Hopefully 23,000 users who allegedly illegally downloaded The Expendables really, really enjoyed the movie, because now they’ll be paying for it with fear and loathing brought on by a lawsuit, as well as possibly tons of money.

Wired reports the U.S. Copyright Group is suing 23,000 users accused of using BitTorrent to illegally download the movie, thanks to a federal judge’s order that allowed it to subpoena their identities.

Those who opt for an online settlement can pay $3,000 per infringement — a discount from the maximum $150,000 damages per infringement the U.S. Copyright Act allows. The story says movie studios pay people to troll torrent sites and capture IP addresses of those who download copyrighted content.

A Washington state attorney representing some of the defendants tells Wired that file sharers are being unfairly set up, and the system needs to be brought under control:

“It is well beyond time that the courts take control of these automated enterprises being run at great taxpayer expense with the active assistance of the federal court system.”

Biggest BitTorrent Downloading Case in U.S. History Targets 23,000 Defendants [Wired]

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