prenda Law generated roughly $3,000,000 from the fraudulent copyright lawsuits they filed at courts throughout the United States. While it is by no means illegal to go after file-sharers, the Prenda attorneys crossed a line by repeatedly lying to or misleading the courts. Hansmeier also filmed and produced many videos himself, leading the court to believe that these were from a third-party company... Also, the court was led to believe that pirates caused financial damage, even though the videos were never commercially distributed.
Arguing for a sentence of 150 months, the government writes that Hansmeier "was greedy, arrogant, devious, mendacious, and consistently positioned other people to be damaged by his conduct, even as he enjoyed the proceeds of the scheme he orchestrated." Hansmeier's attorney counters that his client should spend no more than 87 months in prison, with an additional three years of supervision -- and that there should be no fine, since restitution will be paid to those damaged by his scheme.
"Either way," writes TorrentFreak, "it is clear that the Prenda attorney will likely spend several years in prison."
Wait! What? (Score:3)
There's a business model involving downloading porn?
Are they hiring?
"and that there should be no fine" (Score:2)
Restitution? How exactly?
Either the victims had to pay that $3000, or defend themselves; either carries extra stress (and potential embarrassment/peripheral pain) beyond the costs that was purposely inflicted by this asshole. They should definitively fine the maximum possible.
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"Paul Hansmeier selected the pornographic movies for his brother to upload ..."
So the the person that ordered the upload was the copyright owner, the upload was intentional. If someone stands in the street with a stack of books they wrote themselves and gives one to everyone that asks there is no crime. If the author instead instructed someone else to distribute books in the same manner there would still not be any crime.
Of course the people downloading the crap wouldn't be aware of that.
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Checks? In Australia it would be "cheque" and ... pretty much no-one uses them anymore, money is transferred directly between bank accounts.
Faster, safer, cheaper.
And no-one except the recipient would see "The Anal Sex and Fetish Perversion Company" on their bank statement.
Re: or just stop stealing porn (Score:2)
I have no sympathy for IP theft of any sort
Thanks but no one recalls asking. ;)
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Prenda Law targeted people that hadn't illegally downloaded porn. Perhaps you could consider being sympathetic towards those people?
Karma (Score:3)
Well, looks like one troll will be introduced to a new kind of "peer to peer sharing".
But the fines should be made sufficient to cover the outlay that the targets had to pay Prenda, plus the "pain and suffering"/lost work days etc. that have been due to this.
I'm just finding all this quite sad; seems like ethics is treated as just another obstacle to circumvent to make a profit/gain more personal power these days. Politics, business and even on the personal level.
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Wouldn't that be peer to rear sharing?
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*sight* What's with the sadistic delight in the potential suffering of others?
And "these days"? Read some history, today is much better in general. Of course one individual can get in contact with millions easily due to the internet so there's that.
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He's going from being Prenda to Brenda.
Produced content himself (Score:5, Funny)
The icing on the cake would be if it turned out one of the talents was underage.
He should have gotten Smollett's lawyer (Score:2)
Hansmeier's attorney counters that his client should spend no more than 87 months in prison
Not a very good negotiator; he should be asking for a dismissal of all charges - just because.
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Could we stop calling scammers/extortionis trolls? (Score:3, Insightful)
Thank you.
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Hansmeier should get LIFE!!! (Score:2)
Disclaimer: I come from an extended family of Lawyers. (Sadly)
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I would be surprised if there were actually many accused that were innocent. Do you think the religious married man with four children will readily admit that he downloaded "boy backblasters II - night of exploding dicks"? Sure there will be mistakes like when it's the wife that secretly likes to watch grown men wrestle and while it may legally be a problem in proving a certain person did it statistically those cases aren't relevant.
Repayment (Score:2)
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Absolutely a good start, but a reasonable restitution to his victims would seem to be called for as well. Maybe 50-100% of what he extorted.
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Should have to repay ever single person he ever sued or got money from
That's where i was going with that... not every person he ever sued, as some may be legitimate... but all of his victims from this fraud/extortion. It should be 100%, and we might throw in some extra for the pain and suffering and collateral losses because of it.
He's also tried to extory people with ADA lawsuits (Score:5, Informative)
This guys debauchery isn't limited to internet piracy.
He also had a penchant for suing restaurants and businesses for supposed ADA compliance violations, of course offering to settle for a few grand instead of going to trial.
https://minnlawyer.com/2018/08... [minnlawyer.com]
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Copyright office...patents?
Moron.
Hollywood owns the D party outright.
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I just got a headache :(
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In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman (I do believe the chapter "I Want My Dollar!"), Feynman talks about being contacted by someone trying to get him to come up with everything that could possibly be nuclear-powered and patent it. These parasites have been around a lot longer than you are giving them credit for.
Given the previous information you can find the chapter online easily but I encourage you to read the book -- it is qui
Insufficient punishment (Score:2)
Merely incarcerating this guy isn't sufficient. Incarceration and castration seems more equitable.
Re: Insufficient punishment (Score:2)
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Maybe you should see a professional about your sick castration fetish?
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He's nothing but a low-down, double-dealing, backstabbing, larcenous perverted worm! Hanging's too good for him. Burning's too good for him! He should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive!
Does that mean (Score:2)
Deterrence? It's like soap, isn't it? (Score:2)
Right. Because it's a universally accepted legal principle that a wrongdoer who gets caught should, in the absolute worst case, break even. Go
back to square one, if you like.
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"Because it's a universally accepted legal principle that a corrupt business owner who gets caught should, in the absolute worst case, break even."
The revision is the way it actually works. Just ask a Wall Street banker.