In one of the most important legal crises facing the BitTorrent community, the cases of the USCG (US Copyright Group) and Lucas Entertainment have some more developments over the weekend. Slyck brings the latest and greatest from these cases.

In the Lucas Entertainment vs. John Does 1-65 lawsuits involving the movie Missing, the case has hit a procedural snag. Apparently, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Mr. Evan Stone, didn't provide a working phone number in his legal filings. This caused Verizon to send the court a letter indicating that it was not possible to reach him. The court didn't seem too pleased - from Judge Royal Furgesen:

"On August 26, 2010, the Court received a letter from Verizon Legal Compliance stating that attempts to locate a valid telephone number for Plaintiffs counsel, Mr. Evan Stone, have been unsuccessful. Because it will be necessary for recipients of Plaintiff's recent subpoenas to contact Mr. Stone with inquires related to this case, the Court ORDERS Mr. Stone to amend the subpoenas issued in conjunction with this case to include a valid telephone number where Mr. Stone can be contacted. The number should be to a telephone that is answered by a human being during normal business hours. An answering machine is not acceptable."

The court ordered Mr. Stone to provide a working phone number and amend the subpoenas sent to the various ISPs by September 9. We’ll keep you updated when this order is complied with.

In the USCG cases, we reported on August 25 that a John Doe defendant filed a motion to quash - or have the subpoena to have his identifiable information released thrown out. Unfortunately, the John Doe didn't cite anything too groundbreaking or anything that would distinguish his motion to quash from the several other attempts we've seen. In his motion, the Doe argued that the court lacks jurisdiction, that he's never used a file-sharing program, and that he has nothing in common with the rest of the defendants.

The USCG was quick to knock down this motion, and submitted a motion in opposition on August 27. Considering that the John Doe doesn't bring anything new to the table, chances are his motion will be thrown out much like the rest. But it's interesting to note that the more motions to quash there are, the longer the process is taking.

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