| The reason behind lumping them... Lawsuits should be lumped together if the defendants were acting in concert. However those 14,000 John Does weren't acting in concert. (Being accused of doing similar things doesn't equal "acting in concert.")
The real reason behind the lumping of the lawsuits is because U.S. Copyright Group (and the RIAA before them) doesn't want to spend the time and money to file 14,000 individual cases in the proper districts (which you could mostly determine from the IP addresses). If they did that, this "sue everyone" process wouldn't work.
So, instead of staying within the law and possibly limiting their lawsuits to the ones where they have the most evidence or the worst offenders, they lump the lawsuits together and hope that judges don't pick up on the fact that there's no legal backing for this.
--
-Jason Levine |
|
 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| Imagine if you could file a lawsuit. One time, the lawsuit titled:
Me Vs Everyone who has ever pissed me off over anything
Then send out letters to businesses and people extorting money saying they'd better pay up or risk total financial ruin.
It's completely BS.
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
|
|
|
|
 GbcueAlmost P.E.Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:8
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| said by KrK:Imagine if you could file a lawsuit. One time, the lawsuit titled: Me Vs Everyone who has ever pissed me off over anything Then send out letters to businesses and people extorting money saying they'd better pay up or risk total financial ruin. I like this idea. I'm going to run with it.
--
My Blog 2.0 |
|
| reply to KrK
The difference is this:
If you did it, the companies would fight back and countersue you into bankruptcy over your (most likely) frivolous lawsuit.
When they do it, you either settle or spend a ton of time/money fighting. If you decide to fight, they either drop the suit as quickly as possible while trying to keep you from countersuing (if it comes out that they will clearly lose the case) or they drag it on to drain you dry and make an example out of you.
The big companies are treated like people but they are "people" with much more funding than any person I know! More time to spend too when you consider that they can be doing a hundred things at once but I would virtually have to put my life on hold to defend against a suit like this.
--
-Jason Levine |
|
WHT
join:2010-03-26
kudos:3
1 edit | OTH, the a judge may declare them a vexatious litigant.
said by »legal-dictionary.thefreedictiona···litigant :
A legal action or proceeding initiated maliciously and without Probable Cause by an individual who is not acting in Good Faith for the purpose of annoying or embarrassing an opponent.
The U.S. legal system permits persons to file civil lawsuits to seek redress for injuries committed by a defendant. However, a legal action that is not likely to lead to any practical result is classified as vexatious litigation. Such litigation is regarded as frivolous and will result in the dismissal of the action by the court. A person who has been subjected to vexatious litigation may sue the plaintiff for Malicious Prosecution, seeking damages for any costs and injuries associated with the original lawsuit.
DISCLAIMER: The above quote is a snippet of the original webpage used for illustration and protected under the "Fair Use" doctrine for quoting copyrighted material. Better safe than sorry.  |
|
Reviews:
 ·NetTalk
| I am not advocating for the illegal downloaders but it seems that these letters amount to nothing more than extortion by the force of legal intimidation. I do not think these copyright holders would like it if the tables were turned on the them and internet users set them up as new revenue stream by baiting them by placing false files that do not contain any copyrighted material. An accredited research should conduct a controlled study by placing files that contain the titles of copyrighted material on a P2P network to cull how many false positives resulted in a threatening legal letter being sent. These false files would simple contain a review of the copyrighted work which under the fair use doctrine would permit the use of such a copyrighted works title which would be contained in the false files title. |
|
| reply to Jason Levine
it is wrong to have sued this many folks at one time.there are many folk out there who do not have the proper knowledge or ability to lock down their wifi or compoter.my father is one of them a 86 year old man who calls me up to ask how can i open attachments on my email i can not see them !!!.He has no computer knowledge at all and there are millions of them in this country.
and what about folk who just are not that smart to begin with and they will not know what to do to lock a machine down.
we on dslreports have computer knowledge.some of you probably know enough to understand how to fake an IP Adress.
and lastly this lawsuit will force someone to travel even thousands of miles rather than being charged with a crime and going to a court in your city.
think hard on this issue.piracy/thieving is wrong but so is this lawsuit.USCG are a bunch of greedy arses. |
|
KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | reply to Jason Levine
is it even legal to sue someone outside their district? i mean if it is than the law should be changed because imo you should not be able to sue someone in a court that is more than 1hr drive from their home.
--
[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
|
| reply to gorehound
Honestly, I don't care if they sue 14,000 users at once. However, they should have to file the 14,000 suits separately in courts that are likely near the defendant's home (as determined by IP address) and present their evidence for each case separately. Of course, doing so would be a huge time/money investment and they don't want to do that!
--
-Jason Levine |
|
