Joinder: Whether the John Doe Defendants in a lawsuit should be linked together as defendant in the same lawsuit. Joinder usually relates to the question of whether they were involved in the “same transaction or occurrence.”
In many mass-IP-adrdess-based John Doe copyright infringement lawsuits, joinder is improper because the accused downloaders did not download the same copyrighted title from the same online swarm at the same time. Yet, they are thrown together in one lawsuit as co-defendants.
I was very impressed to see TorrentFreak.com write two articles entitled, “Are You Guilty If Pirates Use Your Internet? Lawyer Says NO,” and “Are You Guilty If Pirates Use Your Internet? Lawyer Says YES,” respectively. Up front, I commend both attorneys Randazza and Ranallo for their contributions to these articles. Too many people are falling … Read more
There is an interesting case coming out of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California — the court where most of John Steele’s newer and smaller Does 1-40 cases are showing up. In severing and dismissing all defendants (except Doe #1) in the Pacific Century International Ltd., v. Does 1-101 (4:11-cv-02533-DMR) case, … Read more
Congratulations to the Cashman Law Firm, PLLC defendants of the Call of the Wild Movie, LLC v. Does 1-331 (Case No. 1:10-cv-00455 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) case, now severed and dismissed. This is not a complete dismissal, as 14 COTW defendants still remain and the case remains alive. The … Read more
[4/13/2011 UPDATE: I have not had time to update this article, but the same day as the Millennium TGA, Inc. v. Does 1-800 case was dismissed, that same judge ALSO dismissed the Lightspeed Media Corp. v. Does 1-1000 case for the same reasons. That would make 3.] Congratulations to our clients who were recently severed … Read more
Over the past few days, as a response to last weeks article where plaintiff attorneys Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver dumped thousands of defendants, Judge Beryl Howell wrote a memorandum indicating which issues the US District Court for the District of Columbia court will hear, and which they will not. In short, as the various articles … Read more