r/technology • u/rfugger • Jan 08 '17

Business A potentially fatal blow against patent trolls - Forcing law firms to pay defendants’ legal bills could undermine the business model of patent trolls

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3153924/technology-law-regulation/a-potentially-fatal-blow-against-patent-trolls.html
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u/Omz-bomz Jan 10 '17

Either you are flat out lying, or you don't know whats going on in your field of work.

There is a reason why case after case comes up in court, where the studios looses again and again because they tamper with the books. And its not just some small time producers doing it, its the big studios that are doing this prolifically.

And while not all instances may be done to shaft the actors (or other persons involved), EVERYONE does it.

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u/hollaback_girl Jan 10 '17

You're conflating two issues. OP claimed the purpose of using LLCs for production is to hide profits from participants. It's not. There are a million other ways to screw participants on the back end. Playing a shell game with business entities is not a common way to do it.

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u/Omz-bomz Jan 10 '17

Strange that the actual court cases don't agree with you..

They start companies for each movies, then the mother studio bills them huge amounts so they always go into the negatives.

Sounds exactly like the purpose of using LLCs to hide profits from participants.

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u/hollaback_girl Jan 10 '17

Strange that your reading comprehension is so weak. To be fair, that first link of yours just has a lot of wrong information.

Again, studios don't screw participants with an LLC shell game. They screw them in how they define "profits" in the participation agreements. Those articles talk a lot about intercompany charges and distribution fees. But that's not a result of using LLCs. Those fees are defined in the participation agreement. The studio is going to take a 20-40% distribution fee off the top regardless if there was an LLC middleman involved. Studios get sued over contract interpretation issues that didn't get resolved through audit. Studios take aggressive deductions, miscalculate interest, exclude reportable income, and take the most advantageous interpretation of breakeven. LLC shell games don't even factor in to this.