In June, 2017, our Cashman Law Firm, PLLC had its first glimpse of the North Carolina Headhunter, LLC subpoenas. Seeing their connection to Carl Crowell’s RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT company, we immediately created a Headhunter Productions FAQ page which addressed the NC Headhunter subpoenas. The ‘copyright troll’ attorney who filed the NC Headhunter cases is Kathleen Lynch (“Kathleen Maher Lynch”), of Lynch Van Sickle, PLLC in Cary, North Carolina. If this is the first time you are seeing her law firm’s name and you do not recognize a copyright troll, you are not looking carefully.
Now the name “Kathleen Lynch” might not mean anything to you yet, but if you look at her “Lynch Van Sickle, PLLC” law firm, this might jog your memory of R. Matthew Van Sickle (a.k.a. Ross Matthew Van Sickle) of the I.T. Productions North Carolina lawsuits. The new law firm name is slightly different (Van Sickle Law, PC [then] vs. Lynch Van Sickle, PLLC [now]), but the ugly troll rears his head. In other words, looking at Van Sickle’s involvement in this new copyright troll, we must suspect that we are dealing with a RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT copyright troll, and… [checking Carl Crowell’s RightsEnforcement website] vwallah!
NC Headhunter Subpoena Cases – This is Wave 1 (July, 2017)
Even though the Headhunter, LLC copyright troll is new and pink, we already understand the strategies of the common troll entity behind the scenes. Understanding that Matt Van Sickle is Kathleen Lynch’s partner in these lawsuits, now we have an idea of how these cases will unfold because we know the proclivities of the copyright troll lawyers behind the scenes.
We are suggesting that those accused of being a John Doe Defendant in any of the NC Headhunter cases to read the Headhunter Productions Subpoena FAQ, which we posted on our law firm’s website.
Why do we believe a common troll entity is behind the new Headhunter, LLC cases?
[RECAP: Seeing Matt Van Sickle’s name, I immediately realized that we were likely dealing with a common troll entity. It took 5 seconds to visit Carl Crowell’s RightsEnforcement.com website and see that the “A Family Man” movie was explicitly listed as one of their clients. This confirmed my suspicion that we were dealing with yet one more common troll entity set of lawsuits.]
I understand that a common troll entity licenses the rights from movie production companies to “enforce” the copyrights for that company. Here, they approached the production company who filmed and copyrighted the “A Family Man (2016)” movie, and they licensed the rights to enforce (think, sue) the copyrights owned by this production company. Hence the Headhunter settlement extortion scheme lawsuits were born.
Where are we in the timeline of the Headhunter, LLC cases?
The first wave of Headhunter, LLC cases were filed in June, 2017. North Carolina federal judges appear to have rubber-stamped these new lawsuits, just as they have done with past bittorrent-based copyright infringement cases.
Headhunter attorney Kathleen Maher Lynch (armed with orders from the NC federal judges) sent subpoenas to AT&T U-verse subscribers, and AT&T subpoena notices (called “Notice of Subpoena for Records”) were sent to the ISP’s subscribers who were implicated in the NC Headhunter lawsuits. These subpoena notices were all sent by AT&T’s “GLOBAL LEGAL DEMAND CENTER.”
NEXT: NC HEADHUNTER, LLC SUBPOENAS DUE ON AUGUST 5TH, 2017.
*The first wave of NC Headhunter, LLC subpoenas ALL appear to be DUE IN AUGUST, 8/5.*
This means that unless an accused defendant wishes to file a motion to quash the subpoena, AT&T is under a duty to hand over the names of the subscribers accused of being John Doe Defendants in these North Carolina Headhunter, LLC cases.
However, it must be noted that the 8/5 deadline is merely the deadline that AT&T U-verse has given their subscribers. Chances are that they will provide the names of the subscribers implicated in the North Carolina Headhunter, LLC subpoenas at some future date (as listed on the subpoena itself).
To see the actual deadline by when your AT&T U-verse ISP must hand out your information to the NC Headhunter, LLC attorney, check the subpoena itself included in the packet you received from your ISP.
What are your options in defending or resolving claims in a Headhunter, LLC North Carolina-based case?
If you have read this far, you are likely one of the John Doe Defendants in this case, and thus here are your options on how our Cashman Law Firm, PLLC (or any other competent copyright litigation attorney) can help you in this case.
OPTION 1: FIGHT
In this option, your attorney would fight this case on your behalf. Since the Headhunter, LLC scam has been exposed through the past lawsuits of their parent entities, the inherent weaknesses in Kathleen Lynch’s case are now well known. This option is more expensive than the other options, but it is probably the most satisfying option when you win and ask for attorney fees from Headhunter, LLC.
