Last Updated on August 20, 2026 by Rob Cashman

First of all, who is TorrentLawyer, the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC, @houstonlawy3r, attorney Rob Cashman.

My name is Rob Cashman, and I am an attorney and the author of the articles posted on TorrentLawyer.

1. Professional Biography

Rob Cashman is a seasoned Patent Attorney & Copyright Infringement Attorney (USPTO Reg. No. 60,246), with over 17 years of experience in intellectual property law, specializing in copyright infringement cases. He graduated from Touro law school in New York and acquired his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 2006, where he specialized in patent law, intellectual property law, and federal court litigation.

Rob is licensed to practice in the state of Texas, in New York, before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and before the US Patent & Trademark Office. He is licensed by and is in good standing by both the New York Bar (NYS Office of Court Administration (OCA)) since 2007, and by the State Bar of Texas since 2010.

As the founder of the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC, he has successfully represented numerous clients against claims from copyright holders, most recently, Strike 3 Holdings LLC, Siemens Industry Software Inc., and Ansys, Inc. His deep understanding of digital piracy laws and commitment to protecting client rights make him a leading authority in this field.

The Cashman Law Firm PLLC also helps clients defend against cybercrimes, domain name seizures, software licensing issues, and patent and copyright infringement actions. It is located in Houston, Texas in Harris County.

Because Rob Cashman often deals with entities known as “patent trolls” and “copyright trolls,” the lawsuits surrounding his law firm’s cases are [with minimal exceptions] filed in the federal courts across the U.S.

about-rob-cashman-attorney-author — geralt / Pixabay

2. Case Studies

Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org) Introduction

After founding the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC in 2010, Rob Cashman was practicing as a patent attorney, and writing articles on the Cashman IP website about “patent trolls” and “non-practicing entities.” Shortly after starting his firm, he was contacted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org) in 2010, where they were asking Rob and a handful of attorneys to investigate the new phenomenon of mass bittorrent-based copyright infringement lawsuits.

In these new kinds of lawsuits, one copyright holder would file a copyright infringement lawsuit against thousands of “John Doe” (placeholders for) Defendants. They would ask the court to allow the plaintiff copyright holder to send a subpoena to the ISP, which then would send a notice to the internet subscriber that they were implicated as a potential defendant in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

DMCA Settlement Demand Letters

In 2013, copyright holders found a way to achieve the same result (of soliciting a settlement) without filing a lawsuit in the federal courts. They did this by sending a DMCA letter to the ISPs, along with a note to the account holder that if he did not click on a link and pay a settlement to the copyright holder, they would file a lawsuit against them in federal court.

Thus was born the Copyright Enforcement Group (a.k.a. “CEG-TEK”).

I was not a fan of this method of copyright enforcement, and while representing clients against them, I wrote the article, Why CEG-TEK’s DMCA settlement system will FAIL.

CEG-TEK eventually did fail, and in 2017, it was replaced by another copyright enforcement company called “RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT” (no relation to CEG-TEK). Fortunately, this second company flopped as quickly as it opened its doors.

In the meantime, we represented clients against Malibu Media, LLC, a prolific copyright troll who filed thousands of lawsuits in federal courts across the US. In 2016, Malibu Media LLC stopped filing lawsuits, and the Strike 3 Holdings, LLC lawsuits began.

Successful Defense Against Strike 3 Holdings LLC Lawsuits

In 2016, Rob Cashman began representing clients accused of illegally downloading content from Strike 3 Holdings LLC. Through meticulous research and strategic legal arguments, he was able to demonstrate on his TorrentLawyer.com website insufficient evidence for the claims made against his clients.

However, through analyzing legal arguments, such as:

lack of personal jurisdiction,
improper joinder,
the application of character evidence to copyright infringement cases, and
why to (or why not to) file a motion to quash a subpoena,
the “ignore” route
sending a “no settlement” letter

Rob realized that every case — regardless of whether any of these strategies applied or not — would stand or fall on the testimony his client would provide Strike 3 Holdings in a deposition.

Thus, he publicized the rule that “when an accused downloader did not do the downloading, they should not settle the claims against them, and vice versa.” As a result of his efforts, Rob Cashman was able to achieve favorable settlements for his clients who needed to settle.

3. Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients who have benefited from Rob Cashman’s legal services can be found here.

This page contains years of unedited testimonials formerly posted on Genbook. This was the calendaring service that the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC used for many years.

More recent testimonials can be found on the Cashman Law Firm PLLC’s Google Places page, which can be found here.

