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- Title
AN UNCOMFORTABLE THREESOME: PERMISSIVE PARTY JOINDER, BITTORRENT, AND PORNOGRAPHY.
- Authors
HOLE, EVAN
- Abstract
In recent years, media companies have struggled to combat the rampant growth of Internet piracy and the sharing of their copyrighted works. Lately, some copyright holders have taken to suing hundreds of file-sharers in a single suit. These suits were initially unsuccessful, as courts denied joinder of the files-harers. The rise of a unique file-sharing program called BitTorrent, however, has caused some courts to give copyright holders a new opportunity to successfully file and settle these mass infringement lawsuits. A central issue in many of these suits is whether joinder of the many file-sharing users is appropriate. Disagreement among courts over this issue has centered around whether a copyright holder's claims against a group of BitTorrent users "aris[e] out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences, " as is required for joinder by Rule 20(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This Comment examines the split that has occurred among courts in analyzing this joinder issue and argues that joinder is not appropriate in these suits. Media companies bring these suits on the pretext of deterring copyright infringement, but, in reality, the companies are using these suits as massive collection schemes to coerce defendants to settle, without ever intending to litigate the suits. This Comment proposes that courts should sever all but one defendant from these mass copyright infringement suits against BitTorrent users for three reasons. First, recently there has been a shift toward heightened pleading requirements based on the plausibility of the pleadings. In analyzing the joinder issue in these file-sharing suits, courts have already implicitly considered the plausibility that the defendants participated in the same transaction or occurrence. This consideration has allowed courts permitting joinder in BitTorrent suits to distinguish BitTorrent cases from earlier cases involving other file-sharing programs. These courts have greatly overestimated this plausibility in suits involving BitTorrent. Second, in allowing joinder, courts have not properly applied the purposes and policies behind permissive party joinder and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Finally, these courts have also effectively allowed copyright holders to circumvent class action requirements by allowing them to bring class action-like suits using permissive party joinder under Rule 20.
- Subjects
UNITED States; JOINDER of actions; ACTIONS &; defenses (Law); MARITIME piracy prevention laws; BITTORRENT (Computer network protocol); PORNOGRAPHY laws; CLASS actions; COMPUTER file sharing laws
- Publication
Emory Law Journal, 2014, Vol 63, Issue 5, p1211
- ISSN
0094-4076
- Publication type
Article