CAMDEN, N.J.—A federal magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey ruled last week in favor of Strike 3 Holdings, the parent company of Vixen Media Group (VMG), in a bid to unmask the identity of a defendant whose IP address was linked to an ongoing copyright infringement case.
Until now, the defendant in the case has been identified as "John Doe Subscriber Assigned IP Address 73.160.37.60." Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Skahill wrote in an Aug. 27 opinion that he agreed with the counsel for VMG and Strike 3 to urge internet service provider Comcast to provide the identifying information for the IP address used in infringement.
"[The plaintiff] argues that good cause exists to grant the requested discovery and that without it, plaintiff will have no means to uncover defendant’s identity, to serve defendant, and protect its copyrights," Skahill writes in his opinion. "The defendant has not yet been served, so the motion is unopposed."
According to the initial complaint filed with the court, Strike 3 alleges that John Doe illegally distributed VMG copyrighted works using BitTorrent.
This was "in violation of the Copyright Act." In an exhibit filed with the initial complaint, attorneys for Strike 3 found that John Doe infringed on 24 copyrighted works across platforms including Blacked, Blacked Raw, Tushy and MILFY.
"[The plaintiff] may serve a subpoena issued to Comcast Cable that is limited to requesting the name and address only associated with the IP address identified in the complaint, limited in scope to the time periods of the alleged infringing activity outlined in the complaint and exhibits thereto," the judge ordered.