• Minneapolis Star Tribune, Tuesday, March 7, 2017 3:58 PM

John Steele, who helped mastermind a plan to sue Web users for infringing copyright by downloading pornography, pleaded guilty on Monday to mail fraud and wire fraud. In the plea agreement, Steele admitted to hatching a plan “to fraudulently obtain copyright lawsuit settlements by deceiving state and federal courts throughout the country.” Along with a partner, he used sham companies to acquire copyrights to the films, posted them to file-sharing sites, and then filed more than 200 copyright infringement lawsuits against the alleged downloaders after learning their identities.  

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