Lawyer ethics, champerty and maintenance, and I'm getting sued

[angry.bob]

So, long story short I'm being sued by German IP lawsuit trolls IPP International UG/APMC/Guardalay via a local lawyer here in Ohio. I'm not too worried about it since I'll just declare bancruptcy and fuck off out from any judgement. I'm probably not even going to answer the suit and email him a clip of me jerking off onto the default judgement.

Here's my thing though: this situation reeks to me of champerty, and Ohio from what I understand is the only state that has anti-champerty laws in place. Is this a valid reason to make a complaint against this kid with the Ohio Bar Assc? Even better would it be grounds for any sort of countersuit? The kid graduated from law school a couple of years ago after getting a journalism degree so I find it improbable that he had no idea who he was climbing into bed with professionally or that Ohio has laws against lawsuits initiated and funded by a third-party, out of country investment corporation.

Any thoughts from the lawyers here? I'm not asking for binding legal advice, but I really would like to destroy this person's professional and personal lives without much (or any) blowback on myself. First for constipating my day and secondly for advertising himself as "The lawyer who listens to Jeezy". Also he looks slimy as a motherfucker and I hate everything I can find out about the guy.

[Hawkbit]

If he's out of Columbus, PM me the lawyer's info.  My wife practices in Seattle now, but still maintains her license and contacts in OH in case we ever decide to move back.  I'm sure she'd like to share this douche's contact info with her OH attorneys. 

We do not like slimy lawyers.

[Rendakor]

I think we need Nerf on the case.

[Hawkbit]

Yeah, let me clarify:  I'm not actually doing anything with that information other than letting some other OH attorneys know about a slimeball. 

[Merusk]

I'm more interested in knowing the answer to this question.  What on earth did you do to get noticed by German IP trolls?  Something I'd like to avoid.

[Paelos]

I'm more interested in knowing the answer to this question.  What on earth did you do to get noticed by German IP trolls?  Something I'd like to avoid.

You really want to pull at this thread? 

[Abagadro]

Sounds Nerftastic.

[angry.bob]

I'm more interested in knowing the answer to this question.  What on earth did you do to get noticed by German IP trolls?  Something I'd like to avoid.

There's a couple things you can do actually. One of them is download any of Matthew McConaughey newer movies. The other, which I did was download porn films produced by X-Art.com.

There's a whole saga involving this company. Their internal business presentation was leaked a while back but what they do is they advertise and send salesmen to entertainment companies, preferably porn companies. The offer to "protect" their IP from piracy of a negotiated split of the settlements. From what people have figured out it's about 20% goes to the content producer, the rest goes to the German company and the lawyer. The company then logs bt traffic of people downloading their "subscriber's" IP. They've been caught a couple times putting out big honeypot torrents that never complete to drive up the number of infringements per defendant as well as the time they spend with the files available. They don't just log their customer's IP traffic by the defendants, they log ALL the BT traffic and use it to cold call more clients as well as introduce as "evidence" to shame people into settling out of court. Their own documents state they only sue IP addresses in wealthier areas because they want people with enough money to settle and who would be embarrassed enough at a lawsuit to jump at settling. They maim for settlements between $3,500 and $30,000. The average settlement appears to be in the $3000-$4000 range. There are several websites dedicated to documenting the companies and lawyers involved. The whole thing is shady as fuck and most of the lawyers seem like real pieces of shit. Like one of them is still suing an old man he knows is innocent to get legal fees. It's probably a lot of fun reading, you can google the German company's name. They had 3 different names because apparently after a period of time their local lawyers have ruined reputations and courts just dismiss their suits.

[angry.bob]

I think we need Nerf on the case.

If I wanted the guy gutfucked with a screwdriver or sharpened toothbrush I could handle that without posting about it.

[Phildo]

So you're being sued for torrenting porn?

[Merusk]

Ah, Downloading films.  Yeah I'll continue to avoid doing that then.  

Yes I'm a goody-goody.  If I don't want to blow $7 on a saturday morning on some shit movie I sure as hell don't want to blow however many hours and dollars defending myself if I get caught.

[Phildo]

My house got a cease-and-desist letter for torrenting a season of Entourage once.  The guy who was doing it was a random from Craigslist, who proceeded to not kill his torrent and we received a Final Warning from Comcast a few days later.  Good times.

[Paelos]

Ah, Downloading films.  Yeah I'll continue to avoid doing that then.  