OPTION 2: SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATIONS
Settlement negotiations does not mean that you downloaded the movie or that you are guilty of copyright infringement. Rather, it simply means that you want to pay to have the plaintiff attorney dismiss you from the lawsuit. This option can be used by both ‘guilty’ and ‘innocent’ defendants. While I do not recommend an innocent defendant pay ANYTHING to settle the claims against him, I do not judge defendants when they choose this option.
OPTION 3: “NO SETTLEMENT REPRESENTATION”
This is the discounted “no settlement” representation route that I discussed here. In the span of 2-3 hours, I would consult with the client, send over a letter of representation to the plaintiff attorney (to stop him from contacting the client directly). I would then draft a letter to the plaintiff explaining that my client did not do the download, and that we are not interested in anything other than a walkaway settlement, meaning that my client pays no settlement. The purpose of this representation is to put Kathleen Lynch on notice that my client is not the infringer she is looking for.
OPTION 4: “IGNORE” ROUTE REPRESENTATION
The ignore route is best described as ‘playing chicken.’ I best described the “ignore” route, and how it differs from the “no settlement representation” routehere. The assumption with the “ignore” route is that Kathleen Maher Lynch is not yet naming and serving defendants in this case, so you would hire our Cashman Law Firm, PLLC to monitor the case for you. We would send over a letter of representation indicating that we are representing you in the case, but we would not engage in settlement negotiations.
The intended client for the ‘ignore’ route is the innocent client that wishes to have a more ‘hands on’ engagement with their case over the “no settlement” representation letter route, where their attorney is actively monitoring the case and having active discussions with the plaintiff attorney. Both ‘guilty’ and ‘non-guilty’ defendants can utilize the “ignore” route, as this option is adjustable based on the circumstances of the client. If Kathleen Lynch decides to start naming and serving defendants, a ‘guilty’ client would likely have me open up settlement negotiations on his behalf, whereas a non-guilty client would instruct me to not settle and adhere to the ‘ignore’ strategy. Obviously getting named and served while in this strategy would be cause to decide whether to shift strategies to the “fight” or “settle” strategy, which is fine.
I discussed the “argue minimum statutory damages” representation option in this article. The purpose of this option is to take the settlement negotiations away from a misbehaving plaintiff attorney. Instead of negotiating a settlement (where the plaintiff is asking for too much money), we would file an answer with the court admitting infringement, and we would then make the case for the judge to award minimum statutory damages of $750.
The intended client for the “minimum statutory damages” representation route is a client who did the download and either does not want to go through settlement negotiations, or who wants to take settlement negotiations out of the hands of the plaintiff attorney / copyright troll and leave the damages up to the judge to decide. Obviously since we are admitting guilt in this option, it is appropriate for the client to have done the download to use this strategy.
However you decide to proceed, if I can be of assistance or answer any questions about your Headhunter, LLC North Carolina case, please let me know.
LIST OF RECENT NORTH CAROLINA HEADHUNTER, LLC AT&T SUBPOENA LAWSUITS
Below is the list of NC Headhunter lawsuits filed between 6/16-6/30:
Filed within the North Carolina Eastern District Court: Headhunter, LLC v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 5:17-cv-00310) Headhunter, LLC v. Does 1-10 (Case No. 2:17-cv-00029) Headhunter, LLC v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 5:17-cv-00318) Headhunter, LLC v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 5:17-cv-00296) Headhunter, LLC v. Does 1-11 (Case No. 5:17-cv-00325)
Filed within the North Carolina Middle District Court: HEADHUNTER, LLC v. DOES 1-8 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00545)
Filed within the North Carolina Western District Court: Headhunter, LLC v. Does (Case No. 3:17-cv-00342)
WHERE ELSE IS HEADHUNTER, LLC FILING THEIR LAWSUITS (OUTSIDE OF N.C.)?
NY: Headhunter LLC v. Doe-69.124.0.132 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-04155) Headhunter LLC v. Doe-173.56.227.169 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-05314)
OR: Headhunter, LLC v Doe-71.236.186.17 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00901) Headhunter, LLC v. Doe-50.53.158.186 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00900)
PA: HEADHUNTER, LLC v. JOHN DOES 1-11 (Case No. 2:17-cv-02986) HEADHUNTER, LLC v. JOHN DOES 1-10 (Case No. 2:17-cv-02985)
VA: Headhunter, LLC v. Doe-73.191.98.246 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00793), and
WA: Headhunter, LLC v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:17-cv-00987)
CONTACT FORM: If you have a question or comment 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.
While our law firm represents ME2 Productions, Inc. defendants as clients in a number of states (specifically, those states in which we can ‘pro hac’ into and represent a defendant should settlement negotiations go awry), I simply cannot track every single bittorrent-based lawsuit that is filed across the U.S. However, I do know of subpoenas received by John Doe Defendants in a number of cases are due today.