Image of the Google Places page for attorney Rob Cashman, and his Cashman Law Firm, PLLC. Note on the picture the link to view the current 38 testimonials.

Client Testimonials (from the Google Places site)

“I highly recommend his services to similar victims of copyright trolls.”

“I emailed him and he immediately responded to my request.”

“I greatly appreciate Rob’s speedy and informative communication.”

4. Educational Resources

In addition to the 200+ articles found on the CashmanLawFirm.com and TorrentLawyer.com blogs, in 2017, Rob Cashman published articles categorized under the “TORRENTLAWYER UNIVERSITY,” where he explained the various topics encountered in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE), as they apply to the unfolding case law contained in the online filesharing copyright infringement lawsuits.

TORRENTLAWYER UNIVERSITY

In these articles, we explored what you need to know if you receive a lawsuit notice from a copyright holder (most recently, Strike 3 Holdings LLC) indicating that you are accused as a John Doe Defendant. These articles helped our clients learn about their rights, potential defenses, and how to navigate this complex legal landscape.

Article: “NAMED AND SERVED | When a Defendant Stops Being a John Doe“, 4/21/2017

Topic Covered:

WHEN IS A “JOHN DOE” DEFENDANT NAMED AND SERVED?

Article: “When is the best time to hire an attorney in a John Doe copyright lawsuit?“, 3/21/2017

Topics Covered:

Article: “WHY IP ADDRESS-BASED COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT LAWSUITS ARE QUESTIONABLE, AND WHY WE CALL THOSE WHO FILE THEM ‘COPYRIGHT TROLLS’”, 3/16/2017:

More generally, these articles discussed what exactly is a “copyright troll,” and what happens when an attorney becomes corrupted by a copyright troll (namely, they become what I’ve called a “settlement factory,” or a “volume-based discount law firm.”

WHAT IS A COPYRIGHT TROLL?

We also outlined for our readers basic information about IP address-based copyright infringement lawsuits, and we helped our readers understand the difference between actual damages and statutory damages.

WHY IP ADDRESS-BASED COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CASES ARE BASED ON CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

ACTUAL DAMAGES VS. STATUTORY DAMAGES

5. Media Appearances and Publications

Rob Cashman has been featured in various legal forums discussing copyright infringement issues, most recent related to 1) IP address-based copyright infringement cases, 2) software piracy cases, and most recently, 3) adult entertainment companies.

Most of these appearances have taken place on Twitter (X.com), on LinkedIn.com, and on Reddit.

Rob Cashman has also been referenced in articles written by TorrentFreak.com, and various newspaper articles over the years.

6. Schedule a Consultation

If you are facing allegations from a company enforcing its copyrights in the federal courts, or if you have received a DMCA “Settlement Demand Letter” in the mail from your ISP, or if you have questions in general about copyright law, please feel free to contact Rob Cashman at the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC (https://www.cashmanlawfirm.com) today for a free consultation.

7. Rob Cashman, a bit more about me (in my own words).

HACKTIVISTS AND ANONYMOUS.

Although I have spent close to seventeen years on the “piracy” side of the debate, and on more than one occasion I have sided with ‘Anonymous’ and ‘hacktivist’ groups who advocate for the elimination of copyright protections, I do believe in protecting one’s ideas and one’s creative expressions for the purpose of advancing technology and stretching our imaginations, but that is where it stops (more on this in a second).

AARON SWARTZ, A HERO

As an activist, Aaron Swartz was a hero of mine. [I took a really long time to get through this sentence because quite honestly, years later I still want to cry when I think about what happened.] I believe that Aaron had the right idea when it came to copyright rights, the free flow of information, and proactively making changes when big organizations stifle the free flow of information. So while I do believe strongly in copyrights and ‘intellectual property’ rights as any attorney would, I become an activist when those rights are abused and are mishandled.

POLITICALLY AGNOSTIC

Politically, I’m an agnostic. I do not believe that either party represents the values of their party, and thus both sides dislike me.

I don’t like the idea of party politics, especially because each side (if they voted authentically) would sometimes vote to the left, and sometimes vote to the right. I suppose that makes me an independent.

LOBBYISTS, BEWARE.

I abhor lobbyists who distort the laws to favor their special interest group, I abhor pork barrel spending and all government spending where only a few cents of every dollar allocated to a project actually go to that project, and I abhor politicians.

POLITICIANS, BEWARE.

