Third World Media, LLC, filed a lawsuit against thousands of Does (referring to “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” defendants) for copyright infringement, many of them being Florida residents.  This lawsuit was filed January 10, 2011, and Comcast’s notices of subpoena in this lawsuit have made their way to Jacksonville mailboxes.  The accusation:  file downloading and sharing of movies through torrent software.

This is coming as an alarming trend.  In recent weeks, I met with a handful of Duval county residents who were contacted by Comcast, their Internet provider, regarding a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Digital Sin, Inc.  I’m still researching that lawsuit; the Complaint was filed November 16, 2011 in a Florida Federal Court. 

For those of you doing your own research, I blogged my legal advice and assessment of what to do in the Digital Sin, Inc. case; the same advice would be true for Doe defendants in the Third World Media case.  In general, don’t fight service of process, and once you are served, contact a lawyer experienced in digital copyright infringement cases immediately.  The time to respond to a lawsuit is literally measured in days; missing a deadline could mean that a default judgment is entered against you.  This could mean that you will be found liable of copyright infringement, likely owe the money demanded by the plaintiffs (which may also include paying for their attorneys’ fees and costs!), and any public records search of your name could show that you didn’t make any effort to defend yourself.

Filed under: Civil Litigation, Copyrights by Yau Jo-Anne Tuesday, January 17th, 2012