Major File-Sharing Case Could Set a Precedent

A case started by porn king Larry Flynt that targeted thousands of John Doe defendants has been tossed out of court, creating a potential problem for lawyers representing the entertainment industry's fight against file-sharers. Last year Larry Flynt Publications filed lawsuits against thousands of anonymous defendants for a porn parody film called "This Ain't Avatar XXX." The problem for lawyers representing the company was that ISP Time Warner was reticent to reveal the real identities of the IP owners lawyers had obtained. Without those real names, it was next to impossible to find out who exactly was illegally downloading and sharing the film.

Royal Furgeson, Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, said that because there are no allegations that the defendants were related in some way to one another and acted in concert with each other there. Because of this he tossed the case out. Citing a ruling from file-sharing case West Coast Prods., Inc. v. Does 1-535 (December 16, 2010) the judge ruled that all of the John doe defendants could not be combined together under one lawsuit.

The judge also ruled that the "joinder is improper in this case because each Defendant will also likely have a different defense."

Now if the plaintiff attorneys want to sue they will have to file separate lawsuits for thousands of John Does. The beauty of joining these lawsuits together is that it saves the companies pursuing them more money. Having to file thousands of lawsuits and go through all the legal wrangling for discovery and more will cost a substantial amount of money per case.

TorrentFreak has a decent breakdown of what this all means here - including comments from Rob Cashman, owner of Cashman Law Firm. He has been working against some of these cases, so he has some personal insight.

Source: TorrentFreak