ME2 Productions, Inc v. Duncan et al

Filing 83

ORDER granting in part and denying in part Plaintiff's 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 Motions for Default Judgment. Signed by Judge Robert S. Lasnik. (see order for details) (PM)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 9 10 11 ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC, Case No. C17-0246RSL Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART ME2’s MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT 12 13 14 15 v. JOHN DUNCAN, et al., Defendants. 16 17 18 19 20 21 I. INTRODUCTION This matter comes before the Court on plaintiff ME2 Productions, Inc.’s motions for default judgment against defendants Shannon Reynolds (Dkt. #55), Christopher Watrous (Dkt. #57), Steve Morley (Dkt. #59), Roze Tronsen (Dkt. #61), Joelyn 22 Summers (Dkt. #63), Matt Sabatino (Dkt. #65), Linda Maiga (Dkt. #67), Ashley 23 Sanchez (Dkt. #69), and George Rodriguez (Dkt. #71). Having reviewed the relevant 24 25 26 briefing and the remainder of the record, ME2’s motions for default judgment are GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. 27 28 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 1 II. 1 The nine motions for default judgment that are the subject of this Order are just a 2 3 4 5 BACKGROUND portion of the more than eighty default judgment motions ME2 has filed in nineteen cases pending in this Court.1 All of the cases assert the same causes of action. ME2 6 alleges that hundreds of individual defendants unlawfully infringed its exclusive 7 copyright to the motion picture Mechanic: Resurrection, which it developed and 8 9 produced, by copying and distributing the film over the Internet through a peer-to-peer 10 network using the BitTorrent protocol. Plaintiff served internet service providers 11 (“ISP”s) with subpoenas in order to identify the alleged infringers. Amended complaints 12 13 identifying defendants by name were subsequently filed. Defendants Reynolds, Watrous, Morley, Tronsen, Summers, Sabatino, Maiga, 14 15 16 17 Sanchez, and Rodriguez (collectively “Defendants”) are named in the same complaint because, given the unique identifier associated with a particular digital copy of 18 Mechanic: Resurrection and the timeframe in which the internet protocol address 19 associated with each Defendant accessed that digital copy, ME2 alleges the named 20 Defendants were all part of the same “swarm” of users that reproduced, distributed, 21 22 23 displayed, and/or performed the copyrighted work. According to ME2, Defendants directly or indirectly shared, downloaded, and distributed a single unique copy of 24 25 26 27 28 See Case Nos. C16-1881RSL, C16-1882RSL, C16-1950RSL, C16-1953RSL, C16-1955RSL, C170099RSL, C17-0100RSL, C17-0181RSL, C17-0182RSL, C17-0246RSL, C17-0248RSL, C17-0250RSL, C17-0465RSL, C17-0466RSL, C17-0783RSL, C17-0893RSL, C17-1077RSL, C17-1220RSL, and C171221RSL. Two other cases, C16-1776RSL and C16-1778RSL were dismissed for failure to timely served and refiled as C17-0246RSL and C17-0248RSL, respectively. A final case, C17-694RSL, was closed in August 2017. 1 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 2 1 2 3 Mechanic: Resurrection that had been seeded to the torrent network at some undefined point in the past. Defendants did not respond to ME2’s complaint. The Clerk of Court therefore 4 5 6 entered default against Defendants at ME2’s request. See Dkts. #43-50 and #52. ME2 now seeks judgment against each Defendant. 7 8 9 III. DISCUSSION Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(b) authorizes a court to grant default 10 judgment. Prior to entering judgment in defendant’s absence, the Court must determine 11 whether the allegations of a plaintiff’s complaint establish his or her liability. Eitel v. 12 13 McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 1471-72 (9th Cir. 1986). The court must accept all well-pled 14 allegations of the complaint as established fact, except allegations related to the amount 15 of damages. TeleVideo Sys., Inc. v. Heidenthal, 826 F.2d 915, 917-18 (9th Cir. 1987). 16 17 Where the alleged facts establish a defendant’s liability, the court has discretion, not an 18 obligation, to enter default judgment. Alan Neuman Productions, Inc. v. Albright, 862 19 F.2d 1388, 1392 (9th Cir. 1988). If plaintiff seeks an award of damages, it must provide 20 the Court with evidence to establish the amount. TeleVideo Sys., 826 F.2d at 917-18. 