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Time Warner Cable is one of the many ISPs served with subpoenas related the the massive BitTorrent lawsuits current flying in the District of Columbia federal courts . In total, the ISP was served with nearly 1,500 subpoenas, demanding the identifiable information related to alleged copyright infrigners using BitTorrent. These alleged infringers have been accused of sharing Achte/Neunte's Far Cry, West Bay One's The Steam Experiment, and Call of the Wild.
With the first two cases, both of which appeared before Judge Rosemary Collyer, Time Warner successfully argued before the court to limit the total subpoena processing for both movies to 28 IP addresses per month, plus whatever costs incurred. However, that ruling only applied to Judge Collyer's court - the Call of the Wild case is being held in a different court (although still in DC). Conceivably, Time Warner could be compelled by the other court to identify a separate number of alleged infringers, adding onto the 28 they are currently ordered to handle.
Time Warner has consistently argued that it is unable to accommodate any more than 28 subpoenas requesting the identifiable information on their custmers, thanks to an already burdensome workload from law enforcement. After all, isn't it more important to pursue terrorists than copyright infringers?
In a motion filed on August 2nd, Time Warner submitted their request to limit the identification process to 28 a month for all three cases.
"TWC recognizes that Judge Collyer’s findings are not binding on this Court, but respectfully submits that her findings and orders are persuasive.1 TWC requests that this Court enter a similar order, and cap TWC’s burden at 28 IP address lookups for all of plaintiff’s counsel’s cases combined because TWC has demonstrated that any more would cause it undue burden."
Time Warner is aggressively pursuing this cause since they believe their initial agreement with the US Copyright Group was reneged. If the judge in this case agrees, it will take approximately 53 months (or over 4 years) to identify each individual. Does the US Copyright Group have enough resources to last that long?
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Date: 2010-08-04 |