Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 73.231.233.3
- Edward Chen
- 3:23-cv-04948
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Strike 3 Holdings v. John Doe, Judge Chen granted limited early discovery, allowing a subpoena to identify the alleged copyright infringer.
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC, John Doe, and Comcast Cable. Strike 3 may seek Doe’s identifying information, while Doe receives an opportunity to challenge the subpoena and request anonymity.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC sued John Doe, alleging that he used BitTorrent to infringe 27 of its motion pictures. Strike 3 asked to identify him before the parties held their required initial conference.
The court granted the request and allowed Strike 3 to immediately serve Comcast Cable with a subpoena seeking the Doe defendant’s name and address. The information may be used only to serve him and pursue the claims in this lawsuit.
The order also gave John Doe time to challenge the subpoena and seek permission to proceed anonymously, and barred public disclosure of his identifying information before that opportunity. Judge Edward M. Chen emphasized that the order did not decide whether infringement occurred or prevent Doe from seeking dismissal.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 73.231.233.3 · No. 3:23-cv-04948
- Edward Chen
- Nov. 10, 2023
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC alleged that John Doe infringed 27 of its motion pictures through the BitTorrent protocol. Strike 3 identified the alleged activity as connected to Internet Protocol address 73.231.233.3, which its declaration traced to Campbell, California. Because the defendant was identified in the complaint only as John Doe, Strike 3 sought permission to serve a subpoena before the parties’ required Rule 26(f) conference.
Court’s analysis
The court reviewed Strike 3’s application, supporting materials, and complaint. For reasons similar to those in another Strike 3 case, the court found that limited early discovery was appropriate. The court allowed Strike 3 to seek identifying information but did not decide the infringement claims.
The court also stated that John Doe remained free to file a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), which asks whether the complaint states a legally sufficient claim. The court did not prejudge any such motion. It reminded Strike 3 that Rule 11 requires it to make a reasonable basis inquiry before continuing the lawsuit after learning Doe’s name and address. The court specifically noted that merely alleging that someone is the subscriber assigned an Internet Protocol address associated with infringement may not be enough to state a direct or contributory infringement claim.
Order
The court granted Strike 3’s application. Strike 3 could immediately serve Comcast Cable with a Rule 45 subpoena seeking John Doe’s true name and address. Strike 3 had to attach the order to the subpoena and could use information produced in response only to serve Doe and prosecute the claims in the complaint.
The order required Comcast Cable to serve Doe with the subpoena and the order within 30 days after service on Comcast. Doe then had 30 days after receiving the order to file motions challenging the subpoena. The order also prohibited Strike 3 from publicly disclosing Doe’s identifying information until Doe had an opportunity to ask to proceed anonymously and the court ruled on that request; Doe could file that request under seal. The extracted text states that Comcast would provide responsive information within 10 days, but the condition triggering that deadline is incomplete in the provided text.
This was a discovery order, not a decision on whether John Doe infringed Strike 3’s copyrights.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.