Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe

Background

Strike 3 Holdings, LLC brought a copyright-infringement action against a defendant identified as John Doe. The plaintiff said the defendant’s name and address were unknown, but that an Internet Protocol (IP) address had been used to allegedly infringe the plaintiff’s copyrighted works through the BitTorrent file-distribution network. The plaintiff identified Spectrum as the Internet service provider associated with the IP address.

The plaintiff’s filing described a request under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d)(1) to seek permission to serve a third-party subpoena on Spectrum before the parties’ required discovery conference under Rule 26(f). The proposed subpoena would seek information identifying the subscriber assigned the relevant IP address. The plaintiff also asked that any initial scheduling conference be postponed until the defendant was named and served.

Requested Relief

The plaintiff argued that early discovery would be appropriate because, according to its filing, it could make an initial showing of copyright infringement, specify the requested information, lacked another way to obtain the defendant’s identity, centrally needed that information, and the defendant had only a limited expectation of privacy in the alleged transmission or distribution of copyrighted material.

Ruling

Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. ordered the Clerk of Court to terminate ECF No. 6 as moot. The provided text does not say that the court granted permission to serve the subpoena, granted permission to file a subpoena motion, adjourned a scheduling conference, or ruled on the copyright-infringement allegations. The ruling is therefore a procedural disposition of the filing identified as ECF No. 6, not a decision on the merits of the copyright claim.