John Steele, Porn Troll Lawyer Who Flipped, Gets 5 Years Anyway

John Steele, the lawyer who masterminded a scheme to extort cash from internet users who downloaded porn from torrent sites, will spend the next five years behind bars, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. But Steele’s sentence is significantly lighter than his convicted co-conspirator, Paul Hansemeier, who as AVN.com reported last month, was slammed with a 14-year bid—two more years than prosecutors had recommended. But Steele got off relatively easily because he flipped on Hansmeier, thanks to his cooperation with the government. Prosecutors in Minnesota on Monday told federal Judge Joan Ericksen that Steele’s cooperation was instrumental in extracting a guilty plea from Hansmeier, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report.  The pair’s porn troll scheme, which they operated from 2010 to 2014, involved acquiring the copyrights to porn videos which were then uploaded to torrent sites, where internet users could access them via Pirate Bay and other sites that allow downloading of bit-torrent files. But when a user would download one of the videos, Prenda Law—the firm operated by Hansmeier and Steele—would digitally track that user down and threaten the individual with a lawsuit unless the victim immediately coughed up a “settlement,” generally of about $3,000. Eventually, Hansmeier and Steele found it easier to produce their own porn videos and upload them,  rather than acquire copyrights to existing videos. Prosecutors say that the two lawyers raked in about $3 million from the “porn troll” scheme over five years.  At his sentencing, Steele apologized for the “illegal and stupid things I did. There was no rationale for my actions,” according to the MPR report. "The first stupid decision was going to law school without a sense of mission,” Steele told the judge. The five-year sentence is less than half of the 10 to 12-1/2 years that federal guidelines recommend for what Judge Erickson called Steele’s “vile scheme,” but she cited his cooperation for awarding him a reduced sentence.  Both Steele and Hansmeier must also make restitution to their victims of $1.5 million each, under terms of their sentences. Photo By Steele Law Firm web site