Targeted Copyright Enforcement: Deterring Many Users with a Few Lawsuits

Check out Targeted Copyright Enforcement: Deterring Many Users with a Few Lawsuits(from Freedom to Tinker:

"One reason the record industry's strategy of suing online infringers ran into trouble is that there are too many infringers to sue. If the industry can only sue a tiny fraction of infringers, then any individual infringer will know that he is very unlikely to be sued, and deterrence will fail." (from:Targeted Copyright Enforcement: Deterring Many Users with a Few Lawsuits)

The post links to an article which explains a 'scheme' to still be able to deter infringers: basically, the enforcer tells the world that they will sue the infringers alphabetically. In other words, the one whose name (or other ID) starts with an "a" will get sued first.

Well this is supposed to deter the "Ables" and "Andersons" and so on, which now will put the "Bakers" and "Bozos" at risk, and so on.

Sounds kind of like the hangman's dillemma.

Do you think it would work?

• Link to site: Targeted Copyright Enforcement: Deterring Many Users with a Few Lawsuits