A new type of case involving a clash of Internet law, copyright law and hundreds of defendants identified only by their IP address has made its way into Connecticut courts. As we saw in the now-infamous cases surrounding the use of programs such as Napster, with their peer-to-peer sharing of music files, policing copyrights and advising clients on both sides of the “v.” in the new age of digital media and the Internet, where the laws have yet to be written, can be a daunting task.
Copyright protection is essential for digital media, such as films and software, because files can now be transferred in minutes within the privacy of one’s own home with the click of a mouse. As soon as it seemed that peer-to-peer file-sharing cases were becoming more streamlined, however, a new type of case has developed causing some difficult and troubling issues for courts to address.
