[thaumasiotes]

You're providing an excellent illustration of why I don't understand popular coverage of the Prenda case.

Paul Hansmeier isn't in jail for abusing copyright, or for doing anything the courts thought was wrong relating to copyright. He's in jail for misrepresenting facts to the court. The entire case against Prenda was that they represented to the court that they were agents of the copyright owner, when in fact they were the copyright owner themselves. There was nothing, legally, wrong with their suit.

And yet everyone seems to think of the Prenda case as a victory against copyright trolling. It is no such thing! Why would Hansmeier lose rights to own copyrights, when he didn't do anything wrong with the copyrights he had?

[bigbubba]

Because he's in prison for lying to the court in a copyright lawsuit. He should no longer have the right to sue anybody for copyright infringement.

[thaumasiotes]

Don't be ridiculous.

The minor point here is that what he's suing for has no connection to his misbehavior. If lying to the court in a copyright lawsuit doesn't bar him from suing for libel, there's no reason for it to bar him from suing for copyright infringement.

The major point is that malfeasance in a lawsuit can't get you barred from the courts, for the obvious reason that people can still commit crimes against you even if you once misrepresented yourself in court.