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Anti-download biz sued for 'abusive' robo-call demands for money

Rightscorp accused of unfairly extracting personal info on piracy suspects from ISPs

Internet piracy hunter Rightscorp, which shakes down alleged copyright infringers for damages, has been accused of harassment, abuse and illegal debt collection.

A class-action lawsuit [PDF] filed in California claims the business broke a load of US laws while making automated robo-calls accusing people of illegally downloading stuff from the web.

According to the complaint, Rightscorp unfairly obtained subpoenas to prise personal information out of ISPs, as part of its efforts to learn about people it wanted to shake down for money.

And it's alleged Rightscorp also sent out emails and letters to trick netizens into thinking their ISPs were collaborating in the debt collection process and that they would be disconnected from their broadband if they didn't pay up. However, the ISPs were never involved, it's claimed.

Karen "Jeanie" Reif, of Saginaw, Michigan, and Isaac Nesmith, of Beaumont, California, hired the Pietz Law Firm to sue the piracy hunter, pointing out that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act bans anyone from "using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice ... to any telephone number assigned to a … cellular telephone service."

Reif says her ISP forwarded an email from Rightscorp in April 2014. After she called the piracy hunter from her cellphone to find out what was going on, she "began receiving frequent, repeated telephone calls and voicemails from various different phone numbers associated with Rightscorp" to her home and mobile phones, it's claimed. Sometimes a person was on the line, most times it was an automated recording, she complained.

Allegedly, Rightscorp did not stop calling when Reif asked it to stop.

As for Nesmith, his ISP, Greenfield, handed over his personal details after receiving a subpoena from Rightscorp, it's claimed. Then on September 18, Nesmith was accused in a letter to his home address of illegally downloading two songs. He then started receiving calls, and kept on being called at home even after he asked for Rightscorp to stop, it's claimed.

The Nevada-incorporated biz threatens to extract US$150,000 per copyright infringement but will often settle out of court for just $20 per file downloaded. It splits its collections 50-50 with the copyright holders, it claims.

"Rightscorp is regularly engaged in the business of collecting on alleged obligations of consumers to pay money (i.e., debt collection) for purported copyright infringement claims, such that it is subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA) and the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act," the class-action complaint reads.

"However, Rightscorp has repeatedly and systematically failed to comply with the provisions of the FDCPA and the Rosenthal Act."

As for the alleged dodgy subpoenas to ISPs:

"These subpoenas, which were issued on this court’s authority, but procured outside of an adversarial proceeding and without any judicial review, are so clearly legally invalid as to be a sham and abuse of the legal process," the complaint states.

Rightscorp did not respond to a request for comment on the filing, which was submitted on November 21. Reif and Nesmith, and anyone else similarly in their situation, are hoping for damages, minus fees, of course.

Meanwhile, the company boasts on its website:

Rightscorp uses software that monitors the global peer‐to‐peer file sharing networks to seek out and find illegally downloaded digital media.

On behalf of digital media copyright owners, and working in conjunction with major Internet Service Providers, we automatically send out copyright infringement and demand notices to users who have illegally downloaded digital media. The violators remit payment to Rightscorp for the copyright infringement and Rightscorp makes payment to the copyright owners.

This is not the first time the Pietz Law Firm has gone after copyright enforcers over allegations of abuse and wrongdoing. The law firm was among those who pursued cases against copyright trollers Prenda in another case. ®

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