Design Basics LLC v. Lexington Homes, Inc. If a Billy Goat Gruff moves to confront a copyright troll in court, the troll cuts and runs back under its bridge. Perhaps the trolls fear a court disrupting their rinse-wash-and-repeat approach: file a deluge of complaints; ask the court to compel disclosure of the account holders; settle as many claims as possible; abandon the rest. Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe , F. Congress created a Copyright Claims Board to become effective at the end of this year to reduce the cost of litigating certain copyright disputes.
Harris, January 6, The Board has jurisdiction over claims seeking declaratory judgment of noninfringement. This change may enable defendants to more easily dispute the claims of a copyright troll. However, there is a time limited right to opt out of these expedited and less expensive proceedings, which may allow an astute troll to continue its profiteering ways through the normal litigation process.
The federal courts are aware of the copyright troll problem. Doe, F. Courts have noticed the growth of companies who file thousands of copyright infringement cases in very short periods of time. See, e. Doe No. Later, Democratic Underground secured a declaratory judgment against Stephens Media determining that it did not infringe Stephens Media's copyright.
Tad DiBiase. DiBiase runs a website at www. The Court found that Righthaven was not entitled to seize DiBiase's domain name. Later, the federal court determined that Righthaven did not own the copyright, and dismissed the litigation. In these cases the owners of the adult movies filed mass lawsuits based on single counts of copyright infringement stemming from the downloading of a pornographic film and improperly lumped hundreds of defendants together regardless of where the IP addresses indicate the defendants live.
The motivation behind these cases appears to be to leverage the risk of embarrassment associated with pornography to coerce settlement payments despite serious problems with the underlying claims.
The judge in several of the cases filed in West Virginia has blocked plaintiffs from proceeding against almost all of the defendants in those cases —approximately 5, people. Unfortunately, thousands of defendants in other cases are still under threat. This bill ORG domain registry. EFF and Join EFF Lists.
Recently, we have received numerous concerns from clients in regards to copyright infringement due to images posted on their webpages or blogs. Law firms will reach out to companies demanding a significant sum of money in exchange for a release of copyright infringement claims.
If you receive one of these letters or accusations, take a step back and consider the following before you agree to settle. It is very common for a copyright troll to accuse the wrong person. Is it actually your website or your blog that posted the images? Hold the troll to demonstrating they have actually registered the copyright for the work. The troll is threatening large damages because the actual damages available are likely so low that it would not be worth going to court.
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