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The US government is opposing a request by copyright troll lawyer Paul Hansmeier, who asked the court for a reduced prison sentence due to hardships he endured under coronavirus restrictions. The United States prosecutor points out that these conditions were the same for everyone, and highlights that the lawyer continues to make new victims from his prison cell.
Two years ago, a U.S. District Court in Minnesota sentenced Paul Hansmeier to 14 years in prison.
Hansmeier was a key player at the Prenda law firm, which started cases against individuals suspected of downloading pirated pornographic videos via BitTorrent.
This practice in itself is not illegal, but Hansmeier and his partner John Steele entered criminal territory when they lied to the courts, committed identity theft, and created a honeypot for going up self produced torrents of pornography to The Pirate Bay as bait.
The allegations eventually resulted in prison sentences for the two key players. Today, Hansmeier and his former colleague John Steele are in prison. While the latter received a reduced sentence for his cooperative stance, Hansmeier continues to use all possible means to reduce his sentence.
Reduction of COVID sentences
Last month, the disbarred attorney asked a Minnesota federal court to reduce your sentence of 14 years in prison. A shorter sentence would be appropriate to make up for the extraordinarily difficult living conditions in prison due to COVID restrictions, he argued.
"As well-intentioned as these measures may have been, these measures subjected the Respondent to conditions that were orders of degrees harsher than this Court could have reasonably anticipated," wrote Hansmeier.
Before the court rules on this motion, it heard an opinion from the Federal Prosecutor's Office, which vehemently disagrees with this request. In a response sent this week, the government sees no "extraordinary and compelling" reason for a reduction in the sentence.
The United States sees no reason for a reduction
The United States recognizes the restrictions that were put in place, but emphasizes those that apply to all inmates. If Mr. Hansmeier's argument was accepted, almost all inmates should get a sentence reduction.
"The cost charged to Mr. Hansmeier for the modified Sandstone operating regime was no different or more severe than the cost charged to each healthy inmate at Sandstone," US Attorney Anders Folk reports to the court.
The Federal Prosecutor's office also points out that the lawyer has not stopped his controversial activity. He continues to sue suspected pirates from jail.
โSpecifically, Mr. Hansmeier has continued, while incarcerated, to sue individuals for copyright infringement for downloading pornographic content that Mr. Hansmeier planted on websites to attract downloaders,โ writes the US Attorney.
Honeypot continues from prison
U.S covered this new honeypot scheme A few months ago and according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, there are now approximately 20 lawsuits that are "causing stress and aggravation to new victims."
For the federal prosecutor, these cases are also quite personal. They are more than the typical 'trolling' lawsuits, as US Attorney Anders Folk and other federal employees are also listed as defendants.
Mr. Hansmeier's goal is to obtain a declaratory judgment to declare his pornography trolling scheme legal, which provides another angle to fight his sentence.
The federal prosecutor clearly disagrees with this tactic. Based on the lack of legal arguments and the fact that Hansmeier continues his legal campaign against suspected pirates, the court should reject the request to reduce the prison sentence from 14 years, argues the United States.
Regardless of what the court decides, we hope that Mr. Hansmeier will continue to use whatever legal means he has to fight his stay in prison.
