By Stewart Tongue

CHICAGO – Anti-piracy firm Prenda Law seeded online peer-to-peer networks with the copyrighted material it later sued end-users for stealing, according to new allegations in a continuing court battle involving the firm.

According to documents filed in the case First Time Videos vs. Paul Oppold, “Prenda Law’s business structure is such that it is pirate, forensic pirate hunter, and attorney. It also appears that Prenda Law also wants to/has formed/is forming a corporate structure where it is pornography producer, copyright holder, pornography pirate, forensic investigator, attorney firm and debt collector. Other than the omission of [Prenda’s attorneys] appearing in the pornography themselves, this would represent an entire in-house copyright-trolling monopoly — not designed to promote their own works for distribution and sale, but to induce infringement of their works and reap profits seen from mass anti-piracy litigation.”

Since 2010, the now-infamous Prenda Law — also known under aliases including Steele | Hansmeier PLLP and Anti-Piracy Law Group — has filed hundreds of copyright-infringement lawsuits against porn watchers across the U.S. According to published accounts from some of the 25,000 defendants, the firm employs tactics that could be called intimidation and harassment in order to encourage out-of-court settlements. In fact, Prenda has dropped several cases after the defendants indicated intent to face their accusers in court.

In 2012, Prenda co-founder and partner John Steele told Forbes the anti-piracy lawsuits had earned the firm “more than a few million” dollars in settlement fees. Forbes ran the numbers and estimated Prenda’s anti-piracy take at more than $15 million — despite seldom litigating a case.

In early May 2013, a Los Angeles-based federal judge sanctioned Prenda principals Steele, Paul Hansmeier, Paul Duffy and Brett Gibbs for “brazen misconduct and relentless fraud” and fined the group more than $80,000 — just below the threshold required to trigger an appeal, the judge noted in a footnote constituting a sly reference to Prenda’s habit of offering settlements slightly cheaper a bottom-dollar defense bill. Judge Otis D. Wright II also referred the firm and its attorneys to various federal and state bars and to the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division for possible criminal prosecution.

Prenda’s attorneys, who consistently have invoked Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination when questioned by courts about their practices, have denied any wrongdoing. The firm has continued filing lawsuits on behalf of several shell companies it owns, including AF Holdings LLC and Ingenuity 13 LLC.