Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, LLC
- Kimba Wood
- 1:18-cv-00790
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, LLC, Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses resolved discovery disputes involving Mashable and Facebook.
Stephanie Sinclair, Mashable Inc., and non-party Facebook were affected by the discovery directives and the scheduled continued conference.
What happened
In Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, LLC, the court held a telephone conference about Stephanie Sinclair’s complaints concerning Mashable’s discovery responses and her subpoena to Facebook.
The court required the parties to discuss certain privilege-log documents, ordered Mashable to update some discovery responses and produce a list of specified copyright cases, and noted that Sinclair withdrew two requests.
Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses also scheduled another conference about Facebook’s motion for December 1, 2020.
The detailed version
- Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, LLC · No. 1:18-cv-00790
- Kimba Wood
- Nov. 18, 2020
Background
The court held a telephone discovery conference on November 18, 2020. Before the conference, it reviewed Stephanie Sinclair’s October 27 letter-motion about alleged problems with defendant Mashable Inc.’s discovery responses and objections. It also reviewed non-party Facebook’s October 30 letter-motion concerning Sinclair’s subpoena seeking deposition testimony and documents.
Rulings on Sinclair’s discovery motion
The order resolved Sinclair’s letter-motion as follows:
- Photo licensing and embedding policies: The parties had to meet and discuss items 14 and 15 on Mashable’s privilege log by December 1,
- The discussion was to address, among other things, whether Mashable created or received the documents before the photograph at issue was removed and, if so, whether the attorney-client privilege protected them from discovery. If the parties could not agree, they had to submit a joint letter by December 4,
- If the disagreement involved attorney-client privilege, Mashable had to provide admissible evidence supporting the factual assertions underlying its legal arguments. The order explained that the party claiming privilege bears the burden of proving the facts necessary to establish it. - Revenue and costs: Sinclair withdrew her request concerning revenue and costs for the post. - Licenses and document retention: Sinclair withdrew her request for Mashable’s Getty license. By November 25, 2020, Mashable had to amend its written discovery responses to confirm that, after a reasonably diligent investigation, it could not locate additional responsive documents beyond those already produced. - Verdicts and judgments: By November 25, 2020, Mashable had to produce a list of cases resulting in a copyright-infringement verdict or judgment against Mashable Inc. between 2013 and
- The order stated that an offer and acceptance under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68 constitutes a judgment.
Facebook’s motion and next conference
The court scheduled a continued discovery conference concerning Facebook’s October 30 letter-motion for December 1, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. The order was signed by United States Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.