Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe
- Katherine Failla
- 1:24-cv-09949
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Strike 3 Holdings v. Doe, Judge Failla allowed early discovery to identify the defendant and postponed the scheduling conference.
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC may file a motion for early subpoena discovery by January 29, 2025. The unidentified Doe defendant’s identity remains undisclosed, and the initial scheduling conference is postponed until the defendant is named and served.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC sued an unidentified Doe defendant, alleging that the defendant used a BitTorrent network to infringe its copyrights. Strike 3 said it knew the defendant only through an Internet Protocol address assigned by Optimum Online.
Strike 3 asked to file a motion seeking permission to subpoena Optimum Online before the parties’ required early planning conference. It said the Internet provider could use its records to identify the subscriber and that the records might be kept only briefly.
In Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe, Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted the application. She permitted Strike 3 to file the subpoena motion by January 29, 2025, and postponed any initial scheduling conference until the defendant is identified and served. The clerk was directed to terminate the pending motion at docket entry 6.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe · No. 1:24-cv-09949
- Katherine Failla
- Jan. 15, 2025
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC brought a copyright-infringement action against a defendant identified as John Doe. The opinion states that Strike 3 owns three subscription-based adult websites and the copyrights to the movies distributed through those websites. Strike 3 alleged that the Doe defendant used the BitTorrent file-distribution network to infringe its copyrighted works.
Strike 3 did not know the defendant’s name or address. It identified the defendant through an Internet Protocol address assigned by Optimum Online, the Internet service provider. Strike 3 stated that the provider’s records could connect the address to a customer but that providers generally keep those records for only a short time.
Request
Strike 3 asked for permission to file a motion seeking leave to serve a third-party subpoena on Optimum Online before the parties held their required early planning conference under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f). A subpoena is a legal demand for information from a person or entity that is not a party to the case. Strike 3 also asked the court to postpone any initial scheduling conference until the defendant was identified and served.
Strike 3 said it would show good cause for the requested early discovery by making an initial showing of copyright infringement, presenting a specific request, showing that no alternative means existed to obtain the defendant’s identity, establishing the importance of the information, and addressing the defendant’s limited privacy interest in the transmission or distribution of copyrighted material.
Ruling
Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted the application. The court permitted Strike 3 to file a motion seeking leave to file the third-party subpoena under Rule 26(d)(1), and ordered Strike 3 to file that motion by January 29, 2025. The court also postponed indefinitely any initial Rule 16 scheduling conference until the defendant was named and served.
The order did not itself authorize service of the subpoena or identify the Doe defendant. It authorized Strike 3 to file a later motion requesting that relief. The clerk was directed to terminate the pending motion at docket entry 6.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.