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The Federal Court of Appeals of Canada revived a reverse class action lawsuit from Voltage Pictures, which plans to go after alleged BitTorrent hackers. The lower court rejected this approach as it would not be suitable for file-sharing cases, but in a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals views things differently.
The film studio Voltage Pictures has hunted suspected movie pirates for many years.
The company and its subsidiaries have filed numerous lawsuits against suspected pirates in the United States, Australia, and Europe, which likely generated substantial revenue.
Last week, we reported that Voltage had just released a new legal campaign in the UK. At the same time, news is also pouring in from Canada, where Voltage hopes to hold suspected hackers accountable through a novel strategy.
Reverse Collective Action Against BitTorrent Hackers
In Canada, Voltage is attempting to obtain the personal data of a large group of copyright infringers through a reverse class action lawsuit, which is relatively rare. The film company argued that this is a cheaper way to target a large number of offenders at once.
The lawsuit in question was initially presented in 2016 And it has gone on for years. The case revolves around a defendant representative, Robert Salna, who provides WiFi services to tenants. Through Salna, Voltage hoped to catch a larger group of violators.
As the case progressed, it gained the interest of the Canadian Clinic for Internet Policy and Public Interest (CIPPIC). The group, which is related to the University of Ottawa, eventually intervened in Federal Court proceedings to represent anonymous defendants.
Ignored case
This intervention helped to obtain the ignored case in 2019. At that time, the Federal Court concluded that the case involves multiple offenders who will have different circumstances. Reverse class action lawsuits are less suitable for this scenario.
โA collective procedure is not a preferable procedure for the fair and efficient resolution of any common problem that may exist. The proposed procedure would require multiple individual factual findings for each member of the class on nearly every issue, โJudge Boswell wrote at the time.
This was good news for the large group of anonymous defendants, who have yet to be named. However, Voltage did not plan to drop the matter. The film company appealed, and not without success, as the Federal Court of Appeals has just overturned the lower court's ruling.
Court of Appeals revives class action lawsuit
Judge Rennie overturned the 2019 Federal Court ruling and pointed out several reversible errors. For example, the argument that the inverse class action is a novel Focus should not be a reason to dismiss the matter. The voltage should have the opportunity to prove its arguments in court.
The Court further notes that the criteria for uniting two or more defendants in a class action have a low standard and see no reason to prevent the case from proceeding on that basis.
In the warrant, Judge Rennie writes that there is not enough evidence to determine if a class action is the preferable proceeding and if Mr. Salna is a representative defendant, so this question was sent back to the lower court.
The ruling further clarified that copyright holders can use the "notice and notice" regime to send litigation updates to accused subscribers. These notices will be sent out by ISPs, a practice that was prohibited by the lower court.
Minimize costs
The ruling once again puts thousands of suspected movie pirates at risk. If Voltage wins the lawsuit, you can go after a large group of defendants and minimize your legal costs.
Interestingly, Judge Rennie notes that the reverse class action approach can also be beneficial to accused pirates. They will be able to pool their resources to combat the issue.
While the ruling is a clear victory for Voltage, the Federal Court has to review the matter one more time, so it is far from clear that the film company will eventually get the green light to go after thousands of suspected pirates.
If the voltage fails, the company still has other options. As we reported earlier, more traditional copyright lawsuits have also has been effective against hundreds of suspected pirates. They may be a bit more expensive, but as long as they are profitable, they probably won't go away.
