The complaint is short and concentrates on a single deliberate violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act — harassing robocalling and messaging without the recipients’ consent. This is not a class action, and the plaintiffs seek an award of trebled statutory damages ($1,500 per each call). Depending on how many violations the court will find actionable, it may result in a hefty sum. In any case, if the plaintiffs prevail (which is most likely going to happen), this precedent has a potential of opening a floodgate of similar actions: in its latest press release (1/22/2015) the troll claimed that it “closed over 170,000” cases of copyright infringement.” How many of these “closures” are the result of unlawful telephone harassment? Just imagine if every robocall recipient decides that he/she wants a small piece of the Rightscorp’s flesh!

The plaintiffs are represented by Sergei Lemberg.



Updates

2/19/2015

There is one thing that evaded my attention. I tweeted, making fun of the email quoted in the complaint:

LOL: poor @rightscorp's phone operators. They HAD to include that phrase: pic.twitter.com/fOKymvRSeg — Fight © Trolls (@fightcopytrolls) February 19, 2015

Teresa Murphy made an important observation, the point I missed: she noticed that Rightscorp essentially admitted that it records harassing phone calls, which potentially can spell a lot of trouble for the troll (especially in the class action lawsuit mentioned above):

@fightcopytrolls @Rightscorp Does that mean all their illegal repeated calling is also recorded? >:) — Teresa – Stressy! (@RessyM) February 19, 2015

Also, I’m not sure if the quoted email is enough to establish that the recipient agreed that the solicited phone conversation would be recorded (if no consent was later given during the call itself). California is a so-called two-party state, and the recording of a phone conversation without consent may result in penalties:

632. (a) Every person who, intentionally and without the consent of all parties to a confidential communication, by means of any electronic amplifying or recording device, eavesdrops upon or records the confidential communication, whether the communication is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another or by means of a telegraph, telephone, or other device, except a radio, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment.

1/8/2016

On 1/4/2016 this case is ended with a whimper — settled. Of course we will likely never know how much Rightscorp coughed up. From Rightsorp’s standpoint it was a sensible outcome: I don’t think it had much chance of success on the merits.

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