Piracy Log with Attorney Steve®

Send us Fan Mail Illegal Movie Download Defenses - Will the lasuit be settled anonymously? Attorney Steve the copyright atty, talks about bittorrent and utorrent movie download cases dealing with movies such as Malibu Media adult ographic movies.  This company protects its trademarks from illegal copyright and reproduction and if you find yourself involved in one of their "John Doe" laws...

Send us Fan Mail Software Law Essentials - Understanding the Legal test for InfirngementIn this episode of Vondran Legal Hour, Attorney Steve provides general infromation regarding the legal test for software infirngement.  Basically, in software audit cases, the Plaintiff (or should be say the auditing company that sent you an audit demand letter - ex SIIA, Autodesk or BSA), must show:1.  Valid a...

Send us Fan Mail Software Infringement Law Firm discusses the Software Compliance Group (SCG) letterCopyright Lawyer Steve Vondran ("Attorney Steve") discusses the difference between the business software alliance ("BSA") and the Software Compliance Group ("SCG").  You may see both of these entitites referenced if you received a copyright infringement notice or audit...

Send us Fan Mail Software Licensing & Infringement Law Firm - when Compliance is on the line, we can help!!Top FIVE reasons to hire our firm instead of your "corporate" or "business lawyers."1.  We have knowledge of the "tricks and traps" of the software audit process2.  In many cases we have pre-existing relationships with the copyright lawyers for the BSA, SIIA,...

Send us Fan Mail Software licensing litigation - the EULAIn this pocast episode of Vondran Legal Hour, Attorney Steve is joined by his fabulous wife Frontline Lisee (office manager at the law firm) and they discuss software end user licensing agreements and whether a breach of the agreement could result in a federal copyright litigation case (with potentiial for $150,000 damages for willful copyri...

Send us Fan Mail Software Audit Tips - What is a font license audit? In this exciting episode of Vondran Legal Hour, Attorney Steve, the copyright lawyer, talks about business software alliance audit demand letters that may be requesting your company to engage in a "voluntary" software audit of all fonts used across your enterprise, company or organization.  This can be stressful where y...

Send us Fan Mail Malibu Media Lawsuits explainedIf you received a notice of copyright infringement or legal demand letter (or notice of subpoena from your ISP such as Comcast), you might want to listen to this podcast.  In this episode of Vondran Legal Hour we discuss how some peopel feel when they realize they might be named in a John Doe lawsuit (usually filed in Federal Copyright Court, example...

Send us Fan Mail Software License Compliance Essentials - Understanding the "voluntary audit."In this exciting episode of Vondran Legal Hour, Attorney Steve - fresh from the software trenches - discusses the so called "volutnary" audit demand which usually comes with a not-so-subtle threat of a federal copyright lawsuit and $150,000 in monetary damages, plus attorney fees.  Are...

Send us Fan Mail Anti-SLAPP law overview - appealing an adverse ruling on CCP 425.17 "commercial speech exemption."  In this episode of Vondran Legal Hour "Attorney Steve" explains the difference between a WRIT and an APPEAL.  An appeal may be taken as a matter of right unless the judge denied the motion on grounds that commercial speech was at issue.  In those circumstances, f...

Send us Fan Mail Software Audit Essentials - Buying and Selling a business and taking over their softwareOur firm was recently retained on a case where one company purchased another company and they took over all the existing computers, laptops, servers, and other infrastructure.  Both the selling company and the acquiring company were represented by counsel.  However, even so, nobody bothered to...

Send us Fan Mail Software Audit Essentials - Potential Defense of License TransferWe have been helping companies across the United States resolve software audits with major companies like Autidesk (Autocad and Revit software), Microsoft (often times a "Office" issue), Adobe, Vero Software and others.  In these cases, you want to be able to explore all possible defenses to copyright infri...

Send us Fan Mail Streaming Live Video - Legal AspectsWelcome to another exciting episode of Vondran Legal Hour. In this episode Frontline Lisee and Attorney Steve discsuss the new facebook "go live" feature and the potential copyright infringement implications of using copyrighted music, songs, lyrics, etc.  The video also discusses briefly the "creative commons" coypright syst...

