God I love America:
America Fuck Yeah!
One of the architects of the notorious Prenda Law copyright-porn scam, John Steele, has admitted that he and Paul Hansmeier made US$6 million out of the operation. Steele's and Hansmeier's approach to wealth creation was ingenious, if nasty: they arranged for smutty films to be seeded onto pirate sites, then pursued …
"What goes around comes around."
So, behaving the same way as Trump is a good thing? Trump might be at the level of the school yard bully, but shouldn't we try and rise above these childish taunts?
He might not have any respect for the Judiciary, but by emulating Trump and using appellations such as "so called" when referring to the President of the United States, you are showing contempt not just for the man himself, but to the Office of the President of The US.
The lameness is that these two were the best the parties could be arsed to would offer us. One owned (speculatively) by the Russians, who's major criteria for a Cabinet post is how much they donated to his campaign, and the other (speculatively) owned by Wall St, who's policies would have been determined by donations and "favors".
And now the US Citizenry is so busy yelling at each other over which Lizard was better (calling the other side "baby killers" and "deplorable") and no one is yelling at the jackals who set us up like this.
It's a bit like the kid who want's to stay up, so they ask Mom - she says no. They then ask Dad, adding "mommy said Yes"; Dad says "If Mommy say yes....". Kid now tells Mom that Dad said "Yes". Mom Yells at Dad for undermining her, Dad yells at Mom for yelling at him, neither noticing that while they've been arguing for 45 minutes, the kid has watched half a horror movie.
Does my heart good to hear of lawyers like this getting a custodial sentence.
Don't count your chickens before the fat lady sings like a canary in a coal mine. Or something like that.
He's a lawyer, and a crook, I'm guessing his plea bargain is to plead guilty, so long as he's only told not to do it again.
However:
Steele has also agreed to waive his right to appeal any sentence up to five years in prison.
WTF? What kind of conviction includes stripping people of their rights of due process? What kind of appeal would not be immediately struck out for someone who has pleaded guilty to the crime? Ridiculous!
I guess the part I don't understand is how it is legally allowed? Can I waive my rights to freedom and sell my self in to slavery? Nope.
He hasn't voluntarily waived them, he has been beaten in to doing so. The whole plea deal malarkey is contrary to natural justice, because it encourages confession to avoid punitive sentencing. In this case, it is pretty cut and dry, but there have been plenty of innocent people sent to prison because it was not worth risking a longer punitive sentence.
Wire fraud.
This is the one that was being beaten on. Its also territory that needed to be hammered out. No, the case is not precedent, but it was a challenge and it hasn't been struck down. Now there are some teeth to work with against these SOBs that try to use e(black)mail to extort money.
Also - nice to see this SOB reverting to form and tossing his partner( in crime ) under the bus. Shows where this calibre of human being lives.
As for *waiving of appeal* - He's waived the right to appeal any sentence under 5 years. Not *all* sentences. Essentially, this says "I'll agree to five years in jail for these crimes along with pleading it out". Essentially saves the court some time and gives the judge an idea of what he( his legal advisors ) think is "acceptable" sentencing.
Personally, gimme the damn keys, I'll drive *BOTH* buses for these two f@#$%rds.