There have been a lot of doom and gloom articles about digital media piracy over the last several months. Most of the concern stems from suits that have been filed by the US Copyright Group against large groups of John Does. The suits would require ISPs to provide the personal information attached to the IP addresses listed as downloading digital media in breach of copyright.

A DC judge may have quashed things, for now anyway. Judge Rosemary Collyer made some blunt demands of the guys bringing these suits this week – prove that its worth the court’s time to handle the suits in batches as they have been filed. The actual wording looks like this: “MINUTE ORDER requiring Plaintiff to show cause in writing no later than June 21, 2010 why Doe Defendants 2 through 2000 should not be dismissed for misjoinder under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20.”

Rule 20 says that plaintiffs may only join defendants in a lawsuit if:

• They assert any right to relief jointly, severally, or in the alternative with respect to or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences; and
• Any question of law or fact common to all plaintiffs will arise in the action.

If the plaintiff can’t show either of these conditions to be true, the suits will be “severed,” meaning they each have to be filed individually, which would be costly and time consuming, probably so much as to keep the suits from being filed.

In other words, you’re safe for now, pirates.