MALIBU MEDIA, LLC v. JOHN DOE SUBSCRIBER ASSIGNED IP ADDRESS 75.99.164.154
Filing
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LETTER OPINION & ORDER granting 4 Motion for leave to serve third party subpoena. Signed by Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer on 12/2/15. (sr, )
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY
Chambers of
Martin Luther King Federal Building
& U.S. Courthouse
50 Walnut Street
Newark, NJ 07101
(973) 776-7858
Michael A. Hammer
United States Magistrate Judge
December 2, 2015
To: All counsel of record
LETTER OPINION AND ORDER
RE:
Malibu Media, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address
75.99.164.154
Civil Action No. 15-7340 (MCA)(MAH)
Dear Counsel:
This Letter Opinion and Order will address Plaintiff Malibu Media, LLC’s motion for leave
to serve a third-party subpoena to ascertain the identity of the subscriber assigned Internet Protocol
(“IP”) address 75.99.164.154 for the dates relevant to the Complaint. Plaintiff seeks to obtain
this information before the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) scheduling conference in this
matter.
D.E. 4.
argument.
I.
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78, the Court did not hear oral
For the reasons stated below, Plaintiff’s motion [D.E. 4] is granted.
BACKGROUND
Plaintiff Malibu Media, LLC (d/b/a “X-Art.com”) is a California limited-liability
corporation that claims ownership of certain United States copyright registrations. Compl., at ¶¶
3, 8, Oct. 7, 2015, D.E. 1.
Plaintiff alleges that Defendant is a persistent online infringer of
Plaintiff’s copyrights who copied and distributed at least one large zip file containing multiple
separate movies owned by Plaintiff, and that Defendant’s IP address was used to illegally distribute
each of the copyrighted movies set forth in Exhibit B attached to Plaintiff’s Complaint, in violation
of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. 1
Compl., at ¶¶ 1-3, D.E. 1.
Plaintiff asserts that it does not know Defendant’s identity; it knows only that the infringing
acts alleged in the Complaint were committed using IP address 75.99.164.154.
of Mot., at 4-5, Nov. 4, 2015, D.E. 4-4.
Pl.’s Br. in Supp.
Therefore, Plaintiff seeks leave to issue a subpoena to
the appropriate Internet Service Provider (“ISP”), in this case Optimum Online, so that Plaintiff
may learn Defendant’s true identity. Id. at 4-5. Plaintiff asserts that the ISP, having assigned
that IP address, can compare the IP address with its records to ascertain Defendant’s identity.
Id.
Plaintiff contends that this information is necessary because without it, Plaintiff will have no means
to determine the true identity of Defendant, and therefore would not be able to “serve the
Defendant nor pursue this lawsuit to protect its valuable copyrights.”
II.
Id. at 5.
LEGAL STANDARD AND ANALYSIS
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d)(1) provides that “[a] party may not seek discovery
from any source before the parties have conferred as required by Rule 26(f).”
however, may grant leave to conduct discovery prior to that conference. See id.
The Court,
In ruling on a
motion for expedited discovery, the Court should consider “the entirety of the record to date and
the reasonableness of the request in light of all of the surrounding circumstances.”
Better
Packages, Inc. v. Zheng, No. 05-4477, 2006 WL 1373055, at *2 (D.N.J. May 17, 2006) (quoting
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. O’Connor, 194 F.R.D. 618, 624 (N.D. Ill. 2000)).
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Plaintiff asserts that it retained a forensic investigator, IPP International UG (“IPP”), to
establish a direct TCP/IP connection with the Defendant’s IP address. See Compl., at ¶ 18,
D.E. 1; Declaration of Tobias Fieser (“Fieser Decl.”), at ¶¶ 5-8, Nov. 4, 2015, D.E. 4-7.
Plaintiff alleges that IPP was able to use the BitTorrent protocol to download one or more bits of
Plaintiff’s copyrighted material during connections with Defendant’s IP address. See Compl.,
at ¶¶ 19-25, D.E. 1; Fieser Decl., at ¶¶ 13-15, D.E. 4-7. Plaintiff further alleges that “Plaintiff’s
evidence establishes that Defendant is a habitual and persistent BitTorrent user and copyright
infringer.” See Compl. at ¶ 25, D.E. 1.
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Courts faced with motions for leave to serve expedited discovery requests to ascertain the identity
of John Doe defendants in internet copyright infringement cases often apply the “good cause” test.
See In re BitTorrent Adult Film Copyright Infringement Cases, No. 11-3995, 2012 WL 1570765
(E.D.N.Y. May 1, 2012) (granting limited early discovery regarding a John Doe defendant);
Pacific Century Int’l. Ltd. v. Does 1-101, No. 11-2533, 2011 WL 5117424, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Oct.
27, 2011) (finding plaintiff had not shown good cause to obtain expedited discovery).
Good
cause exists where “the need for expedited discovery, in consideration of the administration of
justice, outweighs the prejudice to the responding party.” Am. Legalnet, Inc. v. Davis, 673 F.
