A federal judge in the District of Columbia has ordered a group of anonymous defendants in a copyright lawsuit over illegally downloaded movies to disclose their identities.Earlier this month, more than 40 of the 4,577 John Doe defendants named in one of at least seven lawsuits filed by District-based US Copyright Group, a litigation outfit formed by attorneys from Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, asked a judge to toss out a subpoena seeking their identities and dismiss the case. Attorneys representing the anonymous defendants, who were identified in the filing by numerical Internet addresses, argued that the US Copyright Group had not followed the procedure governing large-scale litigation and that Washington is not the proper venue in which to bring the lawsuit since many of the individuals live elsewhere.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092405992.html