This article should be a simplistic “what do I do” article. Nothing new will be introducedhere for those of you who have read my blog in the past. At best, this will be a quick refresher of what happens at the pretrial stages of a copyright infringement lawsuit before a John Doe Defendant is named and served.
Because I am neck deep in cases, instead of writing out this article, I am dictating it into a recorder and am paying someone to transcribe it for me. Thus, pardon the conversational tone. This is really the way I speak.
[Lastly, some of you have e-mailed me asking why I am only making 2-3 time slots available each day on the https://www.torrentlawyer.com/calendar/ scheduling site when there are literally hundreds of John Does affected by these lawsuits. The simple reason is because I am managing the firm’s inflow of clients (I will not take every client I speak to, but I will hold your hand until you find an attorney), and I do not believe in flooding our firm with 100+ new clients for one copyright holder and treating them all the same way in a turn-key fashion. I used to think that this could save our clients money, but my experience after representing clients is that if I am able to take each client separately and negotiate each client the best I can, I am often able to get the client released from liability without paying any settlement (if the client did not do the download), and if they did the download, I am able to negotiate significantly lower settlements when I handle client circumstances individually rather than as a group.]
ME2 LAWSUIT SUBPOENA Q&A:
Question: “I received a subpoena from my ISP about the ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does lawsuit. What do I do?”
Answer: Chances are the lawsuit was filed in the state in which you live. If you live outside of the state in which you were sued, that federal court likely does not have “personal jurisdiction” over you. For circumstances like this, you may consider filing a motion to quash.
SHOULD I FILE A MOTION TO QUASH?
Question: “Should I file a motion to quash even though I have been sued and I live in the state?”
Answer: If you file the motion to quash, the court will set a hearing in order to determine whether they have personal jurisdiction over you. The judge will ask whether you live in the state. If the answer is “yes,” then motion to quash will likely be denied. I’m simplifying, but this is the point.
NOTE: For accuracy, you were not sued. You are at this point merely implicated as a “John Doe” Defendant, which means that your Comcast ISP (or whatever ISP you have) has identified you as being the account holder who was assigned an IP Address (e.g., 123.848.245.163), and that IP Address was ‘seen’ or ‘caught’ participating in a bittorrent swarm where the download allegedly happened.
Question: “ABC Lawyer told me that even if I live in the state where I was sued, I can still hire an attorney who will file a motion to quash for me for $2,500 where he will expose the copyright trolls’ scam and maybe cause the judge to dismiss the case. Should I pay for one of these?”
Answer: The motion to quash is not the proper place to raise issues relating to the actions of the copyright holders. Filing long-winded motions to quash will simply prompt the judge to ask, “yes or no, does your client live in this state?” When the answer is yes and your lawyer turns to you and informs you that “your motion to quash failed,” you’ll realize that you wasted your money.
There are other procedural times to fight your case, especially if you did not do the download. Fighting your case in the motion to quash is generally a really bad idea.
Question: “Who cares if I was ‘seen’ downloading? Doesn’t everyone use bittorrent anyway? Why is this illegal?”
Answer: The short answer is that downloading and piracy is socially acceptable as a ‘tolerable evil’, but it is still nevertheless illegal. It took me a few tries to answer this question, and in trying, the following two blog articles came of it:
In sum, copyright holders are finicky about whether, how, and in which way they will allow their copyrighted film to be shown. Copyright law, as encoded in 17 US Code § 106 describes a number of exclusive rights given to a copyright holder (which means that the copyright holder is given authority to legally sue and destroy the financial futures of anyone who violate and/or infringe those rights). Of those exclusive rights (the right to make copies (download), the right to distribute copies (share/upload), the right to display (stream), if any of these are infringed, the copyright holders get antsy because each violation of these rights stops them from being able to profit from the movie (or ‘work’) they created.
The peer-to-peer networks have been a source of angst for the copyright holders because until now, each of these ‘exclusive rights’ are taken out from the control of the copyright holder, and are given to the internet users. When movies are listed on a bittorrent website and are downloaded, the copyright holders do not profit from the piracy, and while there has been some considerable debate of whether movie companies actually lose money from piracy (I am on the side that their ticket and DVD sales and licensing fees are hurt by piracy, but the damage is not as exaggerated as they claim it to be), but as a result of the loss (perceived or not, real or not), today copyright holders to consider it ethical to sue end user downloaders for the full $150,000 statutory damages for the download of one movie.
My opinion is that suing downloaders is misguided solution to the piracy problem, and that a better solution would be either compulsory licensing from the ISP, or simply providing better competitive solutions to give internet users the ability to PAY for access to cable TV and traditional TV networks (without paying the inflated cable bill prices they are still trying to charge).
