By Thomas Mennecke
By now, the USCG (US Copyright Group) BitTorrent lawsuits are all the rage. Motions have been filed, opposition established, subpoena’s quashed, rights groups up in arms, and lots of fun has been poked at the movie titles. But wait – did you know that in Texas a new round of lawsuits are beginning to take shape? It’s Lucas Entertainment, a gay porn distributor, versus 53 (thus far) unnamed BitTorrent defendants accused of sharing the movie “Kings of New York”.
As some have noticed, this string of lawsuits isn’t quite gaining the attention that the USCG lawsuits have. In fact, if we look at the court docket, the pace of this case is moving much faster than the USCG brand of lawsuits. True, there are many more USCG lawsuits – potentially up to 14,000 so far. Also, rights groups such as the EFF and ACLU have submitted amicus briefs (friend of the court) in order to ensure the rights of the accused are ensured, while also slowing the process down.
As some have noticed, this string of lawsuits isn’t quite gaining the attention that the USCG lawsuits have. In fact, if we look at the court docket, the pace of this case is moving much faster than the USCG brand of lawsuits. True, there are many more USCG lawsuits – potentially up to 14,000 so far. Also, rights groups such as the EFF and ACLU have submitted amicus briefs (friend of the court) in order to ensure the rights of the accused are ensured, while also slowing the process down.
