New DeFazio title - Troll Hunter

Peter DeFazio is on the hunt, his targets are business shakedown artists known as Patent Trolls.

Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced the SHIELD Act, which would create a "loser pays" system for some types of patent litigants. The bill is meant to stymie companies that do nothing more than file patent lawsuits.

You know, people are really smart. It's like regulating Wall Street. You regulate this one product, and they can figure out a new one. But we're trying to have a standard that a normal human—and a judge—could understand.
They could plead at the beginning of the case. Establish the status of the entity that is the plaintiff. And if they come up as a non-practicing entity, or a troll, under these definitions, then they know if they go forward, they're on the hook. We're making [the fee-shifting] mandatory, if the defendant prevails. Last time we left a lot more discretion for the judge. This time we're narrowing that, so it's a clearer message.
The second thing we're also putting in is some bonding. If it's established they are going to be on the hook in this case for the fees, if they don't prevail, then they're going to have to bond.

I previously blogged on a variation of this, copyright trolls who aim their suits at individual consumers who download movies using BitTorrent.  Those Trolls fall into the same category, opportunistic shakedown artists..

Legal Shakedown in Oregon

All I can say to this story is Wow, somebody's gotta stop these folks.  It seems that a law firm in Salem, Crowell Law, is filing "illegal downloading" lawsuits against ordinary citizens alleging they used Bit Torrent to download movies, thus avoiding paying for them.  Anybody who has rented a movie knows that you can probably get any title you want for less than $20, but the lawsuits are demanding $7,500 in the next two weeks, or risk facing a judgment of as much as $150,000.  One of the movies in question was a bloody Steven Seagal title "Maximum Conviction", which needless to say was not considered for an Oscar.

Apparently this breed of lawsuit is relatively new in Oregon but Crowell has now named over 1,000 people in Oregon in nine different suits since Fedruary.  This is being described in the Oregonian article as a "reverse class-action in which hundreds of defendants are named. That allows plaintiffs pay a single filing fee -- typically a few hundred dollars -- as opposed to filing and paying for hundreds of individual suits".

This is a fear tactic plain and simple.  Lawyer Kelly Rupp who represents one of the accused said "This movie is worth $12.99 on Amazon. But these cases don't seek that. If all 371 'John Does' on this lawsuit ultimately pay $3,000 or $2,000, they're shaking down Oregon residents for more than a million dollars."

UPDATE:  05/14/2013.  A Federal Judge in Medford isn't buying into their shakedown, she dismissed 34 suits in Southern Oregon.  Good for her.

The judge said cases such as Voltage's allow plaintiffs to "use the courts' subpoena powers to troll for quick and easy settlements." She cited a letter sent to defendants that asks $7,500, saying that amount would increase up to $150,000 without prompt payment.