Lawyers Find Cheaper Way To Identify BitTorrent Users

Since 2010 close to 200,000 people in the U.S. have been sued for sharing movies via BitTorrent. For the copyright holders and lawyers these cases are already highly profitable. However, some are testing a new and potentially more effective tactic to pursue alleged copyright infringers which could signal the beginning of a new avalanche of settlements.

Every first year law student knows that copyright related court cases are exclusively a matter of federal law. You can’t bring a copyright suit in state court, period.

However, during the past months more and more BitTorrent-related cases were filed at state courts. And as a complete surprise to us, the judges in question granted the copyright holders the right to subpoena the Internet providers of subscribers they accuse of copyright infringement. Once the copyright holders obtain the personal details they use this to send out their infamous pay-up-or-else letters, asking the alleged file-sharers to send them a few thousands dollars. On the surface this seems to be identical to what the copyright holders are doing in the federal court cases, aside from the fact that it’s easier and less expensive.