Question: “Before Comcast hands out my information, am I still anonymous? If as a John Doe I am not yet a defendant in the case, at what point do I become a defendant?”
At this point, your plaintiff attorney does not have your name, and neither does the court. At this point, you are also still anonymous, which means that other than the filing fee, the plaintiff attorney has not yet spent any money or time investigating you or your involvement in the lawsuit.
You do not become a defendant until you are ‘named and served.’ This would happen later on in the lawsuit after the plaintiff copyright attorney tries to 1) convince you to settle, or 2) they are unable to contact you, or 3) they have formed a belief that you (the ISP subscriber) are the downloader.
Once someone knocks on your door and serves you with a copy of the complaint (or once you are served by a number of other methods), only then do you become a defendant in the lawsuit.
IS COMCAST (OR MY ISP) FORCED TO COMPLY WITH THE SUBPOENA?
Question: “Can I call Comcast (or my ISP) and tell them I object to them sending out my information? Isn’t giving out my information a crime?”
Answer: Comcast is under a duty to comply with the subpoena, which was ordered and signed by the federal judge for your case. The ISP can and does often ignore the deadline set by the attorney in the subpoena sent to the ISP [they comply whenever they decide to comply, and if the plaintiff attorneys don’t like it, they can sue them or bring them into court, but they almost never do], but the ISPs almost always comply.
Even if you call your ISP and complain, and even if you object to them sending out your information, they will tell you that they must comply and that they WILL comply unless you file an objection with the court. This objection is the motion to quash we discussed before.
There was a time when these bittorrent-based ‘copyright troll’ lawsuits were new (back in 2010), and there was a time that I researched whether a subscriber can sue his ISP for sharing his information with the copyright holders over his objection. I even considered representing John Doe Defendants at the time as a class action lawsuit against the ISPs, however, the case law was horrible, and the damages weren’t worth the time or money the clients would have paid in order to sue their ISPs.
100% ANONYMOUS SETTLEMENTS BEFORE ISP COMPLIES WITH SUBPOENA?
Question: “Should I have my attorney contact the plaintiff attorney before he gets my identity from my ISP? Can I settle with the plaintiff attorney and stop my Comcast ISP from divulging my identity to the plaintiff attorney?”
Answer: Generally, this is not required. I have had circumstances that the defendant ABSOLUTELY wanted to keep his involvement in a lawsuit ANONYMOUS, and in cases such as this one [where the defendant had something to lose if the plaintiff attorney learned his identity], then yes, I could negotiate a 100% anonymous settlement before the ISP hands out the John Doe’s information to the plaintiff attorney. I can even stop the ISP from complying with the subpoena. How??
I have been successful asking various plaintiff attorneys to write or transmit a letter to the ISP and cancel the subpoena as to that particular John Doe Defendant, and both the paid attorney and the ISP happily complied, and my client remained 100% anonymous. Win-win. The client remained anonymous, the ISP had one fewer infringement file to take care of, and the pocket-filled plaintiff attorney saved an extra few bucks because he did not have to pay the ISP for the IP address lookup for that John Doe Defendant (sometimes ISP charge plaintiff attorneys large sums of money to lookup and handle the files of each of the John Doe Defendants).
However, one thing that is LOST when negotiating BEFORE the ISP hands over your information is LEVERAGE. If the John Doe approaches the attorney asking to be anonymous, the plaintiff will want to know, “what does he have to hide?” In addition, because any anonymous negotiations will arouse suspicion in the eyes of the plaintiff attorney, they might be less willing to negotiate down the price in a settlement negotiation when they sense that the other side has something to lose by having their name exposed to him/her. We can still do the settlements anonymously and clients still do request this, but be aware that leverage is lost when premature negotiations are made, and thus the cost of the settlement to the copyright holder may be higher than the ordinary negotiation.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER COMCAST COMPLIES WITH THE SUBPOENA?
Question: “Do I become a defendant in the case after my ISP complies with the subpoena and hands out my information to the plaintiff attorney?”
Answer: Again, no. As far as the court is concerned (and as far as the world is concerned), nobody except you, your ISP, your attorney, and the plaintiff attorney know your name. Robots and spiders who like to ‘spider’ legal sites and post information on the parties of the cases also cannot know who you are, even after the ISP complies with the subpoena.
Rather, when the ISP complies with the subpoena, likely, they will send over a spreadsheet 10-20 lines long (depending on how many John Doe Defendants there are in the case), and you will be one of those ‘lines’ on the spreadsheet. The plaintiff will learn who you are, but you will remain an anonymous John Doe Defendant until the plaintiff attorney decides to name and serve you.
