This morning we published an article on Christopher “Denver Metro Audits” Cordova and the “victory” of sorts as his attorney, Randall S. “The Unhinged Attorney” Newman, Esq, were granted the ability to seek the registration information about Frauditor Troll’s channel as Troll may have provided a fraudulent name and address when filing his DMCA counter notice.
The judge said the following, taken directly from her ruling: “Mr. Cordova has demonstrated that (1) he can identify the defendant with sufficient specificity such that the Court can determine that the defendant is a real person or entity who could be sued in federal court, (2) he has identified previous steps taken to locate the defendant, (3) his action against the defendant could withstand a motion to dismiss, and (4) there is a reasonable likelihood of being able to identify the defendant through discovery such that service of process would be possible.”
She also said, “Mr. Cordova has sufficiently demonstrated that, while the case was originally filed against a named defendant, this name and the information associated with it may be fictious and discovery is needed to identify the correct individual for service. See Dkt. No. 11-1, Declaration of Randall S. Newman. Additionally, Mr. Cordova’s application indicates that he has satisfied the registration requirements under 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) for commencing a copyright infringement lawsuit.”
These are the facts that we have in front of us. The judge says that the lawsuit has merit, the judge says that the lawsuit can move forward. She also said that there is significant need to properly identify who runs the Frauditor Troll channel for the lawsuit to determine if the claims against Frauditor Troll are true.
As a result of our reporting, we’ve been accused of taking “sides” or that we’re “defending” Mr. Cordova in the case. These are the same accusations that were made in the past involving other popular figures on the so called “anti-auditor” when we reported negative information about them.
Most recently, last year we reported that a major “anti-auditor” was behind the porn bombing of Jose “Chille” DeCastro’s YouTube channel that resulted in the temporary termination of DeCastro’s YouTube channel.
We had statements from the person who gave the creator crucial information that led to the activity, evidence that the same information was offered to others (who made public statements admitting it), circumstantial evidence from the night of the porn bombing that implicated the creator, the creator’s own all-but confessions on his channel, and finally evidence provided by another channel that the creator confessed in private to those close to him that he carried out the attack.
Even with all of this evidence we received significant push back from fans of that creator, with the most common idea being that DeCastro, an incredibly unlikeable, obnoxious and “controversial” figure, somehow “deserved” to have his revenue from YouTube and livelihood taken away from him because he’s a “bad person.”
Think about that. Because people hate DeCastro, they turned a blind eye to someone illegally accessing his YouTube account, playing hardcore pornography on the channel, getting the channel terminated, then going on to essentially brag about his or her crimes and that they were essentially untouchable because they live in another country.
It was “okay” because Jose “Chille” DeCastro is a “bad person.”
Today we have another “bad person” in front of us. Christopher “Denver Metro Audits” Cordova is despised throughout the anti-auditing community. His past obnoxious behavior and his personality traits, his actions and his general attitude tend to piss people off.
Cordova’s material has been widely used by many on the “anti-auditing” side of things to report on his audits, livestreams, love life, “mom obsession” etc. The extent of how much of that material can be used is at the heart of the issue and if Cordova is weaponizing the DMCA copyright takedown system to “punish” his enemies.
For his part, Cordova hired an attorney who believes in engagement in defense of his client. Randall S. Newman calls himself “The Unhinged Attorney.” We did not make that label for him. He is bold, he is loud, and he has been hired to defend his client. How he does that may not be the most “traditional” approach to that, but he alone is responsible for his actions.
There are also accusations that Cordova strategically picked a video from some years ago to register with the copyright office and as a test case to protect his material as it would do as much damage to the anti-auditing community as possible.
The single video that he has currently registered was used by many creators with various degrees of use, from just a few seconds to the entire video, which was used without his permission.
Frauditor Troll is one of those creators who has been accused of improperly using his video and essentially violating YouTube’s “fair use” policy by playing the entire video in question without “transforming” the content to justify “fair use” of the material.
Cordova filed a DMCA takedown complaint, Troll responded and listed an address in New York and provided a name that would be held responsible for his use of the material. Under YouTube’s guidelines, he also agreed to terms that he would be served with any lawsuits at that address, and the lawsuit would be handled in the Northern District of California, where YouTube is based.
Because the DMCA takedown agreement requires a lawsuit be filed for the material to remain down, Cordova filed a lawsuit against Frauditor Troll.
Right, wrong, mean spirited, heroic, whatever your viewpoint on the situation, it doesn’t matter. If the disagreement between the two men was going to move forward, it was going to move forward through the courts as that is the process set forward by the DMCA to handle such things.
When Cordova went to serve Frauditor Troll with the lawsuit, his process server was unable to do so because Frauditor Troll left off the Suite Number required at that address to deliver the documents. Inadvertent? Deliberate? No one is sure other than Frauditor Troll and he isn’t talking.
That’s important. Frauditor Troll could have come forward at any time to correct the error, he has decided not to do so.
Because of this, Cordova, through Newman, moved forward with asking the Judge who is handling the case to help identify Frauditor Troll as the information provided could not be verified. In her ruling, as stated above, she found that the lawsuit was not frivolous and that it would withstand a motion to dismiss.
She also granted the motion to file a subpoena for YouTube to provide the channel information to Cordova for the lawsuit to progress.
That’s where we stand right now. The legal process is being followed. There are no “sides” in reporting that. Facts are facts.
With that said, do we have opinions? Sure, we do. You can hear them five nights a week on our YouTube channel where we relax and let our opinions fly at 8PM Eastern. We go for roughly an hour before we have to go to bed, get three hours of sleep, and put together the news for the next day.
Finally, our own stance on our material should also be clear. There have been instances where our material has been reused by other creators, both with our permission to do so and without our permission. We’re usually pretty lenient about what is being used with our material.
However, we do reserve the right to act should our material be blatantly used in a way that infringes our copyright or defames members of our panel. The DMCA is there to protect creators, both “good” and “bad” and we will defend our works to the best of our ability should certain lines be crossed.
Best,
Jim Finch
Publisher of Really Cool News.
That was RUDE (I just had to) See you tonight.