Judge Blasts Recording Industry’s ‘Clever Scheme’ to Join File-Sharing Defendants
A magistrate judge has targeted what she calls the recording industry’s “clever scheme” to obtain discovery against multiple defendants accused of file sharing by joining them in single lawsuits.
In a recent opinion (PDF posted by Internet Law and Regulation), Judge Margaret Kravchuk suggested a hearing on Rule 11 sanctions hearing may be appropriate in the suit against 27 unidentified students using file sharing software whose Internet addresses were provided by the University of Maine.
Kravchuk recommended denying the motion to dismiss the suit, but that didn’t stop her from commenting on the industry’s habit of joining numerous defendants in a single John Doe lawsuit, Ars Technica reports.
Kravchuk wrote in footnote 5 that she is concerned about whether the rules of joinder permit the plaintiffs to file one suit against disparate defendants who use the same Internet Service Provider without any allegations of concerted conduct.
“The allegation that all of the claims arise from the same series of transactions or occurrences because all of the defendants used the same ISP sounds good, but makes little sense when one appreciates that having a common ISP says nothing about whether the use of that service by two or more people amounts to the same transaction or occurrence,” she wrote.
“Rule 11(b)(3) requires that a representation in a pleading have evidentiary support and one wonders if the plaintiffs are intentionally flouting that requirement in order to make their discovery efforts more convenient or to avoid paying the proper filing fees. In my view, the court would be well within its power to direct the plaintiffs to show cause why they have not violated Rule 11(b) with their allegations respecting joinder. …
“These plaintiffs have devised a clever scheme to obtain court-authorized discovery prior to the service of complaints, but it troubles me that they do so with impunity and at the expense of the requirements of Rule 11(b)(3) because they have no good faith evidentiary basis to believe the cases should be joined.”
Some of the defendants in the case are represented by the student legal clinic at the University of Maine law school, P2PNet reports.
