Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe
- Kenneth Karas
- 7:22-cv-04774
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Strike 3 Holdings v. Doe, Judge Karas granted Plaintiff’s request to seek early discovery to identify the anonymous defendant and postpone scheduling.
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC was allowed to seek early discovery from Spectrum to identify the John Doe defendant, and the initial scheduling conference was postponed until the defendant could be named and served.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC sued an unidentified defendant, known only by an Internet Protocol address, alleging that the defendant used the BitTorrent network to infringe its copyrights. Strike 3 said Spectrum, the Internet provider, could use its records to identify the subscriber.
The plaintiff asked for permission to file a motion seeking a subpoena before the parties’ required early meeting about discovery. It also asked the court to postpone, or not schedule, the initial case-management conference until the defendant was identified and served.
Judge Kenneth M. Karas granted the request. The order therefore allowed Strike 3 to seek permission for the early subpoena and postponed the scheduling conference as requested; it did not itself identify the defendant or decide the copyright-infringement claim.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe · No. 7:22-cv-04774
- Kenneth Karas
- June 17, 2022
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC alleged that an unidentified John Doe defendant directly infringed its copyrights by using the BitTorrent file-distribution network. The defendant was known to Strike 3 only through an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Strike 3 stated that the IP address had been assigned by Spectrum, the defendant’s Internet service provider, and that Spectrum’s records could reveal the subscriber’s identity.
Strike 3 also stated that it owns three subscription-based adult websites and the copyrights to the movies distributed through those websites. It alleged that its copyrighted works were being infringed on a large scale.
Request
Because the defendant’s identity was unknown, Strike 3 asked to file a motion for permission to serve a third-party subpoena on Spectrum before the parties held the conference normally required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f). The requested subpoena would seek information identifying the subscriber associated with the IP address. Strike 3 also asked the court to postpone any initial scheduling conference, or not schedule one, until the defendant was identified and served.
Strike 3 argued that early discovery should be allowed for good cause. It said it would show a preliminary copyright-infringement claim, make a specific request, show that there was no alternative way to obtain the identifying information, establish that the information was central to the case, and show that the defendant had only a minimal expectation of privacy in the relevant Internet records.
Ruling
The document states: “Granted.” Judge Kenneth M. Karas granted Strike 3’s pre-motion request. The ruling permitted Strike 3 to file a motion seeking leave to serve the proposed third-party subpoena before the Rule 26(f) conference and granted its request to postpone the initial Rule 16 scheduling conference until the defendant was named and served.
The ruling did not itself authorize service of the subpoena, identify the John Doe defendant, or resolve whether copyright infringement occurred. Those matters were presented as subjects of the motion Strike 3 sought permission to file.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.