Anti-Piracy Lawyer Caught Copying Content
Anti-Piracy Lawyer Caught Copying Content
Posted 07/29/2011 at 6:53am
| by Paul Lilly
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Brace yourself for this one, it might come as a shock to the system. Ready for it? It turns out that copyright lawyers might not qualify as role models for how the ones they're suing should conduct themselves. Okay, so maybe you're not astonished to learn that copyright lawyers may lack a little something in the morals department, but what is surprising is how blatant at least one high profile lawyer holds a double standard for copyright law.
According to TorrentFreak, anti-piracy lawyer John Steele throws stones from inside a glass house. TorrentFreak says Steele is "without a doubt one of the most active proponents of the pay-up-or-else settle scheme in the United States" having filed more than 80 mass lawsuits in less than a year, all aimed at BitTorrent users. In all those settlement letters, however, Steele and his partner took to copying content from the Copyright Enforcement Group without the group's permission.
"In the settlement letters that Steele sends to alleged copyright infringers there's a frequently asked questions section. Contrary to what one might expect, these questions were not written by Steele himself," TorrentFreak explains.
TorrentFreak claims it did its due diligence in contacting CEG to find out whether or not Steele had permission and was told he doesn't. Furthermore, CEG told TorrentFreak it's considering taking steps to prevent Steele from continuing to copy its work.
Steele isn't the only one to have played both sides. TorrentFreak says that one of CEG's competitors, the U.S. Copyright Group, stole content from its website by copying the design and code.
"Only when we called them out on it did they remove all 'infringing' content," TorrentFreak says.
Image Credit: icanhascheezburger.com
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ShyLinuxGuy
July 30, 2011 at 12:19am
A double standard, eh? I knew this would happen sooner or later. I always thought, sooner or later, on of these copyright trolls are going to be caught red handed. And it happened.We all know that some of these anti-piracy lawyers are big-time pirates behind closed doors.
Just like anyone else, some lawyers have double standards and despise what they are superficially standing for. I say "some" because my mom's an attorney and doesn't have double standards, and believe it or not, there are lawyers that are "good" out there too. Every profession has the good, bad and the ugly.
whathuhitwasntme
July 29, 2011 at 2:06pm
What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
A GOOD START!
TerribleToaster
July 29, 2011 at 7:47am
Paul, I find this article offensive because you point out he is a lawyer which is clearly a attempt to discredit all lawyers (but particularly conservative lawyers). I demand both that you revise this article to make it less offensive to lawyers and that you also recognized the satirical nature of my posting.
When did MaximumPC become MaximumIHateAllConservativeLawyers?
Ghok
July 29, 2011 at 2:04pm
Remove the cat picture too. I like dogs. I come here for tech news, not pictures of animals!
CaptainFabulous
July 29, 2011 at 11:07am
I'm pretty sure most of the public considers lawyers to be on par with used car salesmen.
Oh no, did I just diss all used car salesmen, even the good ones?
TerribleToaster
July 29, 2011 at 12:01pm
I demand you edit the content of your post so that it does not disrepect lawyers, used cars, or salesmen!
Nothing can be seen as offensive! NOTHING! Therefore all information reported must be as vague and useless as possible.
schneider1492
August 01, 2011 at 12:22am
an unknown person of unknown gender and decent may have at one point done something that may or may not have been against an unknown law in an unknown state. the alleged incident may or may not have been funny, and cats may or may not have been harmed during the alleged filming of this episode.
aca20031
July 29, 2011 at 9:36am
"and that you also recognized the satirical nature of my posting."
I think maybe the other people replying to this comment should notice that? :)
Keith E. Whisman
July 29, 2011 at 9:10am
Sir, since when has the word Lawyer ever been good? Lawyers do a great job of discrediting themselves. Like politicians you know when they are lying when they open their mouths.
Darkside
July 29, 2011 at 8:18am
Very nice; I'm guessing you didn't like the people that suggested that Paul was bashing the Tea Party (for those people that don't get the reference). Added a few more laughs to my day, so I commend you.
Darkside
July 29, 2011 at 7:40am
Not surprising at all, but definitely worth a chuckle or two. Oh, our legal system....
al360ex
July 29, 2011 at 7:36am
Lol !
But the title is somewhat misleading. I thought he had been caught downloading movies, games and stuff.
Still, it's better than nothing !
TerribleToaster
July 29, 2011 at 7:41am
Depending on who you ask, what he did could be considered so much worse.
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