If you are suing 5000 people could they not pool up resources and get a good legal team? I think this might play against the studios in this case, it's large enough that it might start getting real media attention and maybe just maybe some senators would see this a vote grabbing opportunity.
Are you sure? The timestamp on the article is "March 31, 2011 | 2:36 pm" which, unless they botched timezones, is pretty absurdly early to post an april first joke.