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  "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
Edmund Burke


Cyber Cops

Hall Of Shame Members
Category Added December 1, 2007

Last Updated - May 5, 2012

We fully expect lawyers and politicians to lie to us. That is what they do. And since the most prevalent occupation of politicians is the legal profession, either a lawyer or someone having a law degree, those two professions are joined at the hip. And those two professions are always ranked low in public admiration surveys. In our opinion, corporate lawyers are profession liars and prostitutes.

A pickpocket takes your money and leaves you alone after that. A politician will take your money and then expect you to thank him for the experience. A corporate lawyer will take your money and then tell you to be thankful his bill was not greater even though he lost the case. It appears that the pickpocket is the nicest of the three.

We consider Cyber Cops to be inherently dishonest. We say this because of how they get paid for what they do. They are bounty hunters. They get paid by the scalps they collect so the more scalps, the better their billing. Ethics does not enter into the equation. While they may receive a stipend that could be described as a fee, their primary income appears to come from commissions paid on revenues collected, through billable hours or per victim they entrap.

They have no incentive to spend time actually determining the degree of alleged infringement, if there is infringement, while they do have an incentive to lie and distort the incident so it is elevated to infringement, and therefore, billable.

It is a natural fit for many of these Cyber Cops to be lawyers who have started their own companies. Many companies have lawyers on staff. In both cases, we suspect that these are lawyers who cannot get jobs with real law firms.

We have a negative attitude about Cyber Cops. We state that up front. We think they are inherently dishonest and only motivated by their revenues. We also believe that they outright lie (gasp!) when threatening non-infringers for the sole purpose of improperly obtaining extortion money or improperly exerting market control. While there certainly are far too many cases of copyright infringement and trademark infringement occurring on the internet, and we do receive emails about some of these, what we report are the abuses, of which there are far too many. And Cyber Cops appear to be a significant part of the abuse problem.

Generally speaking, the police are decent, honest, under-paid and at risk, much like the military. Being in the military and being a cop are the two jobs where you get paid to get shot at while protecting the public all who too often does not seem to give a damn. Unlike those who make the laws, the military and cops are expected to be perfect. They cannot lose their tempers, they must not make mistakes, and they must not defend themselves unless fired at first. However, this is not about either occupation. This is about those who voluntarily and willingly take on the job of Cyber Cop but with a profit motive, not to serve and protect. Our attitude shows. We think yours will show also after you read these pages.

Cyber Cops troll the internet for people who are infringing upon the copyrights and trademarks of others. And, as we suspected, many do not use trained professionals, but like Continental Enterprises, they use untrained low-paid staff or on-commission contractors to do the trolling. We have posted a copy of the employment agreement that Continental Enterprises uses where they pay a "bounty" of $20 for every lead. So, you ask, how do these Cyber Cops make their money? They convince companies to use them to police internet violations of their intellectual property rights. This billing is done by the hour, the takedown, on commission, or the threat, or a combination of these. Like law firms, billable hours are their gravy. Some, like Continental Enterprises, engage in what we call Trademark Extortion The rights of the other party is not an issue with them because they do not care about that aspect. It is their client who sets the rules and pays the bills. We think they get a high percentage of the take after expenses.

This list is not going to be complete. There are companies and crooks joining the fray everyday. We can only report those about which we have heard and received documentation concerning their activities. Some we add when we find other sources who also attack them for thier tactics. Here they are listed here in alphabetical order.

  • Art Impressions Licensing, another Left Coast whack job company (what is in your water, Arnold?). Added May 27, 2008.
    Known Customers: Springs Industries (Blue Jean Teddy).
  • Business Software Alliance, which has found a new fertile field to exploit by illegally terminating eBay auctions for used software.

  • Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sports Logos ("CAPS"), run by Lisa Uriguen Armstrong who is impersonating a lawyer in her communications. Also named is a law student, Rhett Barney, who also is impersonating a lawyer, as is one Linsay Conn. CAPS claims to have the NFL, MLB, NHL and all colleges as clients. We regard CAPS as liars and trademark extortionists. They are affiliated with Trademark Management which appears to be another Cyber Cop. Added December 8, 2010.

  • Continental Enterprises is located at 1292 East 91 Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46240. Continental Enterprises and their former General Counsel William M. Mansfield, and present General Counsel Darlene R. Seymour, are, in our never-to-be-humble opinion, nothing more than common extortionists with law degrees but without Guido to breaka you arms.
    Known Customers: Just Born/Peeps, Heineken Brewery, Cowparade Holdings, Larry The Cable Guy, Home Depot, Hansen Beverage Company, JackDaniel, Textron Innovations (Cessna Aircraft), and other fools yet to be named.
  • CopyrightClaimant.com hides their identity and makes what appears to be sweeping but unsupported claims about their abilities. Added October 12, 2010.

