Wiley names BitTorrent infringers, demands trial by jury
updated 06:50 pm EDT, Wed April 18, 2012
Book publisher seeks trial based on ip evidence
Book publisher John Wiley and Sons has named people accused of sharing books online and is calling for a trial with jury. If the trial goes ahead, this will be the first time a case based on evidence from BitTorrent will be tested in court.
Wiley has filed mass John-Doe lawsuits on 250,000 BitTorrent users in the US since 2010, using the same strategy as movie studios have in the past: gain details of the infringing parties and offer the chance of settlement before proceeding with further prosecution. Jeff Ng, Ralph Mohr, Robert Carpenter and Xiaoshu Chen are now named in a case in New York, suggesting that some of those called upon are refusing the offer.
The defendants face fines of up to $150,000 per offense if found guilty, however it will be up to the legal team of the publisher to prove their case based on an IP address, which only identifies a connection and not the user.
A similar lawsuit filed by the RIAA against Jammie Thomas-Rasset initially resulted in damages totaling as high as $1.9 million for songs illegally shared via peer-to-peer networks. Courts later lowered the fines down to $54,000, however the RIAA is appealing the decision to drop the penalty. [via TorrentFreak]
