I have defended legions of individuals accused of copyright infringement through use of BitTorrent. As Professor Sag points out, the Northern District of Illinois is a hot-spot for BitTorrent litigation. Unsurprisingly, Jonathan has defended many BitTorrent defendants there, including his client in case number 13-6312. In that case, Jonathan defeated Malibu Media at summary judgment.

Recently, Judge Dow of the Northern District of Illinois denied a prevailing defendant’s request for attorneys fees. There is, however, a silver lining to his opinion.

However, the points advanced by Defendant about the potential for abuse across the universe of peer-to-peer copyright infringement cases convince the Court that it should re-evaluate its own overall treatment of these cases and consider whether to suggest that the Rules Committee in this district look into the matter as well.

Presumably, these rule changes will make the Northern District of Illinois less friendly to BitTorrent Plaintiffs. However, the mandatory initial discovery pilot program and changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure did not slow the filing of these cases in the Northern District of Illinois.