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Is Being In the Same BitTorrent "Swarm" Equal To "Interacting"?

Posted by Unknown on from the my-closest-friends-are-ip-addresses dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In the new wave of bittorrent downloading cases, the plaintiffs' lawyers like to lump a number of 'John Does' together in the same case in order to avoid filing fees ($350 a pop). Their excuse for 'joinder' is the allegation that the defendants 'interacted' with each other by reason of the fact that their torrents may have emanated from the same 'swarm.' In Malibu Media v. Does 1-5, when John Doe #4 indicated his intention to move for severance, the Court asked the lawyers to address the 'swarm' issue in their papers. So when John Doe #4 filed his or her motion to quash, sever, and dismiss, he filed a detailed memorandum of law (PDF) analyzing the 'swarm' theory in detail. What do you think?"

4 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds a little hokey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's not the same thing as a swarm though. You make it sound like people were prosecuted because their neighbours used BT, that's on the same cable too.

    A swarm is more like a conference call. You share the same line, but you also pass data between each other. As much as I hate the *AA litigation - I think the interaction thing holds up. How the hell else are you going to download from / upload to a swarm if not by interacting with it?

  2. Re:Sounds a little hokey by msauve · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As if the computer did this on it's own. Might as well argue that you didn't hire that hit man, he just acted based on hearing the mechanical vibrations caused by electrons going over the phone line.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  3. Re:Sounds a little hokey by Belial6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's more like you sang "Happy Birthday" to your kid at his party in a Chuck-E-Cheese. One of his guests learns the song during that illegal public performance, and teaches it to his brother who then proceeds to perform an illegal public performance of the same song at his friends Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party.

  4. Re:Sounds a little hokey by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "What's needed is an option in clients to not upload to other users who have IP addresses in the USA. Even better would be a public list of IP blocks used by the MAFIAA, so those can be blacklisted automatically by the clients."

    There is such a thing called PeerBlock who does exactly that. It allows also custom lists.
    I use those to block all connections from/to my own country, so that local law enforcement/MAFIAA equivalent can't get anything usable in court.