It's been rather quiet in the US Copyright Group vs. The Public litigation. Currently, most of the current progress is procedural, as the USCG is working with ISPs to identify individuals suspected of sharing their client's work. During the identification process, individual customers are informed that their identities are being sought - and they have the option to oppose this (otherwise known as quash). Today we see new opposition, from a John Doe in the West Bay One case.

Motions to quash USCG subpoenas have ended miserably for almost all John Doe defendants. The only motion to quash that succeeded was Time Warner, who wants to process 28 IP addresses a month for all cases that it's involved in. There's still one last pending motion for Time Warner, but chances are it will succeed in that case as well.

However, for the little people, many of which don't have the means to properly file a motion, it's been a rough road; see the orders denying the defendants motions in the World Wide Entertainment and 2 Entertainment cases. Even though the judges who denied these motions are different from the judge presiding over the West Bay One case, we can't help but feel that this John Doe's motion will be interpreted as deficient much like the rest.

According to John Doe's motion, he argues that the court lacks jurisdiction, that he's never used a file-sharing program, and that he has nothing in common with the rest of the defendants. Unfortunately, jurisdiction and the issue of joinder have already been put to rest, and his denial can probably only be argued once he's been identified and personally sued. Jurisdiction has been argued in a motion to quash in the Achte/Neunte (Far Cry) case, but unfortunately that John Doe case was settled out of court without judicial option on the matter.

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Date: 2010-08-25 Source: http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=2030