Paper Street Media LLC v. Kick Online Entertainment, S.A. et al

Filing 12

ORDER signed by Judge Benjamin H. Settle granting in part and denying in part 9 Motion for Discovery.(TG)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
AT TACOMA

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PAPER STREET MEDIA, LLC,
Plaintiff,

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v.
KICK ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT,
S.A., et al.,

CASE NO. C17-5821 BHS
ORDER GRANTING IN PART
AND DENYING IN PART
PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR
EARLY DISCOVERY

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Defendants.
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This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff Paper Street Media, LLC’s
(“Plaintiff”) motion for early discovery (Dkt. 9).
On January 23, 2018, Plaintiff filed the instant motion seeking leave of court “to
discover the identities of all owners and operators of Motherless.com and
Motherlessmedia.com.” Id. Plaintiff has shown that the defendants are real persons or
entities, that it cannot identify them without early discovery, and that its suit could
possibly withstand a motion to dismiss. See Columbia Ins. Co. v. Seescandy.com, 185
F.R.D. 573, 578–80 (N.D. Cal. 1999) (setting forth a test describing when a court could
permit discovery prior to a Rule 26(f) conference for the purpose of identifying

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ORDER - 1

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anonymous defendants). Plaintiff, therefore, may serve discovery demands on

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Cloudflare, Inc., Tiggee, LLC, Highwinds Network Group, Inc., Level 3

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Communications, DFWInternet Services, Inc., WhoisProxy.com Ltd, ICF Technology,

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Inc., FriendFinderNetworks, Inc., Centrobill, Ltd. CCBill, Traffic Haus, and ZeusClicks,

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Ltd. for the sole purpose of identifying the owners and operators of Motherless.com and

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Motherlessmedia.com. At this time, Plaintiff may not serve discovery on Internet Service

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Providers for IP addresses used to access the two websites because such discovery goes

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beyond identifying owners and operators of the sites.

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IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated this 24th day of January, 2018.

A

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BENJAMIN H. SETTLE
United States District Judge

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ORDER - 2