Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe
- Nelson Roman
- 7:25-cv-01290
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe, Judge Roman granted a request to file a subpoena motion and delay scheduling until Doe is identified and served.
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC may pursue a motion seeking information from Spectrum to identify the unnamed defendant; the Doe defendant’s identification and the scheduling conference remain unresolved.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC sued an unnamed defendant for alleged copyright infringement involving the BitTorrent file-sharing network. The company said it knew the defendant only by an internet address and sought information from Spectrum, the internet provider, to identify the person.
Strike 3 asked to file a motion for permission to serve a third-party subpoena before the parties’ required early conference. It also asked the court to postpone any initial scheduling conference until the defendant was named and served.
Judge Nelson S. Roman granted the request. The clerk was directed to docket the motion at ECF No. 6. The order allowed Strike 3 to seek the subpoena; it did not itself authorize the subpoena.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe · No. 7:25-cv-01290
- Nelson Roman
- Mar. 14, 2025
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC brought a copyright-infringement case against a defendant identified only as “John Doe.” The opinion text 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 said it could identify the defendant only through an internet-protocol address assigned by an internet service provider. It sought information from Spectrum, identified as the defendant’s internet service provider, because the provider’s records could connect the address to a customer. Strike 3 also stated that such records may be kept for only a short time.
Request
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d)(1), discovery generally cannot begin before the parties hold a required Rule 26(f) conference unless the court allows it. Strike 3 asked for permission to file a motion seeking leave to serve a third-party subpoena on Spectrum before that conference. The subpoena would seek information identifying the Doe defendant.
Strike 3 also asked the court to postpone any initial scheduling conference until the defendant was identified and served. In its letter, Strike 3 stated that its forthcoming motion would address factors courts consider when deciding whether there is good cause for early discovery, including the strength of the alleged infringement claim, the specificity of the request, the lack of alternative ways to obtain the identity information, the importance of that information, and the defendant’s expectation of privacy.
Ruling
Judge Nelson S. Roman granted the plaintiff’s request to file a motion seeking leave to serve the third-party subpoena and to adjourn the Rule 16 scheduling conference. The clerk was directed to docket the motion at ECF No. 6.
The order granted permission to file the discovery motion and postponed the scheduling process as requested. It did not decide whether the subpoena should ultimately issue and did not resolve the copyright-infringement allegations.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.