Paper Street Media, LLC v. Doe et al

Filing 13

ORDER granting in part and denying in part 6 Plaintiff's Motion for Discovery; signed by Judge Ronald B. Leighton.(DN)

HONORABLE RONALD B. LEIGHTON

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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.

CASE NO. C18-5167 RBL
ORDER

JOHN DOE, d/b/a HQPORNER.COM,
et al.,
Defendants.

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THIS MATTER is before the Court on Plaintiff Paper Street Media’s Ex Parte Motion
for Early Discovery [Dkt. #6]. Paper Street asks for limited, expedited discovery to ascertain the
identities of the owners and operators of HQPorner.com, Mydaddy.cc, HQwo.cc, and
BigCDN.cc, websites it alleges have infringed its “award winning” pornographic videos by
duplicating and distributing them without prior authorization.
Paper Street has shown these 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 anonymous defendants).

ORDER - 1

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Therefore, Paper Street may serve discovery on Advanced Hosters, Ltd.; Highwoods

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Network Group, Inc.; Enom, Inc.; Tiggee, LLC; Choopa, LLC; Verisign; Multi Media, LLC;

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Network Solutions, LLC; and Google, LLC, for the sole purpose of identifying the owners and

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operators of HQPorner.com, Mydaddy.cc, HQwo.cc, and BigCDN.cc, who are Defendants in

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this case.

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Paper Street may not serve discovery on any Internet Service Providers seeking

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information about IP addresses used to access HQPorner.com, Mydaddy.cc, HQwo.cc, and

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BigCDN.cc, as such discovery goes beyond identifying the Defendants, and could be used for

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nefarious purposes. To the extent Paper Street seeks such information, its Motion is DENIED.

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Paper Street’s Motion [Dkt. #6] is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.

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IT IS SO ORDERED.

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Dated this 12th day of April, 2018.

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A

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Ronald B. Leighton
United States District Judge

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ORDER - 2