You wouldn't steal a handbag

Class action suits generally involve scores of disgruntled citizens suing a big corporation for wrongdoing. If you've seen the movie Erin Brockovich, you know the deal.

In a strange sort of opposite class action suit, U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) filed a federal lawsuit, accusing 20,000 people of illegally downloading and sharing movie content over the Internet. The organization intends to file a second lawsuit against a separate 30,000 individuals accused of sharing full movie files.

According to an article on pcworld.com, "So far, major Hollywood studios and trade associations like the Motion Picture Association of America have not signed up with the USCG's plans. Instead, the major industry players are waiting to see what happens with the USCG's initial cases before considering action to recoup costs from illegally traded major motion pictures, according to THR (The Hollywood Reporter)."

Instead, the USCG is working on behalf of small, independent film producers.

In order to sue the combined 50,000 individuals, the USCG filed "John Doe lawsuits" against the people behind the IP addresses known to have shared files. After filing the suit, the USCG would then be able to issue subpoenas to ISPs to uncover the identities of the individuals.

These lawsuits are not going to be easy. According to the article, ISPs have been known to fight subpoenas in court. Like journalists who fight to withhold information, the ISPs don't want to reveal information that was originally intended to remain private. Furthermore, if the individuals who shared files used proxy sites, it would be virtually impossible to track them down.