[karajorma]

Guys, if you haven't been following this story, you really should have been, because what started out as a simple case of copyright trolling has expanded into a hilarious case of the plaintives doubling down on stupid.

Basically the case is that a company called Prenda Law had a habit of sending letters to people threatening to sue them for illegally downloading porn movies. Unfortunately they sent the wrong person a letter and it went to court. In the course of the trial it appears that Prenda Law actually own the porn company they claimed were their client and that they had actually put the torrents up themselves in a bid to trap people into downloading them so that they could be sued.

At this point in time Prenda Law have been stuck with a large(ish) fine but have decided to appeal. It gets even better. Where else are you going to find a law case with quotes like this?

Pregerson: And you're a great lawyer.
Voelker: I appreciate you saying that, Your Honor.
Pregerson: I mean, it says so, right there on your web site.

http://popehat.com/2015/05/04/prenda-law-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-appellate-argument/#more-23757

[watsisname]

I have nothing to add but

[deathspeed]

 

I've been watching this trainwreck on techdirt for a while now.  I'm not a lawyer and have not even played one on TV, but even I know it is bad to evade judges' questions and lie to them.

[The E]

I was wondering when the next episode of Courtroom hilarity with Prenda would come out.

[headdie]

I have a spade if they want to use it to keep diging

[Luis Dias]

Ah, so that's what that Popehat's tweetstorm was all about. He had amazing quotes and I kept wondering where that came from. Hilarious indeed!

[karajorma]

I've been following this case in Ars Technica for years now. In fact, I even posted about it a couple of years back. And it keeps getting funnier. Every time you think that Prenda Law should just try to get the **** out while they can they go and do something worse.

When the original case was found against them I thought that would be the end of it, but instead they decided to appeal it. And then today during the appeal they flat out ask the judge to turn it into a criminal case.

Part of me is starting to wonder if there isn't some excentric billionaire backing this as a kind of very slow boil performance art satirising the legal system.

[Herra Tohtori]

Oh, these were the guys that pissed off the judge so badly that he slammed them with legal fees "carefully calibrated to be just below the cost of effective appeal"?

And they appealed nonetheless?


A whole barrel of fun, they are. 

[The E]

When the original case was found against them I thought that would be the end of it, but instead they decided to appeal it. And then today during the appeal they flat out ask the judge to turn it into a criminal case.

I think this kind of brinkmanship is the only road they can go, at this point. They protested the Wright sanctions on the grounds that they were criminal sanctions for a civil lawsuit, and that they should have been able to defend themselves according to the rules of a criminal lawsuit. Asking for this whole thing to be thrown back into a proper criminal lawsuit follows logically from that (Assuming, of course, that Prenda's principal actors are deluded enough to think that they're going to have a good chance at not getting even heavier penalties there).

[karajorma]

I know, but it's hilarious that they can't see that this is a game of brinkmanship with only one possible ending.

Most people would have cut their losses before trying to back the entire US judcical system into a corner where the only possible option is to charge you with extortion and put you on trial for it. If you're innocent maybe that might be a good move but when you really are guilty and you know that they have evidence to prove it.....?

[qwadtep]

You'd think they'd have learned from Viacom that suing over the videos you yourself uploaded doesn't work.

[Klaustrophobia]

Well I for one am glad they are idiots, because I thought they got off very light the first time around.

[Colonol Dekker]

Pregerson — who began the day by announcing it was the 70th anniversary of his battle wound on Okinawa — was relentless.

That's the judge I'd want in my corner.

[Klaustrophobia]

wait what.  jesus, how old is this guy?

[Herra Tohtori]

91, if this is the guy.

[MP-Ryan]

Ken White (Popehat) and Adam Steinbaugh's coverage of Prenda and the livetweeting of that court appearance was comedy gold.