Supp. 2d 1063, 1066 (C.D. Cal. 2009); accord Semitool, Inc. v. Tokyo Electron Am., Inc., 208
F.R.D. 273, 275 (N.D. Cal. 2002).
Courts in this District have frequently applied the “good cause” standard to permit early
but limited discovery under analogous circumstances. In Malibu Media, LLC v. John Does 111, plaintiff sought leave to serve a subpoena demanding that the ISP in question reveal the John
Doe defendants’ name, address, telephone number, email address, and Media Access Control
(“MAC”) address.
No. 12-7615, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26217, at *3-4 (D.N.J. Feb. 26, 2013).
In that case, the Court granted the plaintiff’s request for early discovery, but permitted the plaintiff
to obtain only the information absolutely necessary to allow it to continue prosecuting its claims:
the defendant’s name and address. Id. at *3. The Court recognized that neither party should be
left without remedy.
On the one hand, plaintiffs claimed to be the owners of copyrighted works
that were entitled to protection.
On the other hand, more expansive and intrusive discovery could
have imposed an undue burden on innocent individuals who might not have been the actual
infringers. Id. at *9-11 (citing Third Degree Films, Inc. v. John Does 1-110, Civ. No. 12-5817,
2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27273 (D.N.J. Jan. 17, 2013)). Therefore, the Court granted plaintiffs
limited, early discovery, i.e., the names and addresses of the subscribers but not the email
addresses, phone numbers, or MAC addresses.
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Id. at *3.
Other courts in this District have
reached the same conclusion and have imposed similar limitations.
See, e.g., Malibu Media LLC
v. Doe, No. 14-3874 (WJM) (MF), Order (D.E. 7), at 4 (D.N.J. Sept. 2, 2014) (limiting subpoena
to be issued before Rule 26 conference to “the name and address of Defendant.”); Malibu Media,
LLC v. Doe, No. 13-4660 (JAP) (DEA), slip op. (D.E. 5) at 2 (D.N.J. Aug. 19, 2013) (limiting the
scope of a pre-Rule 26(f) conference subpoena to a subscriber’s name and address); Voltage
Pictures v. Doe, No. 12-6885 (RMB) (JS), 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155356, at *9-10 (D.N.J. May
31, 2013) (granting leave to serve subpoena requesting only the name, address, and media access
control address associated with a particular IP address); Malibu Media, LLC v. John Does 1-18,
No. 12-7643 (NLH) (AMD), 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155911, at *9-10 (D.N.J. Mar. 22, 2013)
(restricting the scope of a pre-Rule 26(f) conference subpoena by not permitting discovery of the
internet subscriber’s telephone number or e-mail address).
There is good cause in this case to permit limited discovery prior to the Rule 26(f)
conference. The information is necessary to allow Plaintiff to identify the appropriate defendant,
and to effectuate service of the Amended Complaint.
The Court certainly recognizes that the IP
account holder might not be personally responsible for the alleged infringement.
However, the
IP account holder might possess information that assists in identifying the alleged infringer, and
thus that information is discoverable under the broad scope of Rule 26. See Malibu Media, LLC
v. Does, No. 12-07789 (KM) (MCA), 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183958, at *24 (D.N.J. Dec. 18,
2013) (“The Court notes that it is possible that the Internet subscriber did not download the
infringing material.
It is also possible, however, that the subscriber either knows, or has
additional information which could lead to the identification of the alleged infringer.
Accordingly, the Court finds that the information sought by the subpoena is relevant.”); see also
Malibu Media LLC v. Doe, No. 14-3874 (WJM) (MF), Order (D.E. 7), at 3 (D.N.J. Sept. 2, 2014)
(quoting Malibu Media, LLC v. Does, No. 12-07789 (KM) (MCA), 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
183958, at *24 (D.N.J. Dec. 18, 2013)).
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Accordingly, the Court determines that good cause exists to allow Plaintiff to discover the
name and address of the IP subscriber.
That information serves the purposes outlined above,
while also taking into consideration the impact that disclosure might have on a subscriber who is
not personally responsible for the alleged infringement. Therefore, the Court grants Plaintiff’s
motion [D.E. 4].
Plaintiff may serve Optimum Online with a subpoena pursuant to Federal Rule
of Civil Procedure 45 that is limited to obtaining the name and address of the subscriber of IP
address 75.99.164.154.
Plaintiff may not seek the subscriber’s telephone number(s), email
address(es), or MAC addresses.
the subpoena.
Plaintiff shall attach a copy of this Letter Opinion and Order to
Plaintiff shall limit its use of the information to this litigation, and Plaintiff shall
be prepared to provide copies of the responsive information to any defendant who enters an
appearance in this case. 2
So Ordered.
s/ Michael A. Hammer
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
2
Before filing an Amended Complaint naming a specific individual as a defendant,
Plaintiff shall ensure that it has an adequate factual basis to do so. By permitting this discovery,
the Court does not find or suggest that Plaintiff may rely solely on the subscriber’s affiliation with
the IP address in question as the basis for its claims or its identification of the specific individual
as the defendant.
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