The anti-piracy powers that be have just found a new way to battle those nasty pirates who get free music and bootleg copies of performances - sue them before they even commit the alleged offence!

Oh yeah, you heard me right: legal action is now being initiated against people before they've even committed a crime.

Concert producers in the good ol "land of the free" have stumbled upon the fantastic idea of filing mass law suits against people for bootlegging concerts before the concerts have even happened. Hundreds of "John Doe" and "Jane Doe" lawsuits are being filed before concerts occur, allowing them to simply fill in the names of people at the end of the show.

Actually it turns out this is a real winner for the producers because they're able to rush the suits through the legal system very quickly - after all, as no one has yet been charged, no one turns up for the defence! This means that by the time security tap you on the shoulder at the concert for holding your mobile phone camera up to the stage, you've already been found guilty and they can seize your phone and hand you a whopping on the spot suit, to boot!

Due to the leniencies of the civil court systems in the US (and many other countries), burdens of proof and options of defence that exist in criminal cases are either relaxed or entirely absent, meaning that producers essentially have free reign in this matter.

The fact that these cases are not only being allowed through but gaining momentum is a serious concern. Obviously recording companies are either already getting on the bandwagon or soon will be and it's entirely likely to find that people will start getting massive lawsuits the moment the click 'download" on a honeypot torrent. You can forget about a fair trial because it's already taken place.

Eventually, one can hope sanity will prevail and some law maker will clamp down on this kind of action but for at least the next several months, it's likely to that the anti-piracy industry is going to need a few extra photo copiers to keep up with all the claims they're going to be filing.