In order to grab file-sharing headlines these days, the more outrageous or shocking the story, the better. We're not sure whether Lucas Entertainment is looking for more exposure for their legal campaign, but if they are, today's news should help. In their ongoing effort to identify and seek monetary payments for alleged BitTorrent infringers sharing Kings of New York, 132 new John Does were added in an amended complaint filed yesterday.

Previously, only 53 John Does were on the defendant list - a far cry from Achte/Neute's nearly 5,000 defendant list. But the growth of the defendant list now places the Lucas Entertainment lawsuits nearly equally on the lower scale of US Copyright Group lawsuits. For example, G2 Entertainment is currently battling 195 unnamed defendants for allegedly sharing Uncross the Stars. Although this case has yet to be closed, USCG is looking to have it dismissed without prejudice.

Yesterday's filings revealed several other interested developments in this case. First, the case was referred from a district court judge to Magistrate Judge Jeff Kaplan. This in itself isn't too significant, as magistrate judges typically take much of the discovery burden off of district court judges.

However, the first action of the magistrate judge was to grant August 13th's motion for discovery for (at that time) the 53 unnamed defendants. At the time of this writing, there was still no opposition, but that may change as the ISPs start receiving subpoenas.

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Date: 2010-08-17 Source: http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=2025