After Abusing DMCA, Bricks & Minifigs Sues To Unmask Whoever Runs The BAM Map

Bricks & Minifigs (BAM Franchising) has escalated litigation and takedown tactics against an independent site that catalogs alleged corporate misconduct, first using multiple DMCA notices to remove internal BAM documents and then filing a John Doe suit to unmask anonymous operators. Earlier litigation included a RICO claim against an activist, Reckless Ben Schneider, tied to efforts to recover money for Bryan Mansell; BAM later settled with Mansell and returned some Lego sets but records show only about 35 of 387 sets were returned, raising questions about BAM’s claims. The DMCA notices targeted a BAM internal analysis of store impact and are legally weak: fair use protects publication of factual internal materials, statutory damages require prior registration, and using copyright to silence whistleblowing and reporting is an abusive censorship tactic.

The John Doe complaint relies not on copyright but on alleged contract breaches and trade secret misappropriation, citing Google Drive audit logs that purportedly show franchise-level downloads; site operators counter that the knowledge base was publicly accessible on September 26 and was only locked later. A magistrate granted expedited subpoenas to Vercel and GoDaddy without a notice period, allowing BAM to seek subscriber and IP records to identify operators and chill anonymous speech. Courts typically vet unmasking requests under standards like Dendrite and Cahill; observers call BAM’s strategy lawfare and SLAPP-like, and the operators have launched a GoFundMe for legal defense. The involvement of global firm Dentons drew criticism for backing aggressive tactics against reporting.