3 Count: Conch Republic

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1: Prenda Buys a $100,000 Bond, While Former Lawyer Gibbs Pleads for Leniency

First off today, Joe Mullin at Ars Technica has a series of series of Prenda Law updates including news that the organization has backed out of yet another case where it was asked to post a bond, successfully posted a $100,000 bond in another case where it was being hit up for attorneys fees and sancations and a new article indicates that Steel and Hansmeier were the leaders of heads of the organization.

Prenda Law is the copyright “troll” organization that earned a reputation for mass-suing suspected BitTorrent pirates identified by IP address and, after getting their ISPs to turn over their identities, threatened them with a direct lawsuit while seeking lucrative and quick settlements. However, when one of the defendants fought back, it was revealed that many of the companies Prenda was suing on behalf of were really shell companies for the attorneys themselves.

In that case, the judge had ordrered Prenda to pay more than $80,000 in attorneys fees and hit the firm with additional sanctions for failure to pay. They have now secured a $100,000 bond while they appeal to avoid further penalties. Also, despite claims made by John Steele, one of his real clients told a reporter that he was definitely the head of the controversial law firm, taking the lead on the cases.

2: Key West Association Wins Federal Copyright Case

Next up today, Realtor Mag reports that a Federal Court in Florida has awarded the Key West Association of REALTORS Inc. (KWAR) $2.7 million in its case against Robert Allen over Allen’s infringement of content, data and images reproduced from KWAR’s online database (MLS).

According to the lawsuit, Allen was opearating sites such as KeyWestMLS.com, almost entirely made up with content form KWAR’s MLS. The court said the high award, hitting Allen with the highest possible statutory damages, in order to deter Allen from continuing the behavior.

The case mirrors other closely-watched ones being litigated between the American Home Realty Network and two large MLSs.

3: ‘Twilight’ Parody Company Sues Lionsgate for $500 Million

Finally today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the film company Behind the Lines Productions has sued Lionsgate, the company behind the Twilight movies, claiming that the the film studios abused their copyright to prevent them from releasing a Twilight parody named Twiharder.

According to the lawsuit, Lionsgate engaged in anti-competitive practices including sending cease and desist letters to distributors interested in the parody film and abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown process to get works removed from YouTube and CafePress.

The lawsuit, which stretches for an amazing 212 pages, seeks hundreds of millions in damages and revocation of the Twilight-related trademarks.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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