Summary
This order grants the plaintiff's motion for leave to serve a third-party subpoena on its ISP prior to the Rule 26(f) conference. The court finds good cause for expedited discovery to identify the anonymous defendant associated with a specific IP address alleged to have infringed the plaintiff's copyrighted adult films. The judge balances the plaintiff's copyright interests against the subscriber's privacy expectations and orders the ISP to notify affected users while preserving responsive information during a 14-day objection period.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the plaintiff demonstrated good cause to obtain expedited discovery before the Rule 26(f) conference.
- Whether the plaintiff's proposed subpoena to Spectrum was sufficiently specific and necessary to identify and serve the John Doe defendant.
- Whether the plaintiff's copyright-protection interest outweighed the defendant's privacy interest in subscriber information.
Holdings
- A court may authorize discovery before the Rule 26(f) conference when the movant demonstrates good cause by showing that the need for expedited discovery, considered with the administration of justice, outweighs prejudice to the responding party.
- The plaintiff demonstrated good cause for a limited subpoena seeking the name and address of the subscriber associated with the specified IP address.
- The plaintiff's interest in protecting its copyrights outweighed the defendant's limited privacy interest in subscriber information at this stage.
Key quotations
“To assess whether the movant has shown good cause, courts generally evaluate ‘the entirety of the record to date and the reasonableness of the request in light of all the surrounding circumstances.’” (Section II)
“The plaintiff has shown good cause for its request for expedited discovery by thoroughly addressing the five factors outlined in Malibu Media, 2019 WL 7876473, at *2.” (Section III)
“The court GRANTS the plaintiff’s motion for leave to serve a third-party subpoena prior to a Rule 26(f) conference.” (Section IV)
Factual background
Strike 3 alleged that an unknown individual used the BitTorrent protocol to download and distribute the plaintiff's copyrighted adult motion pictures without authorization. The plaintiff's forensic software allegedly associated the conduct with IP address 76.36.96.179. Because Spectrum allegedly possessed the information linking that IP address to a subscriber, Strike 3 sought a limited subpoena for the subscriber's name and address so that it could identify and serve the defendant.
Procedural history
Strike 3 filed a copyright-infringement complaint against an unidentified individual on June 30, 2025. It then moved for expedited discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d), seeking subscriber-identifying information from Spectrum. The court granted the motion and imposed notice, objection, nondisclosure, and preservation requirements concerning the subpoena.