Yes I'm a goody-goody.  If I don't want to blow $7 on a saturday morning on some shit movie I sure as hell don't want to blow however many hours and dollars defending myself if I get caught.

Same, but for the reason I just think it's stealing. I don't torrent anything, games, movies, etc. It's wrong.

[Merusk]

I wasn't even going to start THAT argument. (Seeing as I agree with and benefit from IP laws professionally, I'm on a bad spot to argue it anyway.  )

[angry.bob]

So you're being sued for torrenting porn?

Yes. I've downloaded porn since 1990, almost exclusively from USENET. It's great but if something is put for more than a year and isn't a "classic" genre defining piece it can be impossible to find. Hence, sullying my hands with torrents.

I hadn't thought much about it, but I'm more ashamed of using BitTorrent than I am of downloading and watching barely legal teen porn.

Same, but for the reason I just think it's stealing.

Well, I'm totally okay with that too, since it doesn't deprive anybody else of anything. American copyright laws are bullshit crafted by multimedia conglomerates to feed them money for eternity. If patents or almost anything else worked the same way I'd have infinity money right now.

[Sky]

Maybe we can bring the tin man and lion into the discussion next.

[angry.bob]

The morality or legality of downloading isn't the point of the thread, otherwise I would have put it in politics. So lets just stick to the original topic of this particular lawyer. And how he must be broken at the wheel of sad regrets.

[jgsugden]

My only advice - get the anger in hand before deciding on a game plan.  There are a lot of attorneys that are much richer because they took on angry clients willing to go above and beyond to punish someone... throwing bad money after worse money.

[Engels]

My only question is why download porn at all these days. I mean, you're having a wank, not providing for your progeny's sexual awakenings.

[angry.bob]

My only question is why download porn at all these days. I mean, you're having a wank, not providing for your progeny's sexual awakenings.

First world problems: Lower than 720p annoys me to the point of distraction.

[schild]

x-art

fuck me sued for artsy porn

what a nerd

[rattran]

I think getting a local lawyer would be a good start, see what they say about the anti-champerty stuff.

[Ginaz]

My only question is why download porn at all these days. I mean, you're having a wank, not providing for your progeny's sexual awakenings.

First world problems: Lower than 720p annoys me to the point of distraction.

Seriously, use Pornhub, XHamster, Tube8 or whatever else.  I haven't paid for porn in almost 15 years and I know some of those sites I listed have a growing list of HD movies.  Genre defining piece???  Pick random scenes and bookmark the ones you like.

[Hawkbit]

x-art

fuck me sued for artsy porn

what a nerd

So close to haiku.

[Rendakor]

My only question is why download porn at all these days. I mean, you're having a wank, not providing for your progeny's sexual awakenings.

First world problems: Lower than 720p annoys me to the point of distraction.

Seriously, use Pornhub, XHamster, Tube8 or whatever else.  I haven't paid for porn in almost 15 years and I know some of those sites I listed have a growing list of HD movies.  Genre defining piece???  Pick random scenes and bookmark the ones you like.

Aren't porn streaming sites all infested with malicious ads?

[KallDrexx]

My only question is why download porn at all these days. I mean, you're having a wank, not providing for your progeny's sexual awakenings.

First world problems: Lower than 720p annoys me to the point of distraction.

Seriously, use Pornhub, XHamster, Tube8 or whatever else.  I haven't paid for porn in almost 15 years and I know some of those sites I listed have a growing list of HD movies.  Genre defining piece???  Pick random scenes and bookmark the ones you like.

Aren't porn streaming sites all infested with malicious ads?

That's why god invented Adblock

[schild]

Thumbzilla. use Thumbzilla.

[Merusk]

I read somewhere, not long ago, that porn sites are actually some of the most malware-free places out there these days because they make so much money on ads it behooves them to be proactive.

Yeah, it surprised me too.

Google turned this up, but it's not what I read, which was linked through reddit
http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/malware/310499-porn-sites-aren-t-always-dens-of-malware

[calapine]

Seriously, use Pornhub, XHamster, Tube8 or whatever else.  I haven't paid for porn in almost 15 years and I know some of those sites I listed have a growing list of HD movies.  Genre defining piece???  Pick random scenes and bookmark the ones you like.

