Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe
- Gregory Woods
- 1:24-cv-05667
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Strike 3 Holdings v. Doe, Judge Woods allowed Strike 3 Holdings to file a motion seeking an early subpoena to identify the unnamed defendant and adjourned its conference.
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC may file a motion for early discovery aimed at identifying the unnamed defendant through Verizon Fios, and the initial pretrial conference is postponed. The order does not determine the Doe defendant’s identity or liability.
What happened
In Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe, Strike 3 Holdings sued an unidentified internet subscriber, known only by an Internet Protocol address, alleging that the subscriber used the BitTorrent network to infringe its copyrights. The plaintiff said Verizon Fios could use its records to identify the subscriber.
The plaintiff asked for permission to file a motion for early discovery—a subpoena to the internet service provider before the parties’ required planning conference. It also asked the court to postpone the initial scheduling conference until the defendant was identified and served.
The court granted the plaintiff’s request for leave to file that motion and set September 2, 2024, as the deadline for the motion. It also adjourned the September 25, 2024, initial pretrial conference indefinitely. Judge Gregory H. Woods did not rule in this order on whether the subpoena would ultimately issue or whether copyright infringement occurred.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe · No. 1:24-cv-05667
- Gregory Woods
- Aug. 12, 2024
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC filed the case against a John Doe defendant whose name and address were not known. The plaintiff alleged that the internet subscriber assigned the identified Internet Protocol address used the BitTorrent file-distribution network to commit direct copyright infringement. The plaintiff stated that it owns three subscription-based adult websites and the copyrights to the movies distributed through those websites.
The plaintiff said the internet service provider, Verizon Fios, maintains records connecting Internet Protocol addresses to customers. It argued that those records may be retained only for a short time and therefore sought early access to them.
Request
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d)(1), discovery generally cannot begin before the parties’ Rule 26(f) conference unless the court orders otherwise. Strike 3 Holdings asked for permission to file a motion seeking leave to serve a third-party subpoena on Verizon Fios before that conference. The requested discovery was intended to identify the Doe defendant.
The plaintiff also asked the court to postpone any initial Rule 16 scheduling conference until the defendant was identified and served. The application described the factors the plaintiff intended to address in its later motion, including an initial showing of copyright infringement, a specific discovery request, the lack of another way to obtain the identifying information, the importance of that information, and the defendant’s allegedly limited expectation of privacy.
Ruling
The court granted the application. Specifically, the plaintiff’s request for leave to file a motion seeking permission to serve a third-party subpoena under Rule 26(d)(1) was granted, and the plaintiff’s motion was due no later than September 2, 2024. The court also adjourned the initial pretrial conference scheduled for September 25, 2024, indefinitely.
This order granted permission to file the discovery motion; it did not itself authorize service of the subpoena, identify the Doe defendant, or decide the merits of the copyright-infringement claims. Judge Gregory H. Woods signed the order on August 12, 2024.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.