BitTorrent John Does Catch a Break as Judge Reignites Jurisdiction Issue

Thomas Mennecke reports:

Every single US Copyright lawsuit against nearly 19,000 John Does has been filed in Washington DC. Discovery has been granted in every case, which means the identification process against many of these individuals is taking place as you read this article. Before the USCG can obtain the identifiable information associated with the IP address collected during their copyright infringement investigation, they have the opportunity to file a motion to quash – or prevent the USCG from obtaining their information.

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… two of the defendants were located outside the District of Columbia. In an order rarely seen in these cases, the Judge ruled that the USCG must show cause by September 30th why the cases against them shouldn’t be dismissed due to jurisdiction.

“These defendants appear to live outside of Washington, D.C…Because they live elsewhere, it is questionable whether [defendants] had sufficient contact with the District of Columbia to warrant this Court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over them.”