21 22 23 24 A. Liability Determination. The allegations in ME2’s complaint establish Defendants’ liability for direct copyright infringement. To establish direct infringement, ME2 must demonstrate 25 26 ownership of a valid copyright and that Defendants copied “constituent elements of the 27 work that are original.” L.A. Printex Indus., Inc. v. Aeropostale, Inc., 676 F.3d 841, 846 28 (9th Cir. 2012) (quoting Feist Publ’ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 361 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 3 1 (1991)). Here, ME2 alleges it owns the exclusive copyright to the motion picture 2 Mechanic: Resurrection and that Defendants participated in a “swarm” to unlawfully 3 copy and/or distribute the same unique copy of Mechanic: Resurrection. These 4 5 6 7 8 allegations were established by entry of default against Defendants. Accordingly, ME2 has established Defendants’ liability for direct copyright infringement. B. Default Judgment is Warranted. Having established liability, plaintiff must also show that default judgment is 9 10 warranted. Courts often apply the factors listed in Eitel, 782 F.2d at 1471-72, to make 11 this determination. Those factors are: 12 13 14 15 16 “(1) the possibility of prejudice to the plaintiff, (2) the merits of plaintiff's substantive claim, (3) the sufficiency of the complaint, (4) the sum of money at stake in the action; (5) the possibility of a dispute concerning material facts; (6) whether the default was due to excusable neglect, and (7) the strong policy underlying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure favoring decisions on the merits.” 17 The majority of these factors weigh in favor of granting default judgment against 18 Defendants. ME2 may be prejudiced without the entry of default judgment as it will be 19 20 left without a legal remedy. See Landstar Ranger, Inc. v. Parth Enters., Inc., 725 F. 21 Supp.2d 916, 920 (C.D. Cal. 2010). ME2’s complaint sufficiently alleges a claim of 22 direct copyright infringement, and Defendants did not present any evidence or argument 23 24 to the contrary. Additionally, the Court finds there is a low probability that default against 25 Defendants was due to excusable neglect: Defendants were given ample opportunity to 26 respond to the filings in this matter between the time they were served with ME2’s 27 28 complaint and when ME2 filed its motions for default judgment. Finally, although there ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 4 1 is a strong policy favoring decisions on the merits, the Court may consider Defendants’ 2 failure to respond to ME2’s requests for default and default judgment as admissions that 3 the motions have merit. LCR 7(b)(2). 4 5 The Court acknowledges that a dispute concerning the material facts alleged by 6 ME2, including the identity of the alleged infringers, could arise in this case. The Court 7 also acknowledges that the amount at stake may be significant depending on the means 8 9 of each Defendant. ME2 seeks enhanced statutory damages in the amount of at least 10 $1,500 along with attorneys’ fees in excess of $1,600 and costs in excess of $150 from 11 each individual Defendant. Notwithstanding these considerations, the Eitel factors 12 13 weigh in favor of granting default judgment against Defendants. 14 C. Appropriate Relief. 15 ME2 requests entry of a default judgment against each Defendant providing the 16 17 18 19 20 following three categories of relief: (1) permanent injunctive relief; (2) statutory damages; and (3) attorney’s fees and costs. Each category is discussed below. i. Permanent Injunctive Relief Permanent injunctive relief is appropriate. Section 502(a) of Title 17 of the 21 22 United States Code allows courts to “grant temporary and final injunctions on such 23 terms as it may deem reasonable to prevent or restrain infringement of a copyright.” As 24 part of a default judgment, courts may also order the destruction of all copies of a work 25 26 made or used in violation of a copyright owner’s exclusive rights. 17 U.S.C. § 503(b). 27 Given the nature of the BitTorrent protocol and Defendants’ participation therein, the 28 Court finds Defendants possess the means to continue infringing in the future. MAI Sys. ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 5 1 Corp. v. Peak Comput., Inc., 991 F.2d 511, 520 (9th Cir. 1993) (granting permanent 2 injunction where “liability has been established and there is a threat of continuing 3 violations.”). Consequently, the Court will issue a permanent injunction enjoining 4 5 6 7 8 9 Defendants from infringing ME2’s rights in Mechanic: Resurrection and directing them to destroy all unauthorized copies of Mechanic: Resurrection. ii. Statutory Damages Plaintiff requests an award of statutory damages in the amount of at least $1,500 10 against each Defendant for his or her participation in the BitTorrent swarm that resulted 11 in the unauthorized download and/or distribution of the seed file containing Mechanic: 12 13 Resurrection. Although the actual economic damages associated with a lost video rental 14 are likely minimal, plaintiff correctly points out that Congress has