How a Virginia Law Firm Outpaces the MPAA at Suing Over Movie Downloads

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/06/02/1532223/How-a-Virginia-Law-Firm-Outpaces-the-MPAA-at-Suing-Over-Movie-Downloads

Jamie points out this Ars Technica piece on a series of suits brought by the Virginia law firm of Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver against users they accuse of illegally downloading movies. The firm has an interesting business model in these suits; sue enough users in a DC Federal court to be worth splitting the sum of many small settlement offers (generally $1,500-2,500 apiece) with the filmmakers, rather than rely on winning after trial a small number of larger judgments. Most people settle, and Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver has so far named more than 14,000 "Does" — as in John Doe — including, as mentioned a few days ago,5,000 who downloaded The Hurt Locker.