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Just when you thought the online copyright wars in the United States came to a dramatic conclusion when the RIAA decided to no longer file massive lawsuits; this year proves the fight is far from finished. At the center of this epic fight are netizens and the US Copyright Group - an organization that is starting legal proceedings to identify tens of thousands of users allegedly sharing their clients work online.
The legal process hasn't gone very smoothly for the US Copyright Group. They've received staunch opposition from several major ISPs such as Time Warner Cable and Comcast, while receiving criticism from major publications, blogs, and concerned BitTorrent users. Additionally, the US Copyright Group is meeting significant resistance in the courtroom. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), along with several other groups, are fighting to keep the US Copyright Group's campaign from every materializing.
The core of the issue is whether the US Copyright Group can take one of their client's movies - say "The Hurt Locker" - and combine all the defendants suspected of sharing that movie into one lawsuit. If the judge permits this, then the US Copyright Group would only have to file one lawsuit per movie their clients feel have been violated. If they are not allowed to, each lawsuit must be filed individually against each defendant - a very expensive venture that could unbuckle the entire operation.
And that's the key to defeating the US Copyright Group. As more and more organizations join the fight, the big showdown is set for tomorrow as the EFF goes to court and argues against combining the lawsuits. There's already indication that the judge overseeing the case isn't impressed with the US Copyright Group, as it has demanded that the plaintiffs explain why all the cases shouldn't be thrown out.
"A Washington, D.C., law firm calling itself the "U.S. Copyright Group" (USCG) has filed "John Doe" lawsuits on behalf of seven filmmakers that implicate well over 14,000 anonymous individuals in alleged unauthorized downloading of independent films, including "Far Cry" and "The Hurt Locker." EFF and co-amici Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation contend that these suits improperly lump thousands of defendants together, a shortcut that deprives the defendants of fair access to individual justice. In court on Wednesday, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry will argue that USCG has not offered enough evidence of a relationship between the defendants to justify suing them together."
Date: 2010-06-29 |