Open wifi is't really a factor here, the word wifi is nowhere in the article. The first major point is that the defendants did not act in concert (see article

Open wifi is't really a factor here, the word wifi is nowhere in the article. The first major point is that the defendants did not act in concert (see article title). The last point is this: "nothing in the BitTorrent architecture changes the fact that each defendant also will likely have a different defense." That part of the ruling revolves around the fact that the defendants are all allowed to have their own defense and that rolling the 188 cases into one deprives them of a fundamental right: that to a defense they themselves are happy with rather than a single unified defense for all of them. Of course that makes the case about 187 times harder to litigate than it was so far.