White v. UMG Recordings, Inc.

Background

The remaining fact-discovery disputes focused on Defendant Carter’s possible knowledge of, and involvement in, UMG’s disputed takedown notices to Twitter. The disputes involved written requests for information and documents, Carter’s deposition, and another deposition that the parties later represented had been completed.

The parties had been conducting discovery since at least July 2021, and the discovery deadline had already been extended six times. At an October 20, 2022 conference, the court directed the parties to work together in good faith and determine whether any requested materials were actually still outstanding. White later filed a motion to compel after the deadline and in a format longer than the court’s requested letter brief. Defendants moved to strike that filing.

Written Discovery

The court rejected White’s requests for information about Carter’s production of his song and album because they were too broad and the information could be obtained more efficiently through a deposition. The court also rejected a request for Carter’s entire viewing and access history across online platforms from 2017 to 2018 because it was overbroad, duplicative, disproportionate to the needs of the case, and potentially implicated privacy concerns.

The court agreed that White should receive the email addresses associated with Carter’s identified social-media and iCloud accounts. The court stated that those addresses could help White review documents already produced, even though whether Carter personally used the addresses could be explored at a deposition.

Carter’s Deposition

The court denied White’s request for a full seven-hour deposition as meritless. Although the federal rules generally provide for a one-day, seven-hour deposition, the court may set a shorter limit for a particular witness. The court ordered that Carter’s deposition be limited to 2.5 hours of testimony. Any request for additional time could be made only after the deposition and would require a showing of good cause supported by the full transcript.

The deposition had to be completed by January 31, 2023, and could take place remotely. The court extended the fact-discovery deadline only for that limited purpose and stated that it would not extend the deadline again without good cause.

Rulings

The court denied Defendants’ motion to strike as moot because the motion to compel had been resolved. It granted in part and denied in part White’s motion to compel. Defendants were directed to produce the email addresses connected to Carter’s identified social-media accounts by December 23, 2022, if they had not already done so. All other requests in White’s motion to compel were denied.

The court granted the parties’ motions to seal for the reasons stated in those motions. It also permitted Defendants to seek an allocation of reasonable expenses under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(5), which concerns expenses arising from a motion to compel. Any such motion had to be filed by January 9, 2023. The Clerk was directed to close the docket entries for the motion to compel and the motions to seal.