US Copyright Group Defends Lumping Defendants Into One Lawsuit

[admin]

After being asked by the judge to explain why 5,000 defendants, most of them unaware of each other's actions, were joined into the same lawsuit, the USCG has defended its actions saying the BitTorrent architecture is the reason.

The USCG explains that because every person as part of the lawsuit *could* theoretically have uploaded or downloaded pieces of data to and from each other, and therefore because the users are part of the "swarm", they are all related.

Of course, there is no evidence suggesting that all of the users sued were part of the same swarm, and even less evidence to suggest that any of them did connect to other users that were also sued.

It will be interesting to see if the judge accepts the USCG's reasoning.

More:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100622/0253219915.shtml

[dr_ml422]

This is the most absurd defense I've heard as there is no way they can prove all that! Hope the Judge in question really judges this solely by the law and in a unbiased manner as it should be. Money does change things though in every aspect of life. The MPAA and all those involved have plenty of it. It's future vision that everyone should have regarding this including the USCG etc... This whole inquisition could have major repercussions down the line that only a few can see or think about.

[rago88]

EFF goin against Copyright group

Electronics frontier foundation doing battle with Copyright group tommorow in D.C about the massive John Doe lawsuits.
Go EFF..

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/06/28

[admin]

Judge has ruled in favour of USCG by not allowing any defendants to sever themselves from the mass lawsuit.

However, Judge Collyer asked the USCG to work with the EFF and the ACLU to draft the notices to send out to the alleged offenders, to create an "user friendly" notice, and that before any such agreement on a notice is made, no notices are to be forwarded to ISPs (to forward to the defendants).

The judge also ruled on Time Warner Cable's motion to quash all the subpoenas due to there being too many at the one time. TWC claims that USCG previously agreed to limit subpoenas to only 28 per month. The judge refused to quash all the subpoenas, but did agree with TWC's assertion on the 28 per month limit, and this could seriously slow down the case before this court at least.

More:

http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/07/bittorrent-piracy-lawsuit-decision-.html

[admin]

Apparently, the USCG has found working with the EFF on producing a more informative notice to send to people that are being sued is so hard, it might be impossible. They are ready to go back to court to report to the judge the unworkable situation, and ask for alternative instructions.

[dr_ml422]

I'm very curious to see what alternative instructions they are seeking outside of no help at all. This is a small victory for the EFF/ACLU. Anything to cause the USCG to stop their operation is good forward progress.