This may make mass lawsuits difficult but I wonder if this means anything from an individual harassment perspective. I guess the next question is this (if someone can shed light on this from a legal perspective):
Is detection of copyright infringement through or from an IP address enough to get a warrant issued that allows searching of the devices belonging to the individual using that IP address (or happens to be connected to the internet through that IP address)?
So far yes it has been. But what he's saying is that in cases of so many people the risk of catching innocents in crossfire outweighs the likelihood that their IP address is actually connected to someone doing the infringing. This is only in New York though, but the precedent is there now for lawyers around the US to make their cases.
Is detection of copyright infringement through or from an IP address enough to get a warrant issued that allows searching of the devices belonging to the individual using that IP address (or happens to be connected to the internet through that IP address)?