So we all thought the Malibu Media, LLC lawsuits were dead this summer after Malibu Media sued their attorney Keith Lipscomb (a.k.a., the “kingpin” and “mastermind” behind the 6,800+ lawsuits filed against single “John Doe” defendants)). If you want a quick summary, here seems to be the jist of what happened.
- Malibu Media, LLC hired Lipscomb to run their copyright infringement / settlement extortion scheme utilizing his network of attorneys spanning the federal courts across the US.
- Lipscomb appeared to have pulled in hundreds [maybe thousands] of settlements, each settlement likely amounting to $10,000-$30,000, or more.
(NOTE: This dwarfs the settlement monies collected by Steele & Hansmeier, now arrested for mail fraud, wire fraud, and perjury allegedly committed in the furtherance of their copyright troll scheme.) - Lipscomb apparently paid Malibu Media, LLC only $100,000 in commissions (the equivalent of ten settlements [10 x $10,000 = $100K]), but then never paid Malibu Media again.
[HINDSIGHT: MALIBU MEDIA LLC CONTINUED FILING AFTER THIS, BUT JUST WITH A NEW ‘INVESTOR’. FOR IMMEDIATE CONTACT WITH AN ATTORNEY: Click here for more general information about Malibu Media, LLC lawsuits, their tactics, and their strategies. To set up a free consultation to speak to an attorney about your Malibu Media, LLC lawsuit, click here. Lastly, please feel free to e-mail me at info [at] cashmanlawfirm.com, or call 713-364-3476 to speak to me now about your case (I do prefer you read the articles first), or to get your questions answered.]
What caused the lawsuit between Malibu Media, LLC and Lipscomb?
The relationship between Lipscomb and Malibu became sour when Malibu Media, LLC became suspicious as to how they only earned $100K in commissions. They demanded an accounting to determine whether they were being paid properly (this is still being litigated, but my guess is no; namely, that Malibu was being cheated by the lawyers they hired to extort others). Lipscomb claims that Malibu actually owes him money (to simplify the numbers, think — 6,800 lawsuits filed x est. $400/filing = $2.7 Million in filing fees alone). Malibu sued Lipscomb, they went to court, and in late April 2016, new Malibu Media, LLC filings stopped dead.
On April 18th, 2016, Keith Lipscomb told all of his local counsel that he is no longer representing Malibu Media, LLC (citing a lack of profitability), meaning that each of his local counsel were no longer representing Malibu Media, LLC, or so we thought. Wrong. Various local counsel continued the lawsuits already filed, but very few new suits were filed.
Here are the number of case filings since:
April 2016 Filings: 97
May 2016 Filings: ZERO!
June 2016 Filings: ZERO!
July 1- July 20 Filings: ZERO!
July 21 -> [end of month] filings: 75
August Filings: 59
September Filings: ZERO!
October Filings: 109 — FULL SPEED AHEAD? Nope.
November Filings: ZERO.
December Filings: ZERO…?
So, we are now in December (six months later), and Malibu Media LLC lawsuits are far from dead, or are they?!?
Here’s what I understand:
1) Lipscomb is no longer in charge of the Malibu Media, LLC lawsuits.
2) Individual attorneys (formerly, local counsel) appear to have taken Malibu Media, LLC as their own client, meaning that Malibu is creating relationships with each attorney, and each attorney appears to have a “territory” or a federal district court in which s/he practices.
3) I still think there is someone at Malibu Media, LLC headquarters (maybe Elizabeth Jones) still directing all of the attorneys.
In sum, Malibu Media, LLC and their lawsuits are not dead, at least not yet, but they continue to plague the federal courts and the accused downloaders with their high-ticket settlement prices, and thus they still need to be taken seriously, at least for now.
NEXT: Let’s go into the recent cases themselves to get an idea of what is going on with the last set of cases filed…
Sources:
Arstechnica: “File-sharing lawsuit numbers drop by more than half; both Malibu Media and Prenda Law have run into different roadblocks.” on 7/19/2016.
Techdirt: “Malibu Media Sues Its Former Lawyer Over Missing Funds, Breach Of Bar Rules,” on 6/29/2016.
Arstechnica: “Porn studio that sued thousands for piracy now fighting its own lawyer,” on 6/28/2016
Fight Copyright Trolls: “Malibu Media sues its former counsel Keith Lipscomb and his firm for professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty,” on 6/28/2016
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MALIBU MEDIA, LLC:If you have been implicated as a John Doe defendant in a Malibu Media, LLC lawsuit, there are TWO (2) main articles you should read immediately:
1) “Everything You Need To Know in One Page About Your Malibu Media, LLC (X-Art) Lawsuit [FAQ],” and then
2) “In-Depth Malibu Media. Their Lawsuits, Their Strategies, and Their Settlements.”
FOR IMMEDIATE CONTACT WITH AN ATTORNEY: To set up a free consultation to speak to an attorney about your Malibu Media, LLC lawsuit, click here. Lastly, please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected], or call 713-364-3476 to speak to me now about your case (I do prefer you read the articles first), or to get your questions answered.
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.
*2017 UPDATE* What ended up happening with the Malibu Media cases?
With hindsight, we can now tell the Malibu Media, LLC “story,” as it happened. The list of stories below (in the order I listed them) tell the Malibu Media story in a way that you will understand them.
- [THIS ARTICLE] “Malibu Media, LLC almost went out of business in April, 2016,” on 12/21/2016
- “Many Malibu Media, LLC lawyers defected; some lawyers remained,” on 3/13/2017
- “Which Lipscomb attorneys stayed with Malibu Media, LLC?” on 3/13/2017
- “Malibu Media, LLC stops filing copyrights, but they continue filming porn videos… why?,” on 5/10/2017
- “Malibu Media, LLC cases are currently facing hard scrutiny in California.” on 12/23/2016
- “Judge forces Malibu Media to reveal the accuracy of their geolocation technology,” on 5/10/2017
- “Malibu targets the wealthy in their geolocation tracking.” on 6/4/2013
- “Why I think Malibu Media is ‘faking’ the ‘publication’ requirement to prove copyright infringement,” on 2/9/2016
- “Confirmed: Malibu Media invests $400 filing fees @$20K/month” on 3/13/2017
- – “(and how I initially figured out they were on a $20K/mo filing fee budget),” on 12/23/2016
- “What are the X-Art adult movies Malibu Media owns? (NSFW),” on 5/5/2017
- “How the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC tracks Malibu’s movements,” on 5/4/2017
- “How certain defense attorneys are trying to profit from Malibu’s cases (unethically), ” on 3/29/2017
- “Is Malibu Media’s Settlement Extortion Scheme Profitable?,” on 12/22/2016
- “The ‘Bellwether’ Trial – The ONLY Malibu Media, LLC case to EVER go to trial,” on 6/12/2013
- “When Malibu First Started Suing ONE John Doe Defendant per Case,” on 3/7/2013
- “My First Opinion of the Malibu Media, LLC cases,” on 3/6/2012