authorized statutory 15 damages in significant amounts to compensate for difficult-to-prove downstream losses 16 17 and to deter future infringement. Los Angeles News Serv. v. Reuters Int’l, Ltd., 149 18 F.3d 987, 996 (9th Cir. 1998) (quoting Peer Int’l Corp. v. Pausa Records, Inc., 909 F.2d 19 1332, 1336 (9th Cir. 1990)). Under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(1), the Court may award 20 statutory damages “for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one 21 22 work, . . . for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum 23 of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just.” The Court has 24 wide discretion when determining the amount of statutory damages and takes into 25 26 consideration the amount of money requested in relation to the seriousness of the 27 defendant’s conduct, whether large sums of money are involved, and whether “the 28 recovery sought is proportional to the harm caused by defendant’s conduct.” Curtis v. ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 6 1 2 Illumination Arts, Inc., 33 F. Supp.3d 1200, 1212 (W.D. Wash. 2014) (citing Landstar, 725 F. Supp. 2d at 921). 3 Copyright violations come in all shapes and sizes, from the unauthorized copying 4 5 of a Halloween word puzzle for a child’s party to the unauthorized manufacture and sale 6 of millions of bootleg copies of a new release. While Defendants’ alleged copyright 7 violation is of concern in that it represents a theft of intellectual property, it is a 8 9 relatively minor infraction causing relatively minor injury. ME2 has not shown that any 10 of the Defendants is responsible for the “seed” file that made ME2’s copyrighted work 11 available on the BitTorrent network, nor has ME2 presented evidence that Defendants 12 13 profited from the infringement in any way. Given the range of statutory damages 14 specified in the Copyright Act, the Court finds that an award of $750 for the swarm- 15 related infringements involved in this action is appropriate. Each of the Defendants is 16 17 jointly and severally liable for this amount. This award is in line with the awards made by other courts in the Ninth Circuit 18 19 20 and appears adequate to deter Defendants from infringing on plaintiff’s copyright in the future.2 Plaintiff argues that a significantly higher award is necessary to force people 21 22 like Defendants to appear and participate in these BitTorrent cases. Plaintiff apparently 23 wants the Court to raise the statutory damage award to an amount that is at or above the 24 anticipated costs of defending this action. A defendant may, however, decide that 25 26 27 28 ME2 has presented no evidence that Defendants will not be dissuaded from infringing in the future. The judgment entered in this case, including statutory damages, attorney’s fees, and costs, may be recovered by garnishing Defendants’ wages and/or seizing and selling their non-exempt property. This is a steep penalty for having been too lazy to go to the local Redbox or too cheap to pay a few dollars for an authorized download. Plaintiff offers no evidence to support its contention that personal liability for a judgment in excess of $500 is of no consequence to the judgment debtor. 2 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 7 1 conceding liability through default is the best course of action given the nature of the 2 claims and the available defenses. The “punishment” for that choice is the entry of 3 default judgment and an award of damages under the governing standards. As discussed 4 5 above, those standards lead to the conclusion that the minimum statutory penalty should 6 apply in this case. Plaintiff offers no support for the proposition that participation in 7 federal litigation should be compelled by imposing draconian penalties that are out of 8 9 proportion to the harm caused by Defendants’ actions or any benefits derived therefrom. 10 Statutory damages are not intended to serve as a windfall to plaintiffs and will not be 11 used to provide such a windfall here. 12 13 14 15 16 17 The Court will award ME2 $750 in statutory damages for the infringements involved in this action, for which defendants are jointly and severally liable. iii. Attorneys’ Fees and Costs Finally, ME2 asks the Court to award between $1,623.50 and $1,702.00 in 18 attorneys’ fees and between $160 and $200 in costs against each Defendant in this 19 matter. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 505, the Court “in its discretion may allow the recovery 20 of full costs by or against any party,” and “may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee 21 22 23 24 to the prevailing party as part of the costs.” The Court agrees that ME2 should be awarded attorneys’ fees. Courts consider several factors, including “(1) the degree of success obtained, (2) frivolousness, 25 26 (3) motivation, (4) objective unreasonableness (legal and factual), and (5) the need to 27 advance considerations of compensation and deterrence,” when making attorneys’ fee 28 determinations under the Copyright Act. Smith v. Jackson, 84 F.3d 1213, 1221 (9th Cir. ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 8 1 1996) (citing Jackson v. Axton, 25 F.3d 884, 890 (9th Cir. 1994)). Because ME2 has 2 succeeded on its non-frivolous direct infringement claim3 and because an award would 3 advance considerations of compensation and deterrence, ME2 is entitled to attorneys’ 4 5 fees. However, despite counsel’s efforts to allocate the fees and costs to each 6 7 8 9 individual defendant, the overall fee request is problematic. Courts determine the amount of a fee award by determining a “lodestar figure,” which is obtained by 10 multiplying the number of hours reasonably expended on a matter by a reasonable 11 hourly rate. Intel Corp. v. Terabyte Int’l, Inc., 6 F.3d 614, 622 (9th Cir. 1993). Courts 12 13 may then adjust the lodestar with reference to factors set forth in Kerr v. Screen Extras 14 Guild, Inc., 526 F.2d 67, 69-70 (9th Cir. 1975), to the extent those factors are not 15 already subsumed in counsel’s hourly rates or the number of hours expended on the 16 17 litigation. The relevant Kerr factors here are: (1) the time and labor required; (2) the 18 novelty and difficulty of the questions; and (3) the skill requisite to perform the legal 19 services properly. 20 1. Reasonableness of Rate Requested 21 In the Ninth Circuit, the determination of a reasonable hourly rate “is not made 22 23 by reference to rates actually charged the prevailing party.” Chalmers v. City of Los 24 Angeles, 796 F.2d 1205, 1210 (9th Cir. 1986). Instead, the reasonable hourly rate is 25 26 determined with reference to the prevailing rates charged by attorneys of comparable 27 28 Despite the entry of default, the Court specifically declines to enter judgment in plaintiff’s favor on its indirect and contributory infringement claims. 3 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 9 1 skill and experience in the relevant community. Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895 2 (1984). “Generally, when determining a reasonable hourly rate, the relevant community 3 is the forum in which the district court sits.” Camacho v. Bridgeport Fin., Inc., 523 F.3d 4 5 973, 979 (9th Cir. 2008). Courts may also consider “rate determinations in other cases, 6 particularly those setting a rate for the plaintiffs’ attorney” as “satisfactory evidence of 7 the prevailing market rate.” United Steelworkers of Am. v. Phelps Dodge Corp., 896 8 9 F.2d 403, 407 (9th Cir. 1990). 10 Identifying counsel’s hourly rate is more challenging than it should be. His 11 hourly rate for “normal” intellectual property cases is now $545/hour, but he has agreed 12 13 to a reduced rate of $350/hour in this case. Dkt. #56 at ¶7. In a similar BitTorrent matter 14 involving another copyright holder, counsel stated that his reduced rate was $450/hour 15 (LHF Prods., Inc. v. Acosta, C16-1175RSM, Dkt. #71 at ¶7), which is the rate he posits 16 17 is “reasonable and warranted in the Seattle area” in this case (Dkt. #56 at ¶9). The Court 18 assumes, based on the fee calculation charts set forth in counsel’s declarations, that he 19 seeks an hourly rate of $350 in this case. This hourly rate is generally within the norm 20 for BitTorrent cases in this district and is a reasonable rate for the type of formulaic 21 22 23 24 legal work performed in these matters. 2. Reasonableness of Hours Requested Turning to the reasonableness of the hours requested, plaintiff has the burden of 25 26 documenting the hours expended on this matter and establishing their reasonableness. 27 Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 437 (1983). The Court will exclude hours that are 28 “excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary” and therefore not reasonably ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 10 1 expended. Id. at 434. Counsel has attempted to calculate the hours spent in connection 2 with ME2’s claims against each individual Defendant by dividing the total number of 3 hours spent on collective efforts by the total number of defendants at the time the action 4 5 was taken. Time spent working solely in pursuit of claims against an individual are 6 allocated wholly to that individual. Dkt. #56 at ¶10. Taking Reynolds as an example, 7 counsel seeks compensation for the following activities: 8 Activity 9 10 Review evidence of BitTorrent activity giving rise to potential claims Prepare complaint and supporting exhibits Prepare and file motion to expedite discovery Communicate with client Review Court orders Prepare subpoena and letter to ISPs Review ISP response and prepare communications with Reynolds Review Reynolds’ “status and history” Prepare amended complaint and review Prepare, review, and file waivers and/or summons Review file Prepare and file motion for default Prepare and file motion for default judgment 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Total: Attorney Time Legal Assistant Time .4 hours .4 hours .4 hours .1 hours ≈ .2 hours .1 hours .2 hours .3 hours ≈ .5 hours ≈ .3 hours ≈ .1 hours ≈ .2 hours 1 hour 4.2 hours .3 hours .4 hours .9 hours 1.6 hours 22 23 These seemingly modest time expenditures mask the reality of counsel’s fee request. 