WWE Studios Finance Corp. v. John and Jane Does

Filing 8

ORDER granting ECF No. 7 Motion for Discovery. (See pdf order for specifics.) Signed by Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe on 4/3/2017. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 10 WWE STUDIOS FINANCE CORP., 11 12 13 14 15 ) ) Plaintiff(s), ) ) vs. ) ) JOHN AND JANE DOES, ) ) Defendant(s). ) __________________________________________) Case No. 2:17-cv-00897-MMD-NJK ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR DISCOVERY (Docket No. 7) 16 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s renewed motion for leave to take limited discovery. Docket 17 No. 7. In particular, Plaintiff submits that it is suing each of the Defendants for using the Internet to 18 commit direct and contributory copyright infringement and, since the alleged infringement occurred over 19 the Internet, Plaintiff knows the Defendants only by their Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses. Id. at 3. 20 Plaintiff therefore seeks an order allowing it to subpoena the Defendants’ Internet Service Provider(s) 21 (“ISP”) for the true name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and Media Access Control address 22 of each Defendant in order to identify him or her. Id. at 6. 23 The Ninth Circuit has held that, where the identity of defendants is unknown prior to the filing of 24 a complaint, the plaintiff should be given an opportunity through discovery to identify the unknown 25 defendant, unless it is clear that discovery would not uncover the identities of the defendants, or that the 26 complaint would be dismissed on other grounds. See Wakefield v. Thompson, 177 F.3d 1160, 1163 (9th 27 Cir. 1999) (citing Gillespie v. Civiletti, 629 F.2d 637, 642 (9th Cir. 1980)). 28 1 Accordingly, for good cause shown, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s motion. Docket No. 7. 2 Plaintiff may serve Rule 45 subpoenas upon the ISPs and any related intermediary ISPs that own the IP 3 addresses at issue in the instant case. These subpoenas will demand solely the true name, address, 4 telephone number, e-mail address, and Media Access Control address for the account holder to whom the 5 relevant IP addresses were assigned at the date(s) and time(s) that the alleged infringement activity 6 occurred. Plaintiff will use the information it obtains from the ISPs in response to these subpoenas solely 7 to prosecute the claims it has made in the instant case. Plaintiff will have until May 18, 2017, to discover 8 the actual names of the Defendants through discovery, and to file a request to amend the complaint to 9 provide the actual names of the Defendants. 10 IT IS SO ORDERED 11 Dated: April 3, 2017 12 13 ________________________________________ NANCY J. KOPPE United States Magistrate Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2

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