Hold on for dear life, 'Expendables' pirates: You're about to be sued!

Hannah Bull of Junction City, Kansas: You're not off the hook yet for allegedly pirating the schlocky action flick Far Cry.

Last month, Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, the local law firm suing thousands of Americans suspected of sharing these movies illegally, dropped more than 4,400 defendants in the case involving Uwe Boll's Far Cry; Rosemary Collyer, a U.S. District Court judge in D.C., had ruled that defendants outside her jurisdiction couldn't be sued here. But that setback hasn't phased the firm. Thomas Dunlap tells CNET's Greg Sandoval that he's recruited lawyers in 23 states to pursue these defendants in local courts, gambling that the amount earned through individual settlements — typically around $1,500-$2,500 — will outweigh the costs of this new strategy.

Writes Sandoval:

Plenty of obstacles could still trip up DGW's litigation campaign. The courts could still decide that it's not proper to name thousands of defendants in a single complaint. The firm still has yet to prove it will spend the money to pursue someone in court who refuses to pay to settle the case. Dunlap must show that it is willing to absorb big legal fees in order to prove that defendants who don't settle early may end up on the hook for millions of dollars.

Nor have these obstacles, plus a class action lawsuit, discouraged Dunlap from singing new clients. The Hollywood Reporter revealed yesterday that the firm, which goes by the name U.S. Copyright Group in these anti-piracy suits, has hooked up with Nu Image, the independent production company behind summer hit The Expendables — a film which "is just the first of several lawsuits planned over other Nu Image titles." The company has made nearly 180 films, including Hesher, Rambo V, Stone, and the forthcoming The Mechanic.

The article also contains this interesting bit: "Dunlap won't specify how many people have settled thus far, but says the rate has so far been good, with twice as many people settling in the U.S. as those being pursued in similar litigation campaigns in Europe." It seems that, contrary to popular belief, Americans put up less a fight than their European counterparts.