In the last week, I have already met with five Jacksonville-area Comcast customers.  They are outraged and confused over being named one of 145 defendants in a copyright infringement lawsuit initiated by Digital Sin, Inc., a New Jersey-based company.  The unnamed defendants in this lawsuit are referred to as “Does,” as in multiple “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” defendants.

The confusion starts because Digital Sin subpoenaed the branch of Comcast cable that serves the Duval county area.  Digital Sin is demanding Comcast customer information based off of IP addresses.

Many people are confused, and because Comcast won’t help, people are getting angry.  My take:  don’t get mad at Comcast.  It’s doing the best it can to preserve good PR, while being forced under court-ordered subpoena to turn over information.  That is, Comcast is giving its customers notice that it is being forced to reveal identifying information related to IP addresses.  Comcast is also giving its customers the chance to volunteer their contact information to Digital Sin.

The clients I have met with had many questions about this lawsuit.  At the confidential consultation, which took 30-45 minutes, and was typically over the phone, I helped answer the following questions:

1. Should I respond to this lawsuit?  If so, how?
2. Will my name and/or other information become part of public record?  Can I keep this lawsuit confidential?
3. What’s the fastest, most cost-effective way to make this lawsuit go away?

My advice and answers have, so far, been different for everyone, because all my prospective clients have had different goals and priorities.

To date, none of the Comcast customers I had met with had been individually identified, and none had been served process.  Here’s where my advice to them was universal:  if you are served, particularly at home, accept it.  Process servers can go away peacefully once their jobs are done.  But they may also resort to tracking you down at work, or publishing your name in a local paper to do their job.  Keep this matter as low-profile as possible.  Don’t try to avoid service unless you are ready for neighbours, colleagues, and friends find out about this.

I can’t read Digital Sin’s mind, I don’t know what they want from my prospective clients, and I don’t know what Digital Sin’s strategies are.  I can, however, give you my best guess as to these answers, and form a plan of action.  My consultation fee is $175, and we can talk about your options.  The Yau Law Firm has experience in copyrights, litigation, and criminal defense.  Also, Yau Law Firm attorneys are admitted to practice in federal court, and has litigated intellectual property disputes, particularly infringement issues.

Filed under: Civil Litigation, Copyrights, Criminal Defense by Yau Jo-Anne Thursday, January 12th, 2012