While most twist the law in grouping large numbers of anonymous John Does into a lump to cut down on court costs and time, courts are increasingly becoming wise, even if people have been warning about it for five years or more.

Some courts are still allowing these cases (notably ex-lobbyist Judge Beryl Howell), but others are getting wise, and denying it.

The Northern District of Georgia is one Federal Court that had rapidly moved into the latter category. In addition to allowing discovery for the defense against perhaps the most notorious of entities in this area – Prenda/AF holdings/etc. – in a hearing last week, they’ve put the brakes on mass joinder there.

A case brought by Killer Joe Nevada, on behalf of the film “Killer Joe”, has hit the brakes there, in the hands of the Chief Judge, Julie E Carnes. While a subpoena was initially granted in the case on May 3rd 2013, soon after (May 28th) it was withdrawn for all but Doe 1, and the remaining Does (2-81)  dropped for misjoinder, and the subpoenas nullified.

However, no-one seems to have told the ISPs that. While eager to get the subpoena to the ISPs to get the details, the same zeal seems not to have been applied in telling those same ISPs to stop. That’s because at least three different people have apparently contacted just one attorney, Blair Chintella, about this case, after being notified by their ISP, after May 28th.

When three individuals reach out to just one lawyer, odds are there’s more out there reaching out to others, and we’ve not heard about it yet. And the court seems worried too, after being informed of this situation. In a June 18th order, Chief US District Judge Carnes:

REMINDS the plaintiff that discovery should have been discontinued and rescinded as to all defendants who were severed and dismissed. The Court DIRECTS the plaintiff to immediately contact the ISPs in each case to rescind and withdraw previously-issued subpoena for each such defendant. Further, any information that plaintiff may have obtained through these subpoenas must be returned.

Plaintiff shall ensure that this information is communicated to each ISP by June 25, 2013 and shall report back to the Court by July 1, 2013, providing copies of these letters to each ISP, as well as a report as to its compliance with this Order.

While we’ve yet to see or hear the results of that order, we remind anyone who has been targeted in this case, or any others, that under no circumstances should you directly contact a company with a John Doe suit proceeding against you, if you intend to fight it.

Most people doing so give their name and address and thus give them what they want. At the very least, consult an attorney. A list of attorneys who may be willing to look at the case can be found at the EFF site, along with some basic advice.

Meanwhile, if the copyright industry would like to know why they are increasingly disliked, take this case as an example.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

As Georgia struggles to return to some sort of normality, life goes on for businesses in the region, including the movie industry. However, the Georgian movie industry has to face some unique challenges. According to a report, along with other sites, two of the most popular Geogian movie download sites gol.ge and avoe.ge are able to operate freely. Unlike in the US, Europe and many other places around the world, there are no laws in place in Georgia to deal with unofficial movie sites.

This lack of legislation means that the movie industry has to deal with the issue in ways which differ from those of their US and European counterparts. In moves which will seem largely alien to most readers, the Georgian movie industry actually tries its best to keep on friendly terms with the unauthorized download sites in order to reach agreements with them.

Devi Gvaxaria, Manager of the Marketing Department at Cinema Rustaveli told The Financial that they deal with a unique situation in Georgia. “We are happy to have good relations with the main movie sites of Caucasus Online, who consider our request not to put films on the Internet at the same time as their first showings in the theatres,” he said, adding “But these are only some of them, there are different sites which are out of our control.”

Gvaxaria notes that most of the unofficial sites get their movies from other pirate sites internationally, but there is the language barrier, since most Georgians would prefer them in their native ‘Kartuli’. Of course, these technical limitations prove minor stumbling blocks for the resourceful.

“Several times hackers have rewritten the verbal part of a movie from our cinema,” says Gvaxaria. “They put a Dictaphone into their pockets before entering the film, which is impossible for us to stop. We can’t just check each and every person who enters our cinema.” Clearly Mr Gvaxaria hasn’t been to a big movie at a US theater recently.

Natia Meparishvili, PR and Marketing Manager of Cinema Amirani believes that the best protection against piracy is the tradition among the people of going to the cinema. However, it appears that negotiations with the unauthorized providers to keep brand-new movies off their sites for a while gives the theaters a little breathing room to make enough profit during the opening weeks.

Negotiating with pirates is something we have covered before, but it seems unlikely that US movie companies will follow this lead. Indeed, this interesting situation in Georgia will probably change too, as the article notes that the movie business is going to change “their friendly relations” with the unofficial sites and modify the discussion to be based around “the language of law”.

It sounds like Georgia is getting into a Western state of mind, in more ways than one.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.