Andre Yoskowitz
10 May 2011 12:35
In what will become the largest unauthorized torrent downloading lawsuit in U.S. history, the U.S. Copyright Group is expected to sue 23,000 file sharers for downloading the Sylvester Stallone hit film "The Expendables."
A federal judge has given the Group the rights to subpoena ISPs to find the identity of those who downloaded the film, which means that 23,000 number may be a lowball figure.
Subpoenas will begin being sent out on Thursday.
Under the U.S. Copyright Act, damages allowed per infringement are $150,000 and the group will ask for that in each case.
Of course, they will also offer a settlement payment of $3000. If every accused downloader settles, the lawyers will make a cool $69 million.
The Group finds the IPs by starting downloads of active torrents and capturing the IP addresses of peers that are sharing.