As pressure from anti-piracy outfits on governments to implement stricter copyright laws increases, millions of file-sharers have decided to protect their privacy by going anonymous. In Sweden alone an estimated 500,000 Internet subscribers are hiding their identities. Many of these use PPTP-based VPNs such as The Pirate Bay’s Ipredator or Relakks.

Many thousands of Internet subscribers across the US are currently facing the prospect of being accused of illegally sharing movies such as Far Cry, The Chaos Experiment, Uncross The Stars, The Gray Man, Call of the Wild and Hurt Locker.

The subscribers receive a settlement offer from U.S. Copyright Group/Dunlap Grubb which states that for an immediate payment of $1,500 the whole thing can be made to go away. A delay in digging deep will cost a further $1,000 bringing the settlement total to $2,500. Those who chose to take the issue to court could, its warned, face huge bills in excess of $150,000.

TorrentFreak has received many emails from people concerned about this situation, many of them asking for advice, so it’s a welcome development that today the EFF has published a list of attorneys that could help advise and possibly represent subpoena targets.