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It's nice to have a huge pile of John Does to sue. Some will fight, others will acquiesce. Those who acquiesce are a gold mine - they're so shit scared of a multi-million dollar copyright lawsuit they'll settle for a few grand to make the whole nightmare go away. It's probably extortion at some level, at least at the moral level, but it's a dirty job and someone has to do it, like WeFightPiracy.com or the US Copyright Group.
The USCG has become notorious in its fight to stem the tide BitTorrent piracy against its clients, which include an oddball mix of independent movies like "Far Cry", "Donkeyball", and "Cornered!". There's a few bigger movies too under their belt, you'll probably recall the movies "The Hurt Locker" and "The Expendables". These latter two movies are also well known because there are over 20,000 John Does per case currently pending in US District Court - or at least there was.
Both of these cases were filed in US District Court in Washington, DC. As you may know, the population of DC is just over 600,000 individuals. You may also know that the courts have been very sensitive over the issue of jurisdiction and venue - how can anyone in their right mind honestly believe that nearly 6.5% of the DC population is pirating both of these movies? The Judge presiding in The Expendable case doesn't seem to be buying it.
In a ruling made yesterday (read the order here), Judge Robert L. Wilkins was not impressed by the USCG dragging its feet in the discovery process, noting that not one Doe has been served – despite the USCG’s intense efforts for expedited discovery.
“…over two months later, Plaintiff has informed the Court that not a single subpoena has been served in this case. The Court finds this especially surprising given the fact that one of Plaintiff’s stated reasons for “good cause” for the expedited discovery was that the ISPs typically retain the information that Plaintiff seeks for only a limited period of time, and if this information is erased, Plaintiff will be unable to pursue its lawsuit.”
Judge Wilkin also scolded the USCG over jurisdictional issues – noting that it seems rather impossible that all 20,000+ individuals committed copyright infringement in DC. And he doesn’t seem particularly pleased that his time is being wasted.
“The Court finds it inappropriate and a waste of scarce judicial resources to allow and oversee discovery on claims or relating to defendants that cannot be prosecuted in this lawsuit. If venue is improper in this district, the Court must either dismiss the case or transfer it to a court in which venue is proper.”
Date: 2011-06-08 |