Last month, RIAA-lobbyist-turned-federal-judge Beryl Howell ruled that three mass P2P file-sharing lawsuits before her in Washington, DC could proceed. The Hollywood Reporter called it, rather hyperbolically, “the most important decision to date in the ongoing mass-litigation campaign” (several other federal judges had already come to opposite conclusions). But Howell’s work has had an impact—as far away as Illinois, more anonymous P2P defendants are coming forward to settle.

So says Illinois’ lone attorney bringing these mass P2P suits. John Steele, divorce-lawyer-turned-porn-copyright-specialist, has had a rough couple of months before judges for the Northern District of Illinois, based in Chicago. He tried moving a recent case downstate, to the Southern District, and he also tried to turn it into a “reverse class action” lawsuit against file-sharers. This hasn’t gone well; a judge is currently staying Steele’s discovery, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation is opposing his tactics.

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Originally posted here:
P2P lawyer: more settlements since former-lobbyist judge’s ruling