Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. JOHN DOE subscriber assigned IP address 73.194.179.53

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey grants Strike 3 Holdings, LLC leave to serve Comcast Cable Communications, LLC with an expedited third-party subpoena to identify the subscriber associated with IP address 73.194.179.53. The subpoena is limited to obtaining the subscriber’s name and address and may not seek telephone numbers, email addresses, or MAC addresses. The court requires the plaintiff to attach the opinion to the subpoena and restrict use of the information to the litigation.

Holdings

1. Good cause existed to permit limited expedited discovery before the Rule 26(f) conference because the requested information was necessary to identify the appropriate defendant and effect service, and the need for discovery outweighed the potential prejudice to the subscriber.
2. Plaintiff may serve Comcast Cable with a Rule 45 subpoena limited to obtaining the name and address of the subscriber assigned to IP address 73.194.179.53, but may not seek the subscriber's telephone number, email address, or MAC address.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court should permit expedited third-party discovery before the Rule 26(f) conference to identify an unidentified copyright-infringement defendant.
2. If expedited discovery is permitted, what information may Plaintiff obtain from the Internet service provider.

Disposition

other