  • De Novo Legal, LLP, located at 171 Saxony Road, Suite 209, Encinitas , California 92024. It appears to be run by two "lawyers", Maria Johnson, Esq. and Pollie Gautsch, Esq., or as we are calling them, "The Clueless Sisters, Esq", representing John Deere. We received a Cease & Desist demand from De Novo Legal on March 28, 2008.
    Known Customers: John Deere
  • Embroidery Designers Group (EDG), a vigilante group of embroidery designers, led by some self-proclaimed sheriff of the internet, an Australian whack job named Glenn Harris. They send out infected software with embroidery designs in an effort to snare copiers. They leave false feedback on eBay and other sites to destroy the imagined copiers that the voices in their collective heads tell them about. Added October 21, 2010

  • Embroidery Software Protection Coalition (ESPC), a group of embroidery companies, led by Bernina, that are nothing more than thugs trolling the internet making people believe they have done something wrong and extorting money from them. Added July 11, 2008

  • Gibney Anthony & Flaherty, LLC, a New York law firm that appears to have embraced trademark extortion as a new revenue source. They terminate listings for genuine merchandise and demand money, or else. Added February 1, 2011.
    Known Customers: Coach Leatherworks, Tiffany.
  • GrayZone, a Brooklyn-based company that claims to be music industry-oriented by is interfering with legitimate auctions of non-music items. They don't appear to be lawyers or very bright. Added August 19, 2008.
    Known Customers: Warner Brothers Music.
  • Net Enforcers about whom we had received complaints but until October 21, 2008 we had not received what we would consider to be satisfactory documentation. Added October 22, 2008.
    Known Customers: Monster Cable, Directed Electronics
  • OpSec Security
  • , another cyber cop stomping on the legitimate rights of Work At Home Moms ("WAHM") and other small internet businesses because they can. They troll the internet looking for victims who cannot fight back. Added February 26, 2009.

  • Protect Ltd, a firm that appears only once that we have found through the eBay UK website. Added May 23, 2008.
    Known Customers: Americana (some whackjob company that appears to be in the UK).
  • Righthaven, a Las Vegas-based company that trolls the internet looking for newspaper articles and then Righthaven buys the rights to the article so it can sue the web site for copyright infringement. A new low-life practice for corporate lawyers. Added September 1, 2010

  • Security Essentials, LLP, is located at 29525 Chagrin Blvd., Ste. 318, Pepper Pike, OH 44122. It appears to be run by Patricia L. Urban. Their email address is purban1@msn.com and purban@securityessentialsllc.com. Their web site is http://securityessentialsllc.com/ The only company that we know about that Security Essentials, LLP represents is SalonQuest Aquage Products.
    Known Customers: SalonQuest
  • The Software & Information Industry Association, another software association that tramples on the legitimate rights of seller while "protecting" their members. Like the Business Software Alliance, they are scum in our opinion. Added August 1, 2008.

  • Strategic Intellectual Property Information,a firm in India. They don't like to reply to emails and they don't appear to fully comprehend English. But, they're cheap and their clients don't really care. Beware of their web site - it was, and may still be, infected with computer viruses. Added May 2, 2008
    Known Customers: Richemont Group, Tommy Hilfiger, Farouk Chi.
  • WolfBlock,a law firm in Boston. Their Cyber Cop attorney, Christopher S. Finnerty, brags that his "team" shuts down some 15,000 eBay auctions a year, per company represented. How do they do that legitimately? They terminate every auction they can, whether it is infringing or not. WolfBlock is now out of business.
    Known Customers: Monster Cable, Bose Corporation.


Cyber Cops In-Waiting

These companies appear to be wannabe Cyber Cops. We know little about them except what we have noted. We are seeking more information about them. As we have noted, any damn fool can start an internet company and talk some other fools into believing they can do what they claim. Cyber Cops are a good example of this. We would not believe any of these companies or their claims. Alphabetically listed:
  • www.AllBusiness.com, anonymously registered with GoDaddy. In our opinion that does not instill confidence.
  • www.BuildTelligence.com, owned by Ken Knorr, registered April 16, 2007 with NSI
  • www.Carratu.com, Carratu International Co 113/123 Upper Richmond Road, - London, SW15 2TN UK. "Carratu International Plc is the UK's premier Risk Mitigation and Corporate Investigation company."
  • Compumark.thomson.com, Thomson Corporation, 1 Station Place, Metro Center, Stamford, CT 06897
  • www.DomainEnforcers.com, owned by Tyler Smith, 2240 Greer Blvd, Sylvan Lake, MI 48320. March 10, 2006
  • ICGinc.com, Internet Crime Group (ICG, Inc) is anonymously registered with NSI
  • iipr-protection.com, registered Sep 20, 2006 by Shuan Stanley of Design Studio 4 Regent Terrace, South Parade, DN1 2EE Doncaster GB
  • MarkMonitor.com, MarkMonitor Inc., 391 N Ancestor Pl Boise ID 83704. Email is custserv@markmonitor.com, telephone is 208-389-5784.
  • ProtectMyMark.com, through Molander & Assoc, molanderassoc.com
  • TrademarkTracker.com, owned by Michael Neustel, 2534 South University Drive, Suite 4 Fargo, ND 58103. April 12, 2001
  • www.WebEyeQ.com, they are registered with Tucows.com, creation Date: 22-sep-2005
  • www.WebSheriff.com, a British company who trolls the internet looking for music violators.

 

 

Rebuttals

In an effort to provide a balanced view, we make the following offer to anyone who feels they have been wrongly accused on this web site.

If you, or your company, have been referenced on these pages, and you would like the chance to post a rebuttal, we will post your rebuttal (provided it is in good taste) so others can read it. The rebuttal must be submitted in a format that can easily be converted into HTML. We reserve the right to alter the rebuttal to make it more readable. However, we will not alter the content (unless there is offensive material to be removed). We also reserve the right to comment on any rebuttal received. Emails protesting the content of this web site may be treated as rebuttals by us at our discretion.

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