The reason that I do not believe in politicians because they can be and are too often corrupted, and quite frankly, I am jaded about politics in general because I believe authentic statesmen such as those we read about in the textbooks are few and far in between.

In truth, I do not care if someone is a democrat or a republican, as long as he is AUTHENTIC in his beliefs but when he votes, he votes according to the beliefs of the citizens who elected him into office. Otherwise, he does not represent the people and should be thrown out of office.

TO KNOW ME AS A FRIEND

To know me as a friend, I love science fiction novels and shows. I gobble books on hard sciences, literature, and I study religious texts with a fervor.

Even more than books, I enjoy shows which put those hard-to-grasp-concepts on display in a palpable fashion where a viewer can sit back and absorb the atmosphere and the surroundings.

My favorite TV series of all time was Battlestar Galactica, at times in my life I have been a competitive gamer, and my friends would often joke that “as long as there is a spaceship in the TV series, Rob will watch it.”

PHYSICS, RICHARD FEYNMAN, AND LEONARD SUSSKIND

I have even gone so far as to study books on advanced physics with a pen and paper (I’m an avid Richard Feynman fan and a Leonard Susskind fan), and I enjoy comparing the technologies I see on the sci-fi shows with real technology, as technology has advanced to meet and in some cases, surpass the tech we’ve see on the sci-fi shows from the 1950s.

AUGMENTED REALITY, VIRTUAL REALITY, ADVANCEMENTS.

Most notably, I spent quite a bit of time thinking up augmented innovations to advance the concept of a contact lens (or, content to be shown on the lens of a Google Glass or a pair of glasses) to allow the interaction with digital items not physically present (e.g., reading and turning the pages of digital books, or watching video through the lens projected on a wall), where those digital items are not seen to anyone not wearing a similar lens. This was a cool idea when I started hashing it out, but as technology advanced, it becomes less and less exciting. That being said, glasses today are woefully underutilized.

MY OTHER WRITING & RESEARCH

Outside of my legal practice, I am the founder of Missing Variables™, an independent project exploring questions involving science, philosophy, observation, and the nature of knowledge.

MY BELIEFS ABOUT COPYRIGHT LAW:

Where my staunch belief in intellectual property rights stops is that I simply do not believe that rights holders should offensively use those rights as a weapon to punish others. Copyright law was meant to be a shield to protect the innovator, not as a legal weapon to impoverish the end user and their families with endless legal threats, extortion-like tactics, uneven legal playing fields, and statutory damages that could force any family into bankruptcy.

WHY I DEFEND “JOHN DOE” DEFENDANTS IN COPYRIGHT TROLL LAWSUITS:

I defend those accused downloaders of copyrighted videos not because I believe in the free flow of information (meaning, “[fill in the blank] should be free!”), but simply because there is a grave injustice done when a movie entity or copyright holder mismanages the rights that have been bestowed upon it (I see a copyright as both a right to prevent unfair competition AND a responsibility to do good with that copyright).

THESE MAKE ME ANGRY:

…When movie companies make garbage productions with recycled movie plots;

…When movie companies do not police their own copyrights when they are leaked onto the internet (with DMCA takedown notices to the online IP address trackers);

…When groups of movie entities get together and form organizations such as the MPAA or the RIAA in order to wield power rather than do justice, and that power is used to manipulate the politicians to pass ever-increasing severe penalties and punishments for infringement of their movies; and

…When parasite companies license rights to movies and file lawsuits masquerading as those movie companies (when in many cases they do not even have the right to sue because they have not properly secured the copyright rights), well, this all makes me angry.

IN SUMMARY

For these reasons, I have taken the time to uncover the frauds and the schemes these so-called copyright holders use to empty the pockets of too many families. If you want to know what makes me ‘tick’ when I defend a “John Doe” defendant, now you know.

IF YOU STILL WANT TO SPEAK TO ME:

WITH ALL THIS SAID, IF YOU STILL WANT TO SPEAK TO ME, Please feel free to fill out the Contact Form to the right, or e-mail us (info@cashmanlawfirm.com), text us your question (713-364-3476), or simply schedule a time for us to call you.

CONTACT FORM: If you have a question or comment about what I have written, and you want to keep it *for my eyes only*, please feel free to use the form below. The information you post will be e-mailed to me, and I will be happy to respond.

NOTE: No attorney client relationship is established by sending this form, and while the attorney-client privilege (which keeps everything that you share confidential and private) attaches immediately when you contact me, I do not become your attorney until we sign a contract together. That being said, please do not state anything “incriminating” about your case when using this form, or more practically, in any e-mail.