Posted On: December 7, 2007
Internet Expert Witness Opines Re: Cyber-Pirate's Website
SearchSystems.net, a highly regarded site for researching public records, obtained a judgment of $780,000 in San Francisco U.S. District Court this week against convicted Cyber-Pirate Mark Musselman and his website, courtsonline.org. Internet expert witness Carole Levitt stated that "Searchsystems was an original and unique website which defendants copied--both the content and organization--and thus violated Search Systems intellectual property rights." California News Wire reports:
Musselman was sentenced earlier this year to 12 years in prison and over $4.6 million in criminal fines and penalties on a 47 count cyber-fraud conviction in Montgomery County, Ohio Common Pleas Court. Subsequently, he was declared liable under a ten count complaint for Internet consumer fraud by the Miami County, Ohio Common Pleas Court, under a similar set of facts as those presented to the Federal District Court in San Francisco, which entered this week’s Judgment and Permanent Injunction.