Malibu Media's Former Law Firm Says The Copyright Troll Has Been Screwing It Out Of Settlement Payments
from the trollololololol dept
Few things are more satisfying than watching copyright trolling efforts disintegrate. Prolific abuser of the court system, Malibu Media, has been slowly self-destructing over the past few years.
In 2016, Malibu Media sued its legal reps because they were at least as corrupt as Malibu Media is. From the filings, it appeared attorney Keith Lipscomb wasn’t sharing the settlements he extracted from alleged pirates. Malibu’s new reps, Pillar Law Group, filed the suit for Malibu. In the court documents, Lipscomb said he felt the copyright trolling business model had outlived its usefulness and was no longer profitable. While this was likely true, it also did double duty as an excuse for Lipscomb’s failure to send Malibu its cut of the settlements.
The relationship with Pillar Law only lasted until last summer. As Fight Copyright Trolls notes, X-Art’/Malibu’s owner is now engaged in a legal dispute with the law group in the Los Angeles County Court.
Roughly about the same time this suit was filed, Malibu was sued by two investors who were promised half of all settlements and half of all profits from Malibu’s media. Apparently, they haven’t been paid either.
This leads us to the current litigation, brought by Malibu’s most recent legal reps. Once again, the non-sharing of settlement funds is the issue.
Lomnitzer Law has followed suit and sued Malibu for breach of contract demanding $280,058.32 plus interest (The Lomnitzer Law Firm, P.A. v. Malibu Media, LLC, FLSD 20-cv-80027-RKA):
Beginning at a date presently unknown, Malibu instructed attorneys in various jurisdictions that were representing Malibu in the nationwide litigation that was being coordinated by the Firm to by-pass the Firm and to remit settlement monies from such litigation other than to the Firm while still expecting the Firm to pay court filing fees, process server fees, etc., all incurred for and on behalf of and for the benefit of Malibu.
Good old Malibu: against the notion of sharing right up until the bitter end. God, I hope it’s the end. Soon. And a super-bitter ending at that.
Let’s not line up to applaud the numerous entities that have sued Malibu Media for being fraudulent. They all got in bed with Malibu at one point. It was only when they personally got screwed that they decided to distance themselves from this syphilitic troll. If this mesh network of litigation can somehow find a way to bankrupt everyone involved, we’ll all be better off.
Filed Under: copyright trolls, legal fees, scams
Companies: lomnitzer law, malibu media, pillar law group, x-art
Comments on “Malibu Media's Former Law Firm Says The Copyright Troll Has Been Screwing It Out Of Settlement Payments”
Lomnitzer Law has followed suit and sued Malibu for breach of contract
I actually hope the court sides with Malibu. A law firm really should be more responsible for choosing it’s clients wisely. How could anyone representing them not realize that Malibu would do this kind of thing the first opportunity they had?
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Ah, yes, the "You knew I was a scorpion when you started swimming" defense.
It’d be amusing if Malibu actually tried that as a defense, but I don’t think it’d be a successful one.
The whole idea behind contracts is so that they can be enforced against untrustworthy people. If people only got into deals with those whom they could trust to deliver what was agreed upon, contracts (and contract law) wouldn’t need to exist.
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"The whole idea behind contracts is so that they can be enforced against untrustworthy people."
If you’ve got the money to spend.
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Well, obviously.
Do people even legally count as "people" if they can’t afford a lawyer to sue other people/corporations/governments/etc. for them?
/s
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I don’t. What kind of precedent would that set?
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Contracts must be honored. Even between crooks.
However, I hope that both parties burn a ton of money on litigation.
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A court siding with Malibu would NOT set the precedent that "Contracts must be honored". It would set the precedent that you should only form a contract with a trustworthy source…The opposite of what you claim.
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If they’re a trustworthy source, why is a contract even necessary?
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Sorry, I misread your comment. I think we’re on the same side of the argument here (and, if I’m not mistaken, so is the AC you’re replying to, which is what threw me off).
Malibu absolutely has to lose this case, or upend all of contract law.
That said, rooting for copyright-troll lawyers like Pillar to have to spend a lot of money to get that result (and drain a bunch of money out of Malibu in the process) doesn’t seem like a bad thing.
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To lay out in clear and concise terms what is being asked for and what is being offered in order to avoid/reduce headaches down the line, both between the original parties and a third-party(whether judge or arbitration) should a disagreement crop up later on.
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A precedent of "contracts must be entered into with trustworthy clients" will put the requirement for due diligence firmly back on both parties and probably result in laws being changed in the long term.
What’s wrong with that?
I wonder if they pulled a "The Producers" and sold "Half of all litigation profits" to like ten or twenty entities.
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Don’t you see, Bloom, darling Bloom, glorious Bloom?
It’s so simple:
Step 1: We find the worst business model ever conceived.
Step 2: We hire the worst lawyers in town.
Step 3: I raise two million dollars – one for me and one for you.
There’s a lot of credulous litigants out there.
Step 4: We sue the pants off of anyone who’s ever downloaded anything, and before you can say Step 5:
We lose those lawsuits, take our two million and go to Rio!
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♫ Springtime for Hitler and Malibu …
(I’m assuming Hitler founded Malibu Media. If that is incorrect please let me know)
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Hitler reacts to Malibu Media … if there were one, the LOLz would ensue.
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Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89AxvewTS90
Then this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClxEjmwWW5U
The heroes of copyright, ladies and gentlemen!
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That sound you here is John Smith and Hamilton sobbing into their used tissues from the downfall of Paul Hansmeier.
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"The heroes of copyright, ladies and gentlemen!"
Indeed. Copyright enforcement is just an area which caters to third-rate failed ambulance chasers and con men to a point which would be unheard of in ANY other area of business.
And the reason is pretty clear. Copyright law turns much of ordinary jurisprudens on its head, allowing unproven allegations actual weight of law and completely ignoring proportionality with "mandatory" fines completely without a single nod towards actual damage calculations.
Most of intellectual property law has that issue. As far as I can tell the only part of IP worth the ink it’s written on is trademark law. The rest is just anticompetitive measures based on outright fraud.
Honestly, you’d think they’d have learned by now.
This is all very Ouroboros-esque. Perhaps the beast will devour itself in toto and we never have to hear about them again.
I suppose...
This is what happens in the world of fucking people.
An entity built around defrauding courts also defrauded its associates?
Quelle surprise.
Sounds like Malibu Media is pulling some Hollywood Accounting to hide the profits.. if they ever actually had any.
Sweet sweet schadenfreude...
Work with a bunch of parasitic scum who’s business model is shaking people down using the courts as a cudgel? What a surprise the deplorable individuals like that might treat others with just as much contempt as they do their targets.
I might have had some sympathy for people who were duped into working with MM early on, before it was clear just how repugnant their ‘business model’ was, but this late in the game? They knew damn well what they were getting into and did it anyway, and as such deserve zero sympathy.
Live by the law suit, die by the law suit.
No one was complaining when people were getting screwed over, especially yhose who were innocent and had to spend a fortune proving it! Funny how the company concerned foont like it when it’s being screwed!
Just from the title.. Oh how my heart bleeds for this ‘former law firm!’