24 Until recently, the BitTorrent case filed in this district all proceeded in a similar 25 26 manner.4 The original complaints list Doe defendants, identified only by IP addresses, 27 28 The Honorable Thomas S. Zilly has required certain additional disclosures or proffers in BitTorrent cases pending before him. See Venice PI, LLC v. O’Leary, C17-0988TSZ, Dkt. # 32. 4 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 11 1 and allege infringement of the client’s exclusive rights in a specified motion picture. 2 Groups of Doe defendants are named in the same complaint because they allegedly 3 infringed the same digital copy of the copyrighted material by participating in the same 4 5 BitTorrent “swarm.” The nearly identical complaints are accompanied by nearly 6 identical motions for expedited discovery. Once the Court grants leave to conduct 7 expedited discovery, subpoenas are served on the ISP associated with the addresses 8 9 identified in the log attached to the complaint as Exhibit B. Once in possession of the 10 Doe defendants’ identities, counsel attempts to obtain a settlement of the claims and 11 files amended complaints against any non-settling defendants. Service, additional 12 13 settlements, and defaults/default judgments follow, with the exception of a handful of 14 defendants who are actively litigating the cases in this district. On occasion, counsel 15 seeks an extension of time in which to serve. 16 Almost every filing in this cause of action and its predecessor, C16-1776RSL, 17 18 was essentially copied from scores of other cases filed by the same counsel.5 There is 19 nothing wrong with utilizing form documents to pursue identical infringement claims 20 arising from identical activities. As has been previously noted, however, it is wrong for 21 22 ME2’s counsel to file identical complaints and motions with the Court and then expect 23 the Court to believe that he labored over each filing. LHF Prods., C16-1175RSM, Dkt. 24 #73 at 12. To arrive at his per Defendant fee request, counsel divided time entries 25 26 27 28 related to specific activities by the number of defendants then in the case. When the The one exception was when ME2 was forced to respond to Maiga’s motion to quash the subpoena issued to the ISP. Interestingly, ME2 seeks exactly the same amount of fees from Maiga as it does from Reynolds. 5 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 12 1 relatively small time allotments set forth in counsel’s declaration related to Reynolds are 2 multiplied by the number of defendants, counsel is seeking compensation for an 3 excessive number of hours. Counsel apparently spent 8.8 hours studying the log of 4 5 infringing transactions and IP addresses that gave rise to this particular lawsuit.6 He 6 spent another 8.8 hours generating a complaint that is virtually identical to the 7 complaints ME2 filed in other cases (not to mention the scores of BitTorrent cases filed 8 9 on behalf of other clients). Altering the form complaint to initiate a new lawsuit is, at 10 this point, a word processing chore: the preparer checks to make sure the correct 11 plaintiff and film are identified, changes the number of Doe defendants in the caption, 12 13 inserts the correct IP addresses in the section of the complaint describing the defendants, 14 and attaches the investigator’s log regarding the relevant swarm as Exhibit B. Charging 15 8.8 hours of attorney time for this task is unreasonable. Counsel seeks to recover fees 16 17 for another five hours spent preparing an amended complaint that was identical to the 18 original except for the caption and the correlation of the IP addresses with the 19 subscribers’ names. 20 A form pleading and motions practice such as this simply does not take the type 21 22 of expertise or time that is normally associated with intellectual property matters. Nor 23 does it justify the number of cumulative hours that counsel seeks here. Having reviewed 24 the billing records and the dockets in this matter, the Court has little confidence in the 25 26 accuracy of the time entries or counsel’s efforts to allocate costs to individual 27 28 6 This case was originally filed under Cause Number C16-1776RSL against twenty-two Doe defendants. ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 13 1 defendants. As noted in footnote 5, ME2 clearly expended additional time pursuing its 2 claims against Maiga, but the fee allocation was not performed at a level of detail that 3 could capture even such macro events as having to respond to a motion. The Court will 4 5 not attempt to improve the accuracy of ME2’s time entry charts or guess at the time 6 actually spent on each identified task for each named Defendant. Rather, the Court finds 7 that the bulk of the “legal” work in these cases was performed and compensated years 8 9 ago, that these actions now involve far more word processing than drafting or legal 10 analysis, and that the attorney time necessary to tailor documents to each case and/or 11 individual is minimal. The Court will award 1 hour, at an hourly rate of $350, to 12 13 compensate ME2 for counsel’s time spent pursuing its claims against each named 14 Defendant, and 1.3 hours, at an hourly rate of $188.50, to compensate ME2 for legal 15 assistant time altering pleadings, motions, and service documents. The Court is satisfied 16 17 18 19 20 that an attorneys’ fee of $538.50 per Defendant is reasonable and sufficient to cover the form-pleading work required by this case. 3. Costs ME2 requests $160 or $200 in costs from each Defendant, depending on whether 21 22 it was forced to hire a process server. Recovery of a pro rata portion of the filing fee and 23 the individual costs associated with the third-party subpoena and service is appropriate. 24 ME2’s request for $80 from each Defendant to compensate it for the filing fee is 25 26 unreasonable, however. When this case was first filed, ME2 sued 22 Doe defendants 27 28 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 14 1 2 and paid a filing fee of $400. A pro rata award of $18.18 from each Defendant, rather than $80, is warranted.7 3 IV. 4 CONCLUSION 5 The Court, having reviewed the motions for default judgment and the remainder 6 of the record, finds adequate bases for default judgment. Accordingly, the Court hereby 7 8 finds and ORDERS: 1. ME2’s motions for default judgment (Dkts. #55, #57, #59, #61, #63, #65, #67, #69, and #71) are GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. 9 10 2. Defendants Reynolds, Watrous, Morley, Tronsen, Summers, Sabatino, Maiga, Sanchez, and Rodriguez are hereby permanently enjoined infringing ME2’s exclusive rights in the motion picture film Mechanic: Resurrection, including without limitation by using the Internet to reproduce or copy Mechanic: Resurrection, to distribute Mechanic: Resurrection, or to make Mechanic: Resurrection available for distribution to the public, except pursuant to lawful written license or with the express authority of ME2; 11 12 13 14 15 3. To the extent any unauthorized reproduction or copy of Mechanic: Resurrection is in Defendants’ possession or subject to their control, they are directed to destroy it; 16 17 18 4. Defendants are jointly and severally liable for statutory damages in the amount of $750; 19 20 5. Defendant Shannon Reynolds is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $138.18. 21 22 6. Defendant Christopher Watrous is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $138.18. 23 24 7. Defendant Steve Morely is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $98.18. 25 26 27 28 The Court recognizes that ME2 paid two filing fees in pursuit of this matter. The first case, C161776RSL, was dismissed for failure to timely serve and was refiled as C17-246RSL. Defendants will not be charged with costs that should have been avoided and, even if both filing fees could reasonably be charged to Defendants, it would amount to less than $60 each. 7 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 8. Defendant Roze Tronsen is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $138.18. 9. Defendant Joelyn Summers individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $138.18. 10. Defendant Matt Sabatino is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $138.18. 11. Defendant Linda Maiga is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $98.18. 12. Defendant Ashley Sanchez is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $138.18. 13. Defendant George Rodriguez is individually liable for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $538.50 and costs in the amount of $98.18. 13 14 15 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall enter judgment in favor of plaintiff and against defendants for the amounts specified in this Order. 16 17 18 Dated this 22nd day of June, 2018. 19 A 20 Robert S. Lasnik United States District Judge 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT - 16

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