When the plaintiff attorney receives the list of names and contact information for each John Doe Defendant, he will separate that pile of names into two piles: 1) subscribers that are represented by attorneys (where their attorneys sent a ‘notice of representation’ to that attorney), and 2) subscribers who are not represented by an attorney. The experience of the ‘Subscribers who are not represented by attorney’ has best been described to me like ‘being called by a horrible creditor for a debt; only that creditor is an attorney and could ruin my life.’
Question: “Will the ‘copyright troll’ attorney contact me to extort a settlement?”
Answer: Funny enough, likely not. Attorneys have gotten reprimanded by the courts in recent years for abusive practices such as sending settlement demand letters (I used to refer to them as ‘scare’ letters because their purpose was to frighten and scare the defendants into paying the requested settlement amount). So rather than saying, “we want $6,000 for so-and-so title (or whatever they are asking),” the plaintiff attorneys will simply state that they have every intention of moving this case to trial, and if the defendant or his/her attorney wants to discuss settlement options, they are more than willing to cooperate.
So no, they will likely not try to contact you.
Question: “If they do not contact me, should I just ignore and do nothing until they name and serve me?”
Answer: Waiting to be named and served is a DANGEROUS legal strategy, for the simple reason that you are thrust into the “fight” option where you are forced to either spend tens of thousands of dollars to some defense attorney to litigate the case for you, or you have committed yourself to become a legal expert unrepresented “pro se” defendant.
If you have any intention of keeping your identity private, it is best to have your attorney negotiate the release of your “John Doe” placeholder entity WHILE YOU ARE STILL A JOHN DOE. As soon as you are named and served, your identity as being involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit will become public, even if your attorney convinces the other side that you are not the downloader. And, even if you ended up paying a settlement amount in lieu of litigating the claims against you, if you do so after you are named and served, your identity will become public knowledge and ‘there is no way to put that genie back in the bottle once it’s out.’
Point in sum. It is *almost ALWAYS* better to have your attorney proactively contact the plaintiff attorney before you are named and served. That way, if a release based on non-guilt is negotiated, it will be done anonymously. If a settlement is reached, then it will be done without the world learning that you were part of a copyright infringement lawsuit.
WHO IS THE ATTORNEY SUING ME?
TEXAS CASES: Gary Fischman (Fischman Law PLLC)
NOTE: Gary Fischman is the same attorney who is suing defendants in the I.T. Productions LLC cases, the September Productions cases, Cell Film Holdings cases, and Fathers & Daughters Nevada cases. He is often seen filing lawsuits in conjunction with Josh Wyde.
(I will obviously update this for other states. For the moment, I have been representing clients in the Texas Southern District Court (TXSD) because our Cashman Law Firm, PLLC practice is physically located in Houston, Texas.)
SUMMARY: ME2 SUBPOENAS DUE TODAY.
I could go on forever with these questions and answers, but the point is that your plaintiff attorney will likely be getting your contact information today for a number of the ME2 Productions, Inc. lawsuits in various states, and the reason for this is because your ISP (primarily, Comcast) is coordinating the compliance with the subpoena by bunching the various subpoenas together and handling them all at the same time.
Thus, expect that tomorrow, your respective ‘copyright troll’ plaintiff attorney will begin calling you, and from there, the process continues as I described above.
— 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.
RECENT CASE HISTORY OF THE ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. CASES:
Cases filed in the Texas Southern District Court [2017 cases]: Attorney: Gary Fischman (Fischman Law PLLC)
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOES (Case No. 4:17-cv-00501) Filed: Feb 15, 2017, Judge: TBA
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-12 (Case No. 4:17-cv-00404) Filed: Feb 09, 2017, Judge: TBA
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOES (Case No. 4:17-cv-00275) Filed: Jan 27, 2017, Judge: TBA
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 4:17-cv-00143) Filed: Jan 17, 2017, Judge: TBA
Cases filed in the Nevada District Court: Judges include Judge Andrew Gordon, Judge James Mahan, Judge Jennifer Dorsey, and Judge Richard Boulware II — Judge Mahan and Judge Gordon have most of the cases:
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 2:16-cv-02783) The following cases also filed as ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does: Case No. 2:17-cv-00114 Case No. 2:16-cv-02563 Case No. 2:16-cv-02513 Case No. 2:16-cv-02799 Case No. 2:17-cv-00121 Case No. 2:17-cv-00126 Case No. 2:17-cv-00122 Case No. 2:16-cv-02657 Case No. 2:16-cv-02384 Case No. 2:16-cv-02520 Case No. 2:17-cv-00124 Case No. 2:17-cv-00123 Case No. 2:16-cv-02662 Case No. 2:16-cv-02788 Case No. 2:16-cv-02875 Case No. 2:16-cv-02660 Case No. 2:17-cv-00049
Cases filed in the North Carolina Eastern District Court: Judges include Judge Louise Wood Flanagan, Judge Terrence Boyle, Judge W. Earl Britt — Judge Flanagan is the lead, as she has most of the cases and is in charge of the 5:16-cv-914 case into which the others have been consolidated, so watch her rulings to understand how ‘bittorrent’ law is about to evolve in North Carolina:
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1, et al (Case No. 5:16-cv-00881) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1, et al (Case No. 5:16-cv-00885) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1, et al (Case No. 4:16-cv-00273) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1, et al (Case No. 5:16-cv-00896) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-8 (Case No. 5:16-cv-00914) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 7:16-cv-00385) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOES 1-10 (Case No. 7:16-cv-00386) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-8 (Case No. 7:16-cv-00384, CONSOLIDATED into 5:16-cv-00914-FL) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-16 (Case No. 7:16-cv-00394) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-16 (Case No. 4:16-cv-00279) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 5:16-cv-00875) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe (Case No. 7:16-cv-00383) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-13 (Case No. 4:16-cv-00278) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 5:16-cv-00917) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 5:16-cv-00920) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 5:16-cv-00922) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 5:16-cv-00202) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 5:16-cv-00206)
Cases filed in the Colorado District Court: Judge Wiley Y. Daniel has ALL of the bittorrent cases. Watch his ruling because the ME2 cases might affect Colorado ‘bittorrent’ law.
ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-00170) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02978) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. John Does 1-20 (Case No. 1:16-cv-03005) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-03069) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. John Does 1-24 (Case No. 1:16-cv-03128) ME2 Productions, Inc. . v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-00301) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-00387) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-00033) ME2 Productions, Inc v. John Does 1 – 11 (Case No. 1:16-cv-02770) ME2 Productions, Inc v. John Does 1-21 (Case No. 1:16-cv-02788) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02827) ME2 Productions, Inc v. John Does 1-10 (Case No. 1:16-cv-02891) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02580) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02629)
Cases filed in the Washington Western District Court: Judge Robert Lasnik appears to be in control of all of the bittorrent cases thus far (a number of them are still ‘TBA’, but I suspect they will go to Judge Lasnik). Watch his ruling on any of these cases, because a ruling on one of these cases will likely affect ALL of the other bittorrent cases in the Washington Western District Court.
ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01882) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01881) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01953) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01955) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01950) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01776) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01778) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:17-cv-00181) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:17-cv-00182) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:17-cv-00099) ME2 Productions, Inc v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:17-cv-00100)
Cases filed in the Indiana Northern and Southern District Courts: These cases appear to be assigned to judges in a rotating fashion, and thus, while Judge Theresa Springman (in the Indiana Northern District) and Judge Larry Mckinney (in the Indiana Southern District) each appear to have three (3) cases each, there appears to be no leadership by either judge as to directing the Indiana court as to how or whether these cases will affect ‘bittorrent’ law.
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-8 (Case No. 1:16-cv-00390) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 3:16-cv-00764) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-10 (Case No. 3:16-cv-00695) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 2:16-cv-00468) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-12 (Case No. 2:16-cv-00478) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-11 (Case No. 3:16-cv-00697) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOE 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-03020) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOE 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02757) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOE 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02758)
Cases filed in the Arizona District Court: These cases also appear to be assigned to judges in a rotating fashion, however, it is appearing that Judge Diane Humetewa is taking on more bittorrent cases than any of the others. So watch her court for leadership moving forward.
ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:17-cv-00210) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:16-cv-04039) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:16-cv-04075) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:16-cv-04114) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:16-cv-04112) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:16-cv-04123) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:17-cv-00216) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:17-cv-00217) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:17-cv-00218) ME2 Productions Incorporated v. Unknown Parties (Case No. 2:17-cv-00222)
Cases filed in the New York Eastern and Southern District Courts: NOTE: Single “John Doe” cases are being filed here. Warning!
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe – 24.44.105.211 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-06161) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe – 68.194.38.87 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-06160) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe(s) – (Case No. 1:17-cv-00929) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe – 74.71.172.215 et al (Case No. 1:17-cv-01049)
Cases filed in the Oregon District Court: Again, warning! These are single-doe cases.