Send us Fan Mail California free speech anti-SLAPP attorneyThis podcast discusses generally (this podcast is not legal advice or a substitute for legal advice) what you need to know about the Cal SLAPP law and the commercial speech exemption set forth in CCP 425.17(c).  The Defendant in a case may file a special "Motion to Strike" the complaint on first amendment grounds.  The 425.17 exe...

Send us Fan Mail San Diego | Los Angeles | Orange County | San Francisco - Malibu media defense cases. Bittorent Defense Atty Steve Vondran discusses what happens when you get a notice of subpoena from your ISP, or property manager, and it appears you are facing a lawsuit for illegally downloading and sharing adult ographic movies online via an internet swarm.  The P2p (peer-to-peer) file sharing...

Send us Fan Mail Anti-piracy rewards program explainedI had someone ask me last week (on my of SIIA audit clients as I recall) what the rewards were for "turning in their boss" for not having properly licensed software at their company.  I discussed how these software trade assocations (the Software Alliance being the other one), offer fincial rewards programs for "nailing their bos...

Send us Fan Mail First Amendment Lawyer California - Anti-SLAPP statute explainedThe first amendment is a good thing, it allows people to speak freely on public issues, sports, politics, etc.  But as they say "free speech is not absolute" it has limits.  In this general legal podcast, Attorney Steve Vondran explains the CAL SLAPP law and how it works and how the judges might view the cas...

Send us Fan Mail Intellectual Property Issues on the Internet - Beware of illegal file sharing of movies, videos, games, comics and softwareIP litigation attorney Steve Vondran discusses the rise in Bittorrent related lawsuits and notices of copyright infringement to ISP's seeking name and address to add a subscriber to a DOE lawsuit.  These cases appear to be on the rise and if you received...

Send us Fan Mail SIIA reward policy for reporting software piracyIn this exciting episode of Vondran Legal Hour Attorney Steve, the IP lawyer, discusses the general terms and conditions of the SIIA anti-piracy program.  Under this program, software whistleblowers can earn from $500 up to a MILLION DOLLARS if they take a case that settles out of court (if a copyright lawsuit is filed the "info...

Send us Fan Mail Software AllianceTechnology Lawyer Steve Vondran discusses whether you need to hire a lawyer to respond to the Software Alliance.  This podcast will help you understand if your "inside counsel" or "corporate lawyer" is equipped, trained and experienced to handle a BSA audit demand letter, evaluation, review of copyright defenses, negotiation and settlement.  If...

Send us Fan Mail Software Compliance Legal InsightsSteve Vondran, the Software Attorney explains whether or not audits are "voluntary" or must be complied with.  For example, if your company received what we affectionately refer to as "the love letter" from major software publishers such as Oracle, Bentley, CNC, Minitab, Symantec, Rosetta Stone, etc. are you legally OBLIGATED t...

Send us Fan Mail Internet Defamation of a Business - How to handle negative posts and reviewsOne of the most frustrating things that can happen to your business is having a person (ex. past client) defame you on google.  Since it is in writing the defamation is known as "libel."  But what can you legally do about? Can you sue Yelp or Google?  Can you file an defamation lawsuit against th...

Send us Fan Mail Copyright Litigation Essentials - DMCA 512(f) "bad faith" mispresentation bully casesThank you for listening to this episode of "Vondran Legal Hour."  If you enjoy our legal podcast (this is general legal information only and not legal advice), feel free to share the link on your social media website.  If you need immediate help, visit BadFaithDMCA.comIntroduct...

Send us Fan Mail Copyright & Software Settlemenets - Is this legal or civil extortion? Welcome to another exciting episode of Vondran Legal with Attorney Steve Vondran. IntroductionIn this episode we are talking about what happens when ypu complete a software licensing audit and are moving to get your case settled.  The intellectual property attorney for the software company (note it could be...

Send us Fan Mail What is a Subpoena and do you Squash it or Quash it? Civil lawyer Steve Vondran explains what it means to try to "quash" a subpoena.  For example, if you get a notice of copyright infringement from your ISP claiming you illegally downloaded music or videos and someone wants to sue you (ex. in A Bittorrent file sharing lawsuit), you may need to discuss with an intellectua...

Send us Fan Mail What is the Software & Information industry Association? Attorney Steve explains this industry tradegroup that monitors and enforces the intellectual property rights (i.e. copyrights) of its member companies and engages legal counsel to send out what's known as "voluntary audit letters" from regional law firms who then seek to have your company audits its books...