Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 73.92.217.35
- Maxine Chesney
- 3:23-cv-00236
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 8
In Strike 3 Holdings v. John Doe, Judge Beeler granted early discovery to subpoena Comcast for the defendant’s identity.
Strike 3 Holdings may seek the identity and addresses of the John Doe defendant through a subpoena to Comcast. The Doe defendant may challenge the subpoena within the specified 30-day period, and Comcast must follow the order’s notice, preservation, production, and cost procedures.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings v. John Doe concerns Strike 3’s claim that an unidentified person using IP address 73.92.217.35 downloaded and distributed its copyrighted adult movies through BitTorrent. Strike 3 said it could not identify the person from the IP address alone and asked to subpoena Comcast, the internet provider, for identifying information.
The court found good cause for early discovery because Strike 3 had described an identifiable defendant, explained its efforts to locate that person, stated a copyright claim that could proceed, and showed that Comcast was likely to have information identifying the defendant. The court did not decide whether the alleged copyright infringement occurred.
Judge Beeler granted Strike 3’s motion for expedited discovery and allowed it to serve Comcast with a subpoena for the Doe defendant’s true name and addresses. The order also limited use and public disclosure of the information and gave the Doe defendant 30 days to challenge the subpoena.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 73.92.217.35 · No. 3:23-cv-00236
- Maxine Chesney
- Feb. 23, 2023
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC alleged that the unidentified defendant associated with Comcast IP address 73.92.217.35 used BitTorrent to download and distribute 30 of Strike 3’s copyrighted adult motion pictures over an extended period. Strike 3 said it owned the copyrights, had not authorized the distribution, and could not identify the individual associated with the IP address through its own efforts.
Strike 3 filed one copyright-infringement claim and then applied for permission to conduct early discovery before the parties’ usual discovery conference. It sought leave under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 to serve Comcast, a nonparty internet-service provider, with a subpoena limited to the name and address of the individual or individuals associated with the IP address.
Reasoning
The court applied the good-cause standard generally used for early discovery to identify an unknown defendant. It considered whether Strike 3:
- identified the Doe defendant specifically enough for the court to determine that the defendant was a real person who could be sued in federal court;
- described the steps taken to locate and identify the defendant;
- showed that the copyright claim could withstand a motion to dismiss; and
- demonstrated that the requested discovery was reasonably likely to produce information that would permit service of process.
The court found that Strike 3 satisfied all four requirements. It concluded that the allegations about downloading and distributing the movies identified an adult who likely was the primary subscriber or someone who lived with and was known to the subscriber. Strike 3 had traced the downloads to the Northern District of California, and the court said this supported jurisdiction over the defendant and the federal copyright claim.
The court also found that Strike 3 had explained why the IP address alone did not identify the defendant. It held that Strike 3 had sufficiently alleged a preliminary, or prima facie, copyright-infringement claim by alleging copyright ownership and unauthorized downloading and distribution of the movies. Finally, the court accepted Strike 3’s allegation that Comcast could identify the defendant through the IP address.
Protective order
Because the Comcast subscriber might not be the person who allegedly infringed the copyrights, and because the allegations involved sensitive and personal matters, the court issued a limited protective order. Any information Comcast disclosed to Strike 3 had to remain confidential until the Doe defendant had an opportunity to ask the court for permission to proceed anonymously and the court ruled on that request.
If the Doe defendant did not file such a request within 30 days after the information was disclosed to Strike 3’s counsel, the limited protective order would expire. The order also allowed identifying information included in an anonymity request to be filed under seal until the court could decide the request. Strike 3 could use information produced in response to the subpoena only to protect the rights described in its complaint.
Disposition
The court granted Strike 3’s ex parte motion for expedited discovery. Strike 3 could immediately serve Comcast with a Rule 45 subpoena seeking the Doe defendant’s true name and addresses, with a copy of the order attached.
Comcast would have 30 days after service to notify the Doe defendant. The Doe defendant would then have 30 days after service to file a motion contesting the subpoena, including a motion to quash or modify it. If that period passed without a challenge, Comcast would have 10 days to produce the responsive information. The subpoenaed entity had to preserve the information while any timely challenge was pending. The order did not resolve the underlying copyright-infringement claim.
Read the full 8-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.