“John Doe” Accuses BitTorrent Copyright Troll of Using Menacing Pressure Tactics * TorrentFreak

Home > Lawsuits > Copyright trolls >

A man accused of downloading adult movies via BitTorrent responded to the Strike 3 Holdings 'copyright troll'. In a filing in federal court in Maryland, the defendant denies any wrongdoing. Instead, he is holding Strike 3 in contempt of court, as a process server allegedly pressured him to negotiate a settlement, violating a court order.

In recent years, adult entertainment company Strike 3 Holdings has filed thousands of cases in US federal courts.

These lawsuits are directed at individuals whose internet connections were allegedly used to download and share copyright infringing content via BitTorrent.

This practice is often described as "copyright control" and cases rarely go to trial. Instead, they are generally settled with settlements, where the defendants agreed to pay a sum of money to have the case dismissed.

Prevent misuse

In recent years, the courts have grown weary of this legal scheme. Some no longer accept these types of lawsuits and other courts provide clear and detailed instructions to prevent misuse.

The latter also applies to the federal court in Maryland, which allows Strike 3 to obtain the personal data of alleged offenders, but with strict guidelines.

The information cannot be used "to harass" defendants, for example, and Strike 3 cannot directly participate in any settlement communication. Instead, all attempts to reach an agreement require prior court approval.

In a recent case, Strike 3 violated these rules, argues defense attorney J. Curtis Edmondson. The attorney represents a native of Cameroon, who immigrated to the United States and has since become naturalized. The man works in an NGO where he helps people infected with HIV / AIDS.

'No connection to offenses'

Strike 3 linked your IP address to repeated copyright infringement. However, according to the defense attorney, there is nothing other than the IP address to suggest that his client was involved. As such, he denied the allegations in a recent court filing.

"There is nothing in the public record to remotely suggest that John Doe was the infringer of the works, rather the search would reveal that John Doe is a professional and is the author or co-author of numerous scientific publications," Edmondson writes.

"Since there was no information connecting John Doe to the alleged infractions, Strike 3's intention at this point going forward was to pressure John Doe to about the minimum discomfort fix [to] Strike 3 'pay' to avoid financial risks to his family. "

While there may be no indication that "John Doe" is a pirate, authors of scientific publications can easily infringe on copyrights. The same goes for the elderly, doctors and firefighters.

'Threatening process server'

That said, John Doe's background is not the main issue here. Defense attorney J. Curtis Edmondson argues that Strike 3 was in contempt of court because the process server who was hired to serve his client used threatening pressure tactics.

It started one morning in August when John Doe's wife saw a red Hyundai car parked in the driveway. The driver sat there for about half an hour before knocking on the door and asking to speak to John Doe.

Doe's wife explained that her husband was on an important work call, but the process server responded that it was a "very important matter" and urged him to come. In fact, this is what happened, and when the man reached the door they handed him a thick envelope.

"... This is a legal document for a deposition related to the downloading of pornographic material from the Internet ..." the process server said then, to the best of John Doe's recollection.

These comments were allegedly made while Doe's wife and son were present, and he responded by saying he had no idea what it was about. However, that didn't help much.

'Trying to be discreet'

"... by the way, I'm trying to be discreet so that your wife doesn't find out ...", the Process Server then said, according to Doe's recollection adding that: "... we all do things like that sometimes ... and watch adult content movies ..."

The trial server continued to emphasize that this is a very important matter and reportedly told John Doe to call the attorney listed on the document. That would be Strike 3's lawyer.

'Pressure to settle'

John Doe's attorney argues that the process server's behavior and comments were intended to pressure him to resolve the matter, which would violate the court order.

“Process Server's act of threatening John Doe and his family by parking on their property for a period of half an hour before and half an hour after was a clear signal to force John Doe to call Strike 3's attorney to discuss the settlement in violation of ECF 6, paragraph 5. "

"The Process Server's statements to John Doe for him to call Strike 3's attorney were made with the intent that John Doe would initiate settlement negotiations directly with Strike 3," adds Doe's attorney.

In addition to that, the defense indirectly argues that the behavior of the trial server could also be viewed as 'harassment', which would also violate the court order.

As a result, John Doe is now fighting Strike 3 for contempt of court and seeking damages to prevent such litigation abuses from going forward. In addition, the Cameroonian immigrant also requests a declaratory judgment to confirm that he did not participate in any activity that infringes copyright.

-

John Doe's response to the complaint and the counterclaims are available. here (pdf)