Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe

Summary

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida grants Strike 3 Holdings, LLC’s motion for leave to serve a third-party subpoena seeking to identify an unnamed defendant accused of copyright infringement through BitTorrent. The order authorizes limited expedited discovery and establishes notice, challenge, confidentiality, preservation, and communication safeguards for the internet subscriber.

Holdings

1. A plaintiff alleging internet-based copyright infringement may obtain limited pre-discovery identifying information from an internet service provider upon a showing of good cause, and Strike 3 demonstrated good cause here.
2. Limited identifying discovery was authorized subject to safeguards requiring notice to the subscriber, an opportunity to move to quash, delayed disclosure during any challenge, preservation of information, restricted use, and specified communications procedures.

Questions Presented

1. Whether plaintiff demonstrated good cause to obtain expedited discovery before the Rule 26(f) conference.
2. Whether the requested subpoena and limited discovery should be authorized subject to safeguards protecting a potentially misidentified ISP subscriber.

Disposition

other