Hey, remember when we talked about how the only profitable copyright lawsuits these days were porn lawsuits, because most people didn’t want to go through the embarrassment of admitting in public that they downloaded a dirty movie? Remember how we called it “legal extortion?” Guess what? Karma’s a bitch.
The bad news for copyright trolls comes twofold today. First, two UK lawyers, David Gore and Brian Miller, the guys who pioneered the whole “send somebody a letter demanding they settle for illegally downloading a movie” strategy, discovered that lawyers are actually required to have some ethics. Yes, the two were slapped down enthusiastically by the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal — which we like to imagine consists of guys in hoods. They’ve been ordered to pay $40,000 in fines, $300,000 in legal costs, and they’re barred from practicing law for three months. Needless to say, they’re trying to appeal, but it doesn’t look good.
Meanwhile, the sleaziest copyright troll in porn, Perfect 10, just lost their lawsuit with Google. Perfect 10 claimed that Google showed thumbnails of their, ah, “artistic nudes” and that this had cost them $50 million in business. Unfortunately for them, the judge wasn’t stupid and laughed the case right out of court.
You think it will eventually dawn on them this whole “sue the crap out of everybody” thing isn’t QUITE working?