Right from the start, the most obvious problem with these bittorrent cases was that it was clear the courts in DC lacked personal jurisdiction over most (if not all) of the John Doe defendants. When someone pointed this flaw out to the guys at DGW, their response was generally along the lines of, “oh yeah, we know, we’ll eventually just re-file in the proper court but it’s gonna cost you more if you don’t deal with it now.”
The consensus was that they were bluffing. Now it’s not so clear:
The US Copyright Group—also known as the Virginia law firm of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver—wasn’t bluffing. Stymied by a federal judge overseeing several of its massive lawsuits against file-swappers, the law firm has teamed up with local lawyers around the country to refile its copyright infringement cases in courts closer to each accused defendant.
Note, this is just one more state. They haven’t filed in Oregon yet. But all along, I’ve been telling clients that the worst-case scenario is that we spend the time and money to beat DGW in DC and then they find someone to bring the same claims here. With this case in Minnesota, we’re one step closer.
