On March 18, 2010, the US Copyright Group filed a copyright complaint against 4,577 unnamed defendants. These alleged file-sharers were suspected of sharing the movie "Far Cry" - an obscure movie whose producers are represented by the US Copyright Group. At that point, the US Copyright Group has 120 days from the day of filing to serve the defendants with a subpoena. 124 days later, only 11 have responded - forcing the US Copyright Group to ask the judge for an additional 120 days.

So what's going on here? After reading the plaintiff's motion, it's remarkable to note that only 11 of the 4,577 people have responded. We don't know what ISP the 11 belong to, but Charter Communications is known to have quickly given up their customer's information. But there are holdouts - and significant ISPs at that.

"However, Plaintiff has not yet received information from a number of additional ISPs, most notably AT&T/SBC, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner. Plaintiff has not received this information because of the motion to quash filed by Time Warner and the Court’s Order to Show Cause issued regarding joinder,” the plaintiffs wrote in yesterday’s motion.

The big hold up now is Time Warner's motion to quash. The issue regarding joinder has already been settled, but the quash proceedings may still take considerable time. The delay tactics being deployed on the plaintiffs are critical. As the old mantra goes - time is money. The more time is spent in the legal process, the better it is for internet freedom and the worse it is for the US Copyright Group.

What's particularly important is even if the US Copyright Group does start identifying users, it's possible that with only small number (28) of Time Warner IP addresses being processed per month, this operation may get quite costly before any money comes in.

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