MosesNewmanNAAIP
Super Genius
- 149
The Following Actually Happened, (email blast that was opened by 4,553 N.A.A.I.P. agents as of today)
Originally posted here. https://insurance-forums.com/commun...rtant-information-class-action-lawsuit.92882/
The owner of Compulife, Mr. Robert Barney, which sells a term life quote engine to insurance agents, waged a brutal campaign in an attempt to destroy N.A.A.I.P. agent websites. It was brutal - The following is a list of actions that Mr. Barney has done since April, 2015.
Originally posted here. https://insurance-forums.com/commun...rtant-information-class-action-lawsuit.92882/
The owner of Compulife, Mr. Robert Barney, which sells a term life quote engine to insurance agents, waged a brutal campaign in an attempt to destroy N.A.A.I.P. agent websites. It was brutal - The following is a list of actions that Mr. Barney has done since April, 2015.
- April, 2015: Mr. Robert Barney started the first of over 500 posts on an insurance agent forum lambasting N.A.A.I.P. and its agents as being software "pirates."
- Quoting on the forum and other place that 5 years in jail is the punishment for piracy (this forums's negative content has been deleted recently).
- May, 2015: 400 N.A.A.I.P. agents were sent a US mail letter from an attorney's office in Kentucky demanding the N.A.A.I.P. agent cease and desist using their free N.A.A.I.P.website and term life quote engine because continuing to use N.A.A.I.P. would be considered "piracy." Enclosed in this letter was a demand for payment of $540 for prior use. A affidavit affirming this "piracy" was signed by a third party. 11 N.A.A.I.P.agents ended up sending Compulife money.
- Understandably, many N.A.A.I.P. agents that received the legal letter did not want to be involved in a battle. A very high percentage of agents agreed to delete their N.A.A.I.P.website.
- Mr. Barney smelled success and gathered a total of 2,200 names, phone numbers and email addresses of N.A.A.I.P. agents via Google searches.
- These 2,200 agents were bombarded with multiple well-written emails from Mr. Barney demanding a "cease and desist" of the agents' "piracy" as well as a $540 payment. Thankfully, only 11 agents in total sent Mr. Barney money.
- Mr. Barney followed up these multiple emails with a telemarketing campaign. Phoning agents and leaving messages. Mr. Barney went so far as to have an excel spread-sheet of his contacts with the 2,200 N.A.A.I.P. agents.
- Mr. Barney bought a website domain name and started to document the "evidence" of "software piracy." Included in this website were a list of about 1,800 agents and links to their N.A.A.I.P. website. Mr. Barney states on this website page the agent name and the word piracy, pirated, etc. written 12 times (May, 2016).
- Direct quotes from the page that was designed to name and shame agents into forking over $540 - 4 examples of text from that name & shame web-page.
- 1. "archived as evidence of ongoing software piracy by N.A.A.I.P. and the agents who have used N.A.A.I.P. to create their personalized websites..."
- 2. "agents on this list refused to settle and have continued to pirate the Compulife software program ..."
- 3. "The agents/agencies listed here continue to rely upon a pirated copy of the Compulife ..."
- 4. "Over 300 of these agents/agencies have either removed the pirated..."
- Based on my experience with Google and what I saw with my own eyes. This technique of Mr. Barney listing the agent name, link to agent website and the word "piracy" 12 times was designed to having the agent's name appear in Google as a "software pirate."
- During this time period Mr. Barney was in contact with multiple entities to attempt to "shut down" N.A.A.I.P. and harm our insurance agent of record, Binyomin *** and family. Obviously, N.A.A.I.P. and Mr. *** will be filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Compulife and Mr. Barney.
- Spring, 2016: Mr. Barney and Compulife sued in Federal Court Binyomin ***, Binyomin's relation, the owner of N.A.A.I.P. Mr. Aaron Levy and myself. The initial complaint mentioned "software piracy" but the subsequent amended complaint and talk at the trial was focused on "copy-write infringement."
- Being involved in a very expensive litigation is not something that I ever desired when accepting the offer to work at N.A.A.I.P.. But once I was served with legal papers, I had to cope with this new reality.
- As an aside, it would have been nice of Mr. Barney to have informed those 2,200 agents that his "beef" was copy-write infringement and not "piracy." lol.
- Late 2016: Mr. Barney and Compulife filed in Federal class-action lawsuit alleging "infringement." 8 agents were named as representatives of the class of 1,826 named N.A.A.I.P. agents. Those 8 agents were served a huge stack of papers which "freaked them out." The other 1,800+ agents may have stumbled on the lawsuit after doing a search on Google for the word "lawsuit + their name."
- Compulife's technique of "name and shame" is going "full metal jacket." Compulife is telling the world that they are real serious about shutting down N.A.A.I.P. and prosecuting the "pirates."
- Compulife also sued entities that were paying N.A.A.I.P. and/or related parties.
- Obviously, the class-action lawsuit was immediately "stayed' by the Federal Judge pending the outcome of the initial claim.
- March, 2017: There is a hearing on Compulife's injunction request to "shut down" N.A.A.I.P. The Judge decision was publicized on June, 2017 denying Compulife's request. The very clear decision by the Federal Judge should have been a "wake-up call" to Mr. Barney and Compulife to stop defaming N.A.A.I.P. and its agents.
- August, 2017: All parties were forced to attend an arbitration hearing before a federal judge and Compulife demanded $5 million dollars and that N.A.A.I.P. to be "shut down."
- October 2, 2017: I, attended a 5 day trial and testified for 15 minutes total.
- Compulife showed up with 4 attorneys, Compulife's investigator, Compulife's programmer and his wife, Compulife's office manager, Compulife's expert witness and Mr. Robert Barney all testified.
- The Compulife team needed a minivan to bring into the court room dozens of huge boxes filled with thousands of pages.
- I, being a NYU educated computer programmer, researched this case. I was certain that the case had no basis from day one.
- I was shaking my head wondering how Compulife had "the culiones" to spend (in my estimation over $700,000 in attorney fees) on these ridiculous claims.
- Thankfully, for N.A.A.I.P. and its agents, the initial Federal Judge who denied Compulife's injuction request persuaded both sides to forgo a jury trial and accept The Honorable Judge James M. Hopkins to decide the case at a bench trial.
- Judge James M. Hopkins is a former computer programmer who is very serious about "not wasting the court's time."
- Judge James M. Hopkins wrote the decision on March 12, 2018 with the exact same words that I envisioned after spending a day researching Compulife's claims.
- Click Here to Read Judge Hopkins Ruling
- In my opinion, Compulife's claims were frivolous and Compulife's Attorney Joel Rothman of Boca Raton should be sanctioned by the court for wasting the court's time in filing the Compulife lawsuit.
- In my opinion, Compulife Attorney Joel Rothman of Boca Raton profited handsomely in the way of attorney fees and is laughing all the way to the bank.
- The defamation website owned and operated by Robert Barney of Compulife was deleted by Compulife's Robert Barney immediately after Judge Hopkins's ruling.
- Obviously, the harm that Robert Barney and Compulife maliciously caused others should be compensated.