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe-76.27.219.56 (Case No. 3:16-cv-01724) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe-73.164.239.74 (Case No. 3:16-cv-01725) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe-24.21.195.166 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00158)
OTHER CASES (WITHOUT COMMENT):
Cases Filed in the Connecticut District Court: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 3:16-cv-01834) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 3:16-cv-01835) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 3:16-cv-01837) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 3:16-cv-01838)
Cases Filed in the Georgia Northern District Court: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-13 (Case No. 1:16-cv-03904) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-12 (Case No. 1:16-cv-04054) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOES 1-11 (Case No. 1:16-cv-04208) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOES 1-11 (Case No. 1:16-cv-04052) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOES 1-11 (Case No. 1:16-cv-04210) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-9 (Case No. 1:16-cv-04207) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 (Case No. 1:16-cv-04055)
Cases filed in the Illinois Northern District Court: (Think, John Steele / Prenda Law Inc. / Steele|Hansmeier / #Prenda old territory.) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOES 1-25 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00712) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOES 1-25 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00706) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOES 1-25 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00708) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOES 1-42 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00714) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOES 1-26 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00710)
Case(s) filed in the Kentucky Western District Court: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-10 (Case No. 3:16-cv-00702)
Case(s) filed in the Maryland District Court: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 8:16-cv-03730)
Case(s) filed in the Missouri Western District Court: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 4:16-cv-01271)
Case(s) filed in the Ohio Northern and Southern District Courts: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does (Case No. 3:16-cv-02715) — Northern ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. DOES 1-14 (Case No. 2:16-cv-01062) — Southern
Cases filed in the Pennsylvania Eastern District Court: (This is Jordan Rushie territory.)
ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. JOHN DOES 1-8 (Case No. 2:16-cv-06138) ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. JOHN DOES 1-13 (Case No. 2:17-cv-00572)
Cases filed in the Virginia Eastern and Western District Courts: ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe 1 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00058) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. DOE 1 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00057) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-13 (Case No. 5:16-cv-00083) ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-11 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00002)
— 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.
To properly defend against the I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does lawsuits, it is important to understand the similarities between each case. Each lawsuit, regardless of in which federal court it is filed, has certain similarities. The purpose of this article is to point out the similarities between the I.T. Productions cases, and other ‘movie troll’ lawsuits filed in the same federal courts by the same copyright troll attorneys.
Different Lawsuits, Same Plaintiff Attorneys?
These past few weeks, I have been pushing the idea that there is an entity (until now, I believed it was Voltage Pictures, Inc.) behind the lawsuits which is calling up movie companies who have produced movies which have flopped in the theaters (I call them “floppers”), and this entity convinces the movie company to license its copyright rights to them so that they can sue bittorrent users as John Doe Defendants in copyright infringement lawsuits across the US.
Yesterday, I wrote about the Cook Productions, LLC lawsuits (which are sending subpoenas to ISPs to reveal the identities of subscribers who are accused of downloading the “Mr. Church” flopper), and I was concerned that maybe this copyright holder was somehow separate from the others — the ME2 Productions lawsuits, the September Productions lawsuits, and the Cell Film Holdings lawsuits (the “three legs” or “trio“) — that we have been seeing over the past few months. [So it’s not a three-legged stool; it’s a chair.]
But then this morning, I was writing an article on the I.T. Productions, LLC lawsuits, and after speaking to a John Doe Defendant on the phone, I decided to check the list of plaintiff attorneys suing in each state for the I.T. Productions to the attorneys suing in the ME2 Productions, September Productions, (and also LHF Productions and Criminal Productions, Inc., articles to come), and the connections popped out at me. They are the same attorneys!!!
In sum, this ‘shadow entity’ (which I believed to be Voltage Pictures, Inc.) who is licensing ‘floppers’ is using the same attorneys to sue for each and every one of these movies.
I.T. Productions cases are filed in the same states as other movie troll cases.
Arizona District Court (NONE YET) Colorado District Court (I.T. 10 cases, Cook Productions, 1 case) Hawaii District Court (I.T. 2 cases, Cook Productions, 4 cases) Illinois Northern District Court (NONE YET) Indiana Northern & Southern District Courts (NONE YET) Kentucky Western District Court (I.T. 1 case, Cook Productions 1 case) Maryland District Court (I.T. 1 case, Cook Productions 1 case) Nevada District Court (I.T. 1 case, Cook Productions 1 case) North Carolina Eastern & Middle District Courts (NONE YET) Ohio Northen & Southern District Courts (I.T. 2 cases, Cook Productions 2 cases) Oregon District Courts (I.T. 4 cases, Cook Productions 3 cases) Pennsylvania Eastern District Court (I.T. 1 case, Cook Productions 1 case) Washington Western District Court (I.T. 1 case, Cook Productions 1 case)
See the similarities?!? So… expect to see I.T. Productions, LLC cases to soon be filed in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, and North Carolina.
Texas based I.T. Productions Cases
Why are Gary Fischman and Josh Wyde always the plaintiff attorneys for each movie troll case?
As far as the attorneys for each of the lawsuits were concerned, I could not understand how here in Texas, Gary Fischman and Josh Wyde showed up OUT OF NOWHERE, and started filing lawsuits for Fathers & Daughters Nevada, September Productions, Cell Film Holdings, and most recently, I.T. Productions and ME2 Productions. Where did they come from? And how did they all of a sudden score EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE movie companies to come to THEM and hire THEM to sue John Doe defendants in Texas for the unlawful download of these films?
