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FAQ for Bittorrent Cases: Or, “I got a letter from my ISP and…”

Hire an attorney.  If they do not acknowledge the fact that you are represented, and continue to contact you, the law firm or the copyright holder may be liable for $1000.00 per violation under the Fair Debt Collection Practices act.

I would love to get my hands on the neck of a Plaintiffs attorney if they were trying to double-dip one of my clients.  As far as we all know, there is no such list.  Any attorney attempting such extortion should likely be disbarred.  

Most settlements are very straightforward.  Most of them are commonly slanted toward the Plaintiff, but this is typical.  The settlements can be renegotiated, however, the negotiations adding or taking away certain clauses means that you will be paying an attorney you are using to settle more than you otherwise would if you just accepted the Plaintiff's terms.

I want a wand that is truly magical and can create any food that I can imagine.  This is not going to happen.  A motion to quash is not usually a magic bullet, but it has been, in some cases, in some jurisdictions.   The best option is always to hire an attorney in that area and inquire about the status of those sorts of cases.  

In other jurisdictions (South Florida, Miami-Dade and D.C.) identity discovery through IP addresses, without any accountability for the accusations made, is being abused by those who use speculative invoicing as a way to earn a living.  If you do not believe that jurisdiction has been an issue for them, you will see that test cases have popped up all over the country.  They are constantly looking for new locations and new courts to collect more information regarding ISP subscribers.  The more letters they write and the more contact that is made, the more profitable their business.

If you want all of this to go away, form a collective effort to never pay any settlements.  Form a collective effort to take every case to trial.  However, it would be hard to convince a guilty party to not settle when facing possible actions against them in federal court.