It's stories like this that make me glad I'm in the not-insane (yet) part of North America, where our police focus on real crimes like, say, selling downloaded movies/games/other counterfeit things as the real McCoy, or other things such as actual theft, with guns and such.
The thing is, is that this is just a cash grab.
They're just sad that their movie isn't worth watching and so they try to get money other ways even though they've already earned back their initial investment.
Also, it's the jury that has to make the decision. If I'm wrong about that, the defense in these cases could certainly try to claim a biased judge, and it wouldn't be hard to do so considering past activities.
And it's not like the workers here are getting the pay they deserve if this case turns out to be a gold mine from citizens- since the creative minds and talent in the movie won't see one red cent of this money.
While I do believe that you should pay for stuff you use, I don't believe that crooks such as the RIAA, MPAA, and the USCG should be allowed to abuse the justice system like this. I'm not alone in saying they deserve nothing, and I'm saying 10 bucks per person is more than enough for these people much less two thousand.
On a side note: if you're dumb enough not to use onion routing and encryption layers (i.e. Tor) in the 'States and decide to download movies you've got it coming to you.