Get the Global IP Investigations and Enforcement Perspective

Industry content delivered straight to your inbox.
Email address
Secure and Spam free...

Copyright Trolls and Their Sinister Ways–UPDATE

In September 2019, I published a post under the same title. The post highlighted the strategy used by attorneys retained by adult film studios to collect damages from persons who allegedly downloaded their client’s adult film content.

There are few problems with this approach, but one of the most fundamental is that these plaintiffs claim to identify the person who actually downloaded the content, when, in fact, there is no digital forensic evidence to prove it.

*See my previous post which provides the details of how these legal actions work: Copyright Trolls and Their Sinister Ways

Defendants often pay the claim to avoid any public association with adult film content.

It was reported in Bloomberg Law today that U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly in January wrote:

“Many courts have articulated concerns about the motivations involved in pursuing these types of cases, which appear to be extortive, forcing individuals, who would be embarrassed by allegations that they have been visiting pornographic websites, to pay nuisance-value amounts to keep their names out of publicly-available documents.”

But, in 2019, a retired police officer refused to pay the film studio, counter-sued, and the plaintiff dropped the suit.

And not only that, but it was also reported in Bloomberg Law (link below) that the film studio was ordered to pay almost $48,000. in legal fees to the retired officer’s attorney.

How about that!

“Big Law Lawyer Turned Porn IP Enforcer Loses After Rare Defense” Bloomberg Law

Disclaimer: IPPIBlog.com is offered as a service to the professional IP community. While every effort has been made to check information in this blog, we provide no guarantees or warranties, express or implied, with regard to content provided in IPPIBlog.com. We disclaim any and all liability and responsibility for the qualification or accuracy of representations made by the contributors or for any disputes that may arise. It is the responsibility of the readers to independently investigate and verify the credentials of such person and the accuracy and validity of the information provided by them. This blog is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended to provide legal or other professional advice.

Did you find this post useful?
I agree to have my personal information transfered to MailChimp ( more information )
Join other IP protection professionals, i.e., investigators, attorneys, and brand protection specialists and receive updates straight to your inbox.
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

Ron Alvarez is an IP investigations and protection consultant and writer in New York City. He is a former NYPD lieutenant where he investigated robbery, narcotics, internal affairs, and fine art theft cases. Ron has since coordinated the private investigation of international fraud and money laundering cases, as well as IP-related investigations and research involving the four pillars of IP: copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Ron is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and earned a B.A. in Government and Public Administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. He has written a number of articles for various investigative publications, as well as published "The World of Intellectual Property (IP) Protection and Investigations" in November 2021.

0 comments on “Copyright Trolls and Their Sinister Ways–UPDATE

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Get the Global IP Investigations and Enforcement Perspective

Industry content delivered straight to your inbox.
Email address
Secure and Spam free...
%d bloggers like this: