Hard Drive Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-58, No. 4:2011cv02537 - Document 7 (N.D. Cal. 2011)
Court Description: ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART 5 PLAINTIFFS EX PARTE MOTION FOR EXPEDITED DISCOVERY.(lblc2, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 8/5/2011)
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Hard Drive Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-58 Doc. 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 Northern District of California 10 Oakland Division HARD DRIVE PRODUCTIONS INC., 12 For the Northern District of California UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 Plaintiff, No. C 11-02537 LB ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFF’S EX PARTE MOTION FOR EXPEDITED DISCOVERY v. 13 DOES 1-58, 14 15 Defendants. _____________________________________/ [ECF No. 5] 16 17 I. INTRODUCTION 18 Plaintiff Hard Drive Productions, Inc. asserts claims for copyright infringement pursuant to 17 19 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. and for civil conspiracy. Complaint, ECF No. 1.1 It seeks permission to take 20 limited, expedited discovery from certain Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to identify and name 21 the Doe defendants in this case so that it can complete service of process. Ex Parte Motion for 22 Expedited Discovery, ECF No. 5 at 4. Hard Drive consented to this court’s jurisdiction on May 26, 23 2011. ECF No. 4. 24 25 As discussed below, the court finds good cause exists for Hard Drive to engage in this preliminary discovery but only with respect to Doe 1. Because Hard Drive has not demonstrated 26 27 1 28 Citations are to the Electronic Case File (“ECF”) with pin cites to the electronic page number at the top of the document, not the pages at the bottom. C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY Dockets.Justia.com 1 that permissive joinder is appropriate, the court severs Does 2-58 from this action and dismisses 2 them without prejudice. 3 4 II. BACKGROUND Hard Drive is an Arizona-based company that is the exclusive licensee for the reproduction and 5 distribution rights for “Amateur Allure – Jayden,” a copyrighted file. Complaint, ECF No. 1 at 4, ¶¶ 6 6-7. A copyright application for this work is currently pending. Id. at 7, ¶ 20. According to Hard 7 Drive, the Doe defendants, without its permission, reproduced and distributed “Amateur Allure – 8 Jayden” to numerous third parties through a peer-to-peer file sharing network thereby violating the 9 Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. and causing economic and reputation damages. Id. at 7, ¶ 23, 8, ¶ 29; see also id. at ¶¶ 32-39 (also claiming a common-plan civil conspiracy to 11 unlawfully reproduce and distribute the work). 12 For the Northern District of California UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 Because the peer-to-peer file sharing network that the Doe defendants utilized is partially 13 anonymous, Hard Drive does not know the defendants’ names and addresses and cannot complete 14 service of process on them. Motion, ECF No. 5 at 4. It has been able to identify the Internet 15 Protocol (“IP”) address assigned to each of the Doe defendants and the date and time that each 16 defendant allegedly infringed on Hard Drive’s copyrighted work. Id.; Complaint, ECF No. 1-1 at 2- 17 3, Exh. A. Additionally, Hard Drive identified the Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) for each of the 18 IP addresses. Motion, ECF No. 5 at 5. Hard Drive therefore asks for early discovery under Federal 19 Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d) and leave to serve Rule 45 third-party subpoenas on each ISP 20 associated with the identified IP addresses to obtain the names and contact information of the Doe 21 defendants to effect service of process on them. Id. at 15-16 and Ex. A. 22 23 III. DISCUSSION A. Legal Standard for Leave to Take Early Discovery 24 A court may authorize early discovery before the Rule 26(f) conference for the parties’ and 25 witnesses’ convenience and in the interests of justice. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(d). Courts within the 26 Ninth Circuit generally consider whether a plaintiff has shown “good cause” for the early discovery. 27 See, e.g., IO Group, Inc. v. Does 1-65, No. C 10-4377 SC, 2010 WL 4055667, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 28 15, 2010); Semitool, Inc. v. Tokyo Electron America, Inc., 208 F.R.D. 273, 275-77 (N.D. Cal. 2002); C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 2 1 Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp. v. Dhindsa, No. C 10-0035, 2010 WL 2353520, at * 2 (E.D. 2 Cal. June 9, 2010); Yokohama Tire Crop. v. Dealers Tire Supply, Inc., 202 F.R.D. 612, 613-14 (D. 3 Ariz. 2001) (collecting cases and standards). 4 When the identities of defendants are not known before a complaint is filed, a plaintiff “should 5 be given an opportunity through discovery to identify the unknown defendants, unless it is clear that 6 discovery would not uncover the identities, or that the complaint would be dismissed on other 7 grounds.” Gillespie v. Civiletti, 629 F.2d 637, 642 (9th Cir. 1980). In evaluating whether a plaintiff 8 establishes good cause to learn the identity of Doe defendants through early discovery, courts 9 examine whether the plaintiff (1) identifies the Doe defendant with sufficient specificity that the the steps taken to locate and identify the defendant, (3) demonstrates that the action can withstand a 12 For the Northern District of California court can determine that the defendant is a real person who can be sued in federal court, (2) recounts 11 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 motion to dismiss, and (4) proves that the discovery is likely to lead to identifying information that 13 will permit service of process. Columbia Ins. Co. v. seescandy.com, 185 F.R.D. 573, 578-80 (N.D. 14 Cal. 1999). 15 1. Hard Drive Has Shown Good Cause 16 17 18 Here, Hard Drive has made a sufficient showing under each of the four factors listed above to establish good cause to permit it to engage in early discovery to identify the Doe defendants. First, Hard Drive has identified the Doe defendants with sufficient specificity by submitting a 19 chart listing each of the defendants by the IP address assigned to them on the day it alleges the 20 particular defendant engaged in the infringing conduct. See Exh. A, ECF No. 1-1 at 2-3; Hansmeier 21 Declaration, ECF No. 5-1 at 5-8, ¶¶ 12-20. 22 Second, Hard Drive has adequately described the steps it took to locate and identify the Doe 23 defendants. Specifically, it investigated and collected data on unauthorized distribution of copies of 24 “Amateur Allure – Jayden” on BitTorrent-based peer-to-peer networks. Hansmeier Declaration, 25 ECF No. 5-1 at 5-8, ¶¶ 12-20. The data that Hard Drive gathered, separated out by Doe defendant, is 26 listed in Exhibit A to the complaint and includes each defendant’s IP address, the ISP that assigned 27 that IP address, and the date and time the defendant infringed on its copyrighted work. Exh. A, ECF 28 No. 1-1 at 2-3. Hard Drive has been unable to further identify the Doe defendants. Hansmeier C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 3 1 2 3 4 Declaration, ECF No. 5-1 at 6, ¶ 15. Third, Hard Drive pled the essential elements to state a claim for copyright infringement. Complaint, ECF No. 1 at 7-9, ¶¶ 18-39.2 Fourth, Hard Drive has demonstrated that the proposed subpoena seeks information likely to lead 5 to identifying information that will allow it to effect service of process on the Doe defendants. 6 Specifically, the proposed subpoena requests