[jiggy2011]

Couldn't they? Letters are cheap to send.

They could simply send out a few million or so letters, maybe costing a million £ or so. Offer everyone a settlement of a few hundred £ to cover all past transgressions with the threat of suing for a much greater sum if there is a repeat offence or if they do not comply.

If you work on the basis that about 50% just pay up straight away that's quite a lot of money. This money can be used to subsidize going thermonuclear on at least a few thousand of those who don't.

Besides, they don't need to sue everyone to make people scared enough to avoid pirate sites.

[marvin]

Pretty sure that the justice systems of most sane nations would crack down on an effort like this. It certainly wouldn't fly where I live (Europe).