Welcome
Welcome to the Torrent Defenders blog, an online publication of Antonelli Law. Antonelli Law has recently expanded their practice to include the defense of those who are involved in BitTorrent lawsuits. Since 2003, Antonelli Law has been involved in computer law—and cases involving BitTorrent are a growing, and swiftly changing, aspect of this area of law. We currently represent a number of people involved in the Guava LLC and Malibu Media cases.
We are involved in the defense of people who have received notices from their ISPs that they have received a subpoena demanding their name and address in relation to a copyright infringement case because we believe that the companies requesting these subpoenas—often companies that produce adult movies—are acting as “copyright trolls.” Copyright trolls have been described as needlessly aggressive, running roughshod on the due process and privacy rights of those accused, and reckless in their supposed evidence of copyright infringement.
While users who have violated the law by downloading copyrighted material without permission of the copyright holder may rightly be the subject of a lawsuit, it is unjust for copyright trolls to subpoena entire swarms of users—many of whom they may have no justifiable claim against—and to scare these Internet users into hefty settlement arrangements. Finally, copyright trolls’ allegations of a “conspiracy” of supposed defendants have been criticized as legally unsound. Yet these allegations are often made, and appear to be used in conjunction with the shame or fear of being wrongfully named as a defendant in a file-sharing lawsuit to bring even more leverage against victims of unequal bargaining power.
Our goal with this blog is to inform Internet users of their rights with regard to BitTorrent and similar file-sharing lawsuits and to keep them up-to-date with the rapidly changing landscape of this area of law. We encourage readers of this blog to do plenty of their own research and to hire an attorney if they are able.
Everything in this blog is meant to be general information, and is not legal advice. You should consult with an attorney to evaluate your particular circumstances and evaluate the matter in light of the most recent legal developments. All content copyrighted by Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Antonelli, Ltd. doing business as Antonelli Law.
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About Author
JAntonelli
Jeffrey Antonelli is a member of the federal trial bar of the Northern District of Illinois and is admitted to numerous federal courts around the country. He has been a civil litigator nearly 25 years in a broad range of actions representing corporations and individuals as plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court. Jeffrey has been interviewed by the media many times, including Bloomberg BNA, NBC, The New York Times, Chicago Lawyer, Chicago Tribune, and the longstanding lawyer’s publication Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Prior to forming Antonelli Law Ltd. in 2007 Jeffrey worked for several litigation boutiques in Chicago’s Loop as well as a full service firm. His litigation experience includes hotly contested issues in intellectual property, business, insurance, and consumer fraud. He is an adviser to the Illinois Board of Higher Education Advisory Council for Private Business and Vocational Schools (PBVS), and was a member of the Illinois State Bar Association Education Law Section Council from 2012-2013. Jeffrey is especially proud of his work representing hundreds of students defrauded by improperly accredited educational institutions, including as certified class counsel. Before attending law school, Jeffrey was interested first in business, and then in biomedical ethics. These interests led him to graduate from the nation’s largest philosophy department at Loyola University in Chicago, where some of his favorite (and most challenging) subjects were cognitive science and philosophy of science. During college he held positions at the University of Chicago’s Ben May Institute; as a medical assistant for a University of Chicago foot and ankle surgeon; and volunteered in the emergency room at the University of Chicago Hospitals. These experiences led to studying health law at the DePaul College of Law where Jeffrey earned his law degree and a certificate in health law. At that time DePaul’s Institute for Health Law was consistently ranked in the top 10 health law specialty programs nationwide. During law school Jeffrey immersed himself in studying the practical and public policy aspects of health care through internships at the American Medical Association in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill at the Governmental Relations Office of the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC. Jeffrey has concentrated in civil litigation throughout his legal career, and is a member of the federal trial bar of the Northern District of Illinois, the Central District of Illinois federal court, and all federal courts of Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. In addition, he is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association. Jeffrey prides himself on his strong personal ideals, passionate, ethical advocacy, and working hard to bring the best possible results for his clients. He also maintains a special interest in cases involving fraud. Whether due to good parenting, his family’s law enforcement employment, undergraduate studies in philosophy including ethics, or a fortuitous outcome of good breeding, one essence of Jeffrey’s character is a drive to root out the truth behind fraudulent practices.