Not a bad advise, but not completely foolproof. In Germany this year there was a case were several thousand (10,000+) people received written warnings for watching porn on Redtube. Basically trollish lawyers claimed to hold copyrights and some technically illiterate judges got tricked into believing this was a case of file sharing (rather than streaming) and giving them the users IP.

This got big enough to enter all the mainstream press & TV. The lawyers got counted sued, the court rescinded their own written warning (Abmahnung). The lawyer went bankrupt and lost their license by now, but they might have gotten away with it hadn't it blown up to a national stage.

English language article

[Ginaz]

Seriously, use Pornhub, XHamster, Tube8 or whatever else.  I haven't paid for porn in almost 15 years and I know some of those sites I listed have a growing list of HD movies.  Genre defining piece???  Pick random scenes and bookmark the ones you like.

Not a bad advise, but not completely foolproof. In Germany this year there was a case were several thousand (10,000+) people received written warnings for watching porn on Redtube. Basically trollish lawyers claimed to hold copyrights and some technically illiterate judges got tricked into believing this was a case of file sharing (rather than streaming) and giving them the users IP.

This got big enough to enter all the mainstream press & TV. The lawyers got counted sued, the court rescinded their own written warning (Abmahnung). The lawyer went bankrupt and lost their license by now, but they might have gotten away with it hadn't it blown up to a national stage.

English language article

Meh, I'm not worried if people know I watch porn.  Being in the army for 21 years, my GAF factor for what others think is pretty low.  Most of my friends and the guys I work with watch and the women I know wouldn't care.  It's not like I watch kiddie porn and animal sex.

[schild]

People: take my thumbzilla advice, it's everything from Pornhub and then some with all of the ads removed and better filtering.

[NowhereMan]

Guys! Bob is obviously looking for clear and simple legal advice advice for his unfortunate situation. Please stop dragging the conversation into the gutter with your talk of porn streaming, he is being sued for downloading High Definition, Beret Wearingly Explicit Art. Let's not make this about something tawdry.

Also I am genuinely looking forward to hearing if something comes of this, partly because I suspect Bob might be the right balance of pyschotic and fully functioning to manage to successfully pursue legal avenues. Also partly hoping to get the link to a local news story about the the Day of the Rope starting early.

[Signe]

Really.  I'm sad about porn but I think angry.bob is awesome anyway and I've known him here for like forever.  I would hate to see him tossed into the slammer.  I would fear for the rapists and murderers who cross his path.  Srsly, though, this is very much the sort of thing that disturbs me.  From what angry.bob says, it looks like their hoping people break their very silly rules just so they can sue them.  If not hoping, they at least see it as an opportunity to make some dosh on the side.  Why else would you only sue in wealthy areas.  Obviously they're not trying to protect anything or make a righteous point.  This is very stinky.  Good luck to angry.bob.  Make them cry!

[SurfD]

Really.  I'm sad about porn but I think angry.bob is awesome anyway and I've known him here for like forever.  I would hate to see him tossed into the slammer.  I would fear for the rapists and murderers who cross his path.  Srsly, though, this is very much the sort of thing that disturbs me.  From what angry.bob says, it looks like their hoping people break their very silly rules just so they can sue them.  If not hoping, they at least see it as an opportunity to make some dosh on the side.  Why else would you only sue in wealthy areas.  Obviously they're not trying to protect anything or make a righteous point.  This is very stinky.  Good luck to angry.bob.  Make them cry.

The truely scummy part is that the lions share of the profit they make off this tactic revolves around the idea that it is ususally cheaper for the people they hit to settle out of court for 2 or 3 k then it is to actually absorb the legal costs / lost time costs / emotional stress / etc of attempting to prove their innocence (and a signifigant chunk of them ARE innocent too.)

[angry.bob]

The truely scummy part is that the lions share of the profit they make off this tactic revolves around the idea that it is ususally cheaper for the people they hit to settle out of court for 2 or 3 k then it is to actually absorb the legal costs / lost time costs / emotional stress / etc of attempting to prove their innocence (and a signifigant chunk of them ARE innocent too.)

Indeed. The cost to hire a lawyer who deals with this group constantly and almost surely just changes names, dates, etc on paperwork wanted $1250 just to negotiate a settlement with them. The cost to hire them to actually go to court was something like $5000 for something then $250 an hour. I don't know exactly what the initial $5000 was for because I was still in trying to process the $1250 charge to do something I could pretty much do for free on my own with a phone and/or email account.