Copyright Troll John Steele moves into Prenda's suite(despite "retiring"). Wanted to ask him about it, but Prenda intentionally broke its own contact form. WTF, these are IP lawyers?
The epic story of the one of the most notorious bittorrent/anti-piracy lawyers, John Steele, continues to get stranger by the day. Way back in Nov. of last year, John Steele filed a change of address form with the Chicago courts which stated that he was moving to Miami. After filing the form he was seen on Fightcopyrighttrolls claiming that he had retired from his firm and was spending his free time blogging.
His desire to retire is totally understandable, as it must have been absurdly difficult responding to the multiple phone calls and letters that he paid someone else to handle. I might be confused about the process, but I do know Mr. Steele was forced to show up to court to address issues related to netting several thousand defendants together in one $350 filing.
To be clear, I don't have an issue with IP rights holders seeking reasonable fees for their property, however Mr. Steele's sole motivation has been to maximize profits and to take money from anyone willing to hand it over. I've got plenty of evidence to support that argument and would even be comfortable with Mr. Steele trying to sue me in open court for libel. There are ethical requirements for being a lawyer, but Mr. Steele and the firm he "sold" Steele Hansmeier to don't seem interested in adhering to them.
One obvious problem is the fact that Mr. Steele still claims he sold his firm to Paul Duffy and Prenda Law Inc. It sounds perfectly reasonable to sell a firm if you move out of state, however Mr. Steele recently went back to work in the exact same suite as Prenda. Check out the change of address here:http://familylawlifeline.com/archives/549
The new address listed is the exact same address that is listed under Paul Duffy's name is several Prenda filings. An associate even commented on that specific blog post to ask what is going on and the comments were deleted within a few hours. The address change is important for several reasons. For one, Mr. Steele notified the court that he was moving to Miami Florida so he should not be practicing law at his old Chicago firm. The sale of Steele Hansmeier to Prenda was supposedly because Steele left the state. That argument falls apart the second Steele moves his divorce firm into the same suite. Steele claimed that he left the state to retire, however the address he listed as his new address is the exact same one as Prenda's Miami office. Plus, Prenda requests that all the settlement checks get sent to the new address of Prenda in Miami/John Steele's retirement address. But Mr. Steele would like you to believe he has nothing to do with Prenda. The other problem has to do with the nature of the sale.
Rule 1.17 of the Illinios Rules of Professional conduct(Lawyer code of ethics) states that there are certain requirements for selling a firm. As far as I can tell Steele doesn't meet most of them. He is still alive, still practicing law in Illinios(in the exact same suite that the firm he sold his old firm to works in), he didn't merely retire from his old firm(e-mail evidence can prove he was still responding to Prenda complaints after his supposed retirement. Plus his partner, Paul Hansmeier and/or his brother are still helping Prenda in the exact same capacity they used to help Steele), he wasn't elected to the government, etc.
It's pretty easy to see why Steele would want to try to conceal his connection to Prenda. His name is toxic and any google search can show you how corrupt he is. Equally so, a google search can show one the pathetic legal antics of Prenda.
Besides all the afortmentioned problems, Prenda's contact form on wefightpiracy.com is broken and copied from the source code of ScotJphotography.com(probably a friend of his "old" partner Paul Hansmeier). There is no recipient address in the source code so it is impossible for anyone to contact Prenda from their website. I told them about that too, and was ignored. I sincerely hope that Prenda, Steele, and company are called out for their behavior in court sometime soon. Otherwise, completely innocent(I've personally talked to many of them) people will continue to be cheated out of their money by a group of greedy and unethical "lawyers"
His desire to retire is totally understandable, as it must have been absurdly difficult responding to the multiple phone calls and letters that he paid someone else to handle. I might be confused about the process, but I do know Mr. Steele was forced to show up to court to address issues related to netting several thousand defendants together in one $350 filing.
To be clear, I don't have an issue with IP rights holders seeking reasonable fees for their property, however Mr. Steele's sole motivation has been to maximize profits and to take money from anyone willing to hand it over. I've got plenty of evidence to support that argument and would even be comfortable with Mr. Steele trying to sue me in open court for libel. There are ethical requirements for being a lawyer, but Mr. Steele and the firm he "sold" Steele Hansmeier to don't seem interested in adhering to them.
One obvious problem is the fact that Mr. Steele still claims he sold his firm to Paul Duffy and Prenda Law Inc. It sounds perfectly reasonable to sell a firm if you move out of state, however Mr. Steele recently went back to work in the exact same suite as Prenda. Check out the change of address here:http://familylawlifeline.com/archives/549
The new address listed is the exact same address that is listed under Paul Duffy's name is several Prenda filings. An associate even commented on that specific blog post to ask what is going on and the comments were deleted within a few hours. The address change is important for several reasons. For one, Mr. Steele notified the court that he was moving to Miami Florida so he should not be practicing law at his old Chicago firm. The sale of Steele Hansmeier to Prenda was supposedly because Steele left the state. That argument falls apart the second Steele moves his divorce firm into the same suite. Steele claimed that he left the state to retire, however the address he listed as his new address is the exact same one as Prenda's Miami office. Plus, Prenda requests that all the settlement checks get sent to the new address of Prenda in Miami/John Steele's retirement address. But Mr. Steele would like you to believe he has nothing to do with Prenda. The other problem has to do with the nature of the sale.
Rule 1.17 of the Illinios Rules of Professional conduct(Lawyer code of ethics) states that there are certain requirements for selling a firm. As far as I can tell Steele doesn't meet most of them. He is still alive, still practicing law in Illinios(in the exact same suite that the firm he sold his old firm to works in), he didn't merely retire from his old firm(e-mail evidence can prove he was still responding to Prenda complaints after his supposed retirement. Plus his partner, Paul Hansmeier and/or his brother are still helping Prenda in the exact same capacity they used to help Steele), he wasn't elected to the government, etc.
It's pretty easy to see why Steele would want to try to conceal his connection to Prenda. His name is toxic and any google search can show you how corrupt he is. Equally so, a google search can show one the pathetic legal antics of Prenda.
Besides all the afortmentioned problems, Prenda's contact form on wefightpiracy.com is broken and copied from the source code of ScotJphotography.com(probably a friend of his "old" partner Paul Hansmeier). There is no recipient address in the source code so it is impossible for anyone to contact Prenda from their website. I told them about that too, and was ignored. I sincerely hope that Prenda, Steele, and company are called out for their behavior in court sometime soon. Otherwise, completely innocent(I've personally talked to many of them) people will continue to be cheated out of their money by a group of greedy and unethical "lawyers"
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- tags:
- Fraud, Bittorrent, Scam, Copyright trolls, 1 more
