Alex Steffen is correct. The goal is to have a few wins (or more likely concessions) that will scare everybody else.

Knowing that they can't possibly sue everybody, I wonder if it would be possible to insure everybody against suit.

Anybody who plans to infringe a few copyrights kicks in a few bucks, and that collective money is pooled and used to defer the cost of a legal defense and or judgement/settlement for the lucky few that get called.

We've already seen the community come to the aid of one college student who was sued. This has the added benefit of protection and self-interest.

There's a Chinese proverb, supposedly: "kill one monkey to frighten one hundred." (I neither endorse violence against animals nor vouch for the cultural authenticity of the proverb).

That's what the RIAA is doing - hoping to scare enough people to break the P2P networks. Pure and simple. They don't HAVE to sue everyone.

On the other hand, a little solidarity may go a long way here...