RIAA ordered to justify suing groups of people in one lawsuit

[robkelk]

Ars Technica: Judge may dismiss 4,576 of 4,577 P2P defendants from lawsuit

And she's right to do so, IMHO. The only reason the RIAA has for lumping all those lawsuits together is to save money. The civil court system does not exist to save money; it exists to arrive at equitable decisions, and putting thousands of people together in one case is not equitable to them.

(Note that this does not dismiss the lawsuit against those thousands of people - it just dismisses all but one of the defendants from this particular lawsuit.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Sweno]

but given that this is largely a money making proposition on behalf of the law firm that brought this lawsuit in the first place, having to pay several hundred dollars per defendant may put some serious brakes on their plans.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Sofaspud]

I hate to say it, Sweno, but I doubt that's the case.  More likely, they'll simply increase the minimum settlement fee -- instead of 1500 - 2500, they'll make it, say, 2000 - 3000 -- and then continue business as usual.

Filing the paperwork is tedious, but it's not terribly expensive, especially not when the odds are so good that people will pony up rather than go to court.  Right now they're just trying to avoid the tedium, but so long as it's still profitable, they'll just pass the costs on.

And the filing costs cannot be made too expensive to make it worth it without denying basic rights to the populace at large, so there's not much hope that simple finances will kill this trend.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[CattyNebulart]

Considering one of the successful defendants claimed 300k in lawyers fees (the lawyer was working pro-bono, but the market rate would come out to something in that range), and for civil court you won't get a lawyer if you can't afford one, and those lawsuits can easily drag on for years...

Also the RIAA has been repeatedly told by the courts to knock that off. Ussualy it's just ignored.

Justice is dead in America, wounded by the war on drugs, finished of by the war on terror.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."