Why is R. Matthew Van Sickle always the attorney for the movie troll cases in North Carolina?
Another name that keeps popping up in recent weeks has been R. Matthew Van Sickle (a.k.a. Ross Matthew Van Sickle) of Van Sickle Law, PC in North Carolina. His website is http://mattvansicklelaw.com/ and it lists an expertise in “Construction Law, Civil Litigation, Employment Law, Insurance Coverage/Defense, and Mediation” (and no doubt, soon his website will be updated to state that he is knowledgeable in intellectual property matters, copyright infringement matters, and federal practice.) At least plaintiff / copyright troll attorneys Josh Wyde and Gary Fischman (AFAIK) are knowledgeable in this area of law.
The common threads between all movie troll cases.
So… who is behind these lawsuits? Is it Voltage Pictures, Inc.? Someone affiliated with Carl Crowell? Guardaley / IPP? Again, do you care??
All About the I.T. Productions Lawsuits (Regardless of Where They Are Filed)
So I digress. I.T. Productions, LLC has convinced the judges of the various courts to rubber stamp the authorization for them to conduct what is called ‘expedited discovery.’ What this means is that they are now permitted to send a subpoena to the various ISPs (e.g., Comcast, CenturyLink, AT&T, etc.), and force them to disclose the identity of the ten or so John Doe Defendants who are accused of copyright infringement from the download of their film.
The I.T. Productions, LLC lawsuit is suing for the download of the “I.T.” movie starring Pierce Brosnan. The concept of the movie is pretty cool — innovative owner of an enterprising company is flying high until his daughter gets stalked by one of his information technology (IT) guys, who uses every technological facet to attack them.
Unfortunately, as cool as the movie sounds, IMDb gave it only 5.4 or 10 stars, which means that the movie was a flopper. It’s too bad; I liked the concept of the movie.
So why did I spend all this time linking this I.T. Productions case to the Cook Productions case, the ME2 Productions case, and the others? To show that there is a decrepit and sinister entity behind the scene who has likely now set up the entity called “I.T. Productions, LLC” for the purpose of suing downloaders across the U.S. for copyright infringement.
However, as terrible as this sounds, the benefit to the John Doe Defendant reading this article is that you can begin to draw lines and conclusions from one lawsuit (e.g., the ME2 lawsuits) to understand how the plaintiff attorneys will act in these lawsuits.
Honestly, I think I understand now why this movie is called “I.T.” It really stands for “I Troll.”
As always, I hope this article has been of assistance to you.
For an analysis of the other I.T. Productions, LLC bittorrent-based cases filed across the US, click here.
RECENT CASE HISTORY OF THE I.T. PRODUCTIONS, LLC CASES:
Cases now filed in the Texas Southern District Court: Attorney: Gary Fischman (Fischman Law PLLC)
I.T. Productions, LLC v. DOES (Case No. 4:17-cv-00597)
Cases filed in the Colorado District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does 1-7 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00468) I.T. Productions, LLC v. John Doe 1 et al (Case No. 1:16-cv-02979) Other cases with the same name: Case No. 1:16-cv-02998 Case No. 1:16-cv-03009 Case No. 1:16-cv-03058 Case No. 1:16-cv-03064 Case No. 1:16-cv-03089 Case No. 1:16-cv-03132 Case No. 1:16-cv-03150 Case No. 1:17-cv-00112
Cases filed in the Hawaii District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does 1 through 5 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00084) I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does 1 through 3 (Case No. 1:17-cv-00035) I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does 1-6 (Case No. 1:16-cv-00641)
Case filed in the Kentucky Western District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does 1-11 (Case No. 3:16-cv-00836)
Case filed in the Maryland District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 8:16-cv-03999)
Case filed in the Nevada District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Does (Case No. 2:16-cv-02705)
Cases filed in the Ohio Northern and Southern District Courts (respectively): I.T. Productions LLC v. Does 1-10 (Case No. 3:16-cv-03073) I.T. Productions LLC v. Does 1-15 (Case No. 2:16-cv-01199)
Cases filed in the Oregon District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Doe-76.115.0.173 (Case No. 3:16-cv-02102) I.T. Productions, LLC v. Doe-76.27.241.78 (Case No. 3:16-cv-02103) I.T. Productions, LLC v. Doe-76.115.228.18 (Case No. 3:16-cv-02101) I.T. Productions, LLC v. Doe-76.27.242.207 (Case No. 3:17-cv-00163)
Case filed in the Pennsylvania Eastern District Court: I.T. PRODUCTIONS, LLC v. JOHN DOES 1-8 (Case No. 2:16-cv-06533)
Case filed in the Washington Western District Court: I.T. Productions, LLC v. Doe 1 et al (Case No. 2:16-cv-01775)
— 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.
