Tempe law firm White Berberian is offering to represent people accused of illegal file sharing in a massive lawsuit brought by film studios.

To date, 14,000 individuals have been named in seven lawsuits alleging that they illegally pirated films produced by US Copyright Group clients, which include producers of the Academy Award-winning film "The Hurt Locker." The US Copyright Group is offering defendants the chance to settle for between $1,500 and $2,500 to avoid a potential maximum penalty of $150,000.

White Berberian offers defendants the chance to renegotiate the amount for a fee of $249.

Steven White, a partner in the law firm, said he decided to take up the case after speaking to a few people who had been named in the lawsuit, some of whom said they had no memory of illegally downloading or sharing the movie. Others were unsure of what the penalties are and what constitutes a fair settlement.

"It's one of those deals where people are put in an awkward situation," he said.

The US Copyright Group located the defendants through IP addresses, and later subpoenaed Internet service providers for user information. If someone has an unsecured wireless Internet connection, other users in the area can use it to download and share pirated movies.

White and partner Sean Berberian said they would be willing to represent people who decide to go to trial, but this would come at a prohibitive cost to the client. Defendants should seek legal counsel before making any decisions, but in most cases, settling with the US Copyright Group would be a wiser option, White said.

"What I would say to (someone in that position) is, 'You're a great test case,' " he said. "The problem with that is . . . for them to mount their defense, it would cost thousands of dollars."

But defendants named in the suit may want to wait for the ruling on a motion filed by civil liberties groups to dismiss the current suit. The American Civil Liberties Union and online civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a brief earlier this month challenging the grouping of the defendants into a single suit.

Trying all of the defendants in one suit, EFF attorney Corryne McSherry said, keeps them from being able to mount an adequate defense. The defendants come from across the country, McSherry said, but the trial is in Washington. The alleged violations of copyright law also occurred under different circumstances, she added.

"We have a notion in this country that everyone is entitled to individual justice," she said. "When you sue 4,000 people at once, you are going to make it harder for those individuals to get justice."

The judge in the case, Rosemary Collyer, has asked US Copyright Group to explain, in writing, why the defendants should all be charged together. If she rules in favor of the ACLU and EFF, the group may be forced to try the cases in multiple jurisdictions, which would be very costly.

While it may be wise to wait out the challenge, White said, it depends on the situation an individual is in. Some people are concerned about their ISPs giving out personal information, while others may simply want it to go away as quickly as possible.

"I suspect it has something to do with who they are. They are in some position where, if they were even named in a suit of this nature . . . that could cause some ramifications in other aspects of their life," he said. "It depends on the individual client."

Representatives of US Copyright Group could not be reached for comment.