[x-pubpol] USA: Court Kicks Out Copyright Troll Who Has “No Desire To Litigate”

[Joly MacFie]

http://torrentfreak.com/court-kicks-out-copyright-troll-who-has-no-desire-to-litigate-120406/

<snip a bunch of stuff about discovery & location.>

The court also had problems with 90 Does being connected together in
one lawsuit after Hard Drive admitted that it had no evidence to show
that the BitTorrent users ever shared the movie between each other

“Plaintiff has not shown that the defendants acted in concert simply
by appearing in the same swarm at completely different times,” said
Judge Lloyd. “Therefore, the court cannot find that ‘a single
transaction or series of closely related transactions’ connects these
90 Does and makes joinder proper.”

The court denied Hard Drive its application for discovery of the Doe’s
identities and ordered all but one defendant to be severed from the
lawsuit. If Hard Drive wants to pursue them it will have to file
individual complaints against them.

Judge Lloyd’s summing up will be music to the ears of those who oppose
so-called copyright trolls.

“The court realizes that this decision may frustrate plaintiff and
other copyright holders who, quite understandably, wish to curtail
online infringement of their works. Unfortunately, it would appear
that the technology that enables copyright infringement has outpaced
technology that prevents it,” Judge Lloyd wrote.

“The court recognizes that plaintiff is aggrieved by the apparent
infringement and is sympathetic toward its argument that lawsuits like
this one are the only way for it to find and stop infringers. However,
the court will not assist a plaintiff who seems to have no desire to
actually litigate but instead seems to be using the courts to pursue
an extrajudicial business plan against possible infringers (and
innocent others caught up in the ISP net).

“Plaintiff seeks to enlist the aid of the court to obtain information
through the litigation discovery process so that it can pursue a
non-judicial remedy that focuses on extracting ‘settlement’ payments
from persons who may or may not be infringers. This the court is not
willing to do,” Judge Lloyd concludes.


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