One of the copyright's scummiest trolls loses his law license; Boing Boing, 7/3/16

Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing; One of the copyright's scummiest trolls loses his law license:

"For more than four years, we've chronicled the sleazy story of Prenda Law, a copyright troll whose extortion racket included genuinely bizarre acts of identity theft, even weirder random homophobic dog-whistles, and uploading their own porn movies to entrap new victims, and, naturally, an FBI investigation into the firm's partners' illegal conduct.

Now, Paul Hansmeier, one of Prenda's masterminds, has lost his license to practice law, after "voluntarily stipulating" to its suspension in an investigation into his professional conduct -- a plea bargain that forestalled a judgment by the Minnesota court hearing the case brought against him by the state's Office of Lawyer Professional Responsibility.

Hansmeier had recently branched out from copyright trolling to ADA trolling -- sending bogus threats under the Americans With Disabilities Act, a racket that, if anything, is even more despicable than pornographic copyright trolling (!), as it discredits the good work that real civil rights lawyers do to protect the rights of disabled people."

Copyright trolling: Make money by scaring people; District Dispatch, The Official ALA Washington Office Blog, 11/4/13

Carrie Russell, District Dispatch, The Official ALA Washington Office Blog; Copyright trolling: Make money by scaring people: "Actual copyright lawsuits against schools and librarians are rare. There are provisions in the copyright law that safeguard educators and librarians from statutory damages when they believed their use of a protected work was fair. The Eleventh Amendment shields institutions funded by the state from statutory damages. In other words, there is little money that can be awarded to the rights holder even if the case goes their way. Second, don’t fall for these hijinks. Just because a rights holder says you are an infringer does not mean that you are. More importantly, learn about fair use which is the most important thing you should know about copyright. This alone will help you better serve your community as a professional committed to the school’s educational mission and access to information for all."