101 Iowa L. Rev. Online 43 (2016)

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Abstract

Professor Matthew Sag’s Copyright Trolling, An Empirical Study tells a riveting tale of a litigation system run amok.1 A plaintiff files suit in federal court. Each instance of alleged unlawful conduct targeted in the suit may well entail little in the way of actual damages, and for that reason the complaint demands statutory rather than actual damages. The conduct in question is as common as it is allegedly unlawful and, in some people’s views, this conduct isn’t particularly objectionable. And the economics of the litigation in question simply don’t make sense without the aggregation of claims related to many individuals. Defendants in suits like this one have more–very much more–to lose than to gain by fighting the suit, so they feel intense pressure to settle early, even if the suit is totally meritless.