Safer on smaller ISPs?

[cjules13]

So, from this latest round of file-sharing suits, combined with the new procedure in which the RIAA must file suit to discover the identities of those behind the IPs they collect, and reading the following from the article on the front page...

The pace of the latest rounds of lawsuits has also been determined by their different form. In this latest batch, as with the last, the RIAA has bundled together scores of anonymous file swappers whose apparent Internet Protocol addresses mark them as subscribers of the same ISP, and filed against them in a single lawsuit.

Last time, that meant four lawsuits against 532 "John Doe" individuals, who would be named later. This time, there are five separate suits against a total of 531 anonymous Net subscribers, filed in federal courts in Philadelphia; Atlanta; Orlando, Fla.; and Trenton, N.J. The RIAA declined to say which ISPs were the subject of the lawsuits.

So for 532 people last time, they filed 4 suits against 4 ISPs whose users were found sharing music files.

This time there are 5 instead of 4.

The lawsuits must also be filed in the state of which the ISP is based. This is from an article descibing SBC's case over the supeonas (their old method):

According to the lawsuit, more than 200 of the subpoenas filed against PBIS were issued from the wrong court of jurisdiction, arguing that they should have been issued from the California district court rather than from the Washington, D.C.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5058107.html?tag=nl

So from reading from the initial quote, it appears they have targeted:

Comcast = Philadelphia
Cox = Atlanta

etc...

So they want to be efficient and bundle as many names together as they can, to file a single lawsuit against one company... it seems like they won't waste their time with smaller groups of people when Comcast and Cox customers can be swooped up like a whale feeding on a school of minnows.

Just based on sheer numbers... they might find onesy-twosy people sharing large amounts of files on small ISPs, but it isn't worth it to start another lawsuit when you've got 50 Comcast IPs staring them in the face beside a small bb provider IP.

Not that anyone can or should feel safe, but it always makes you feel better when you understand what's going on.

Does this make sense to you guys?

[MikeHunt]

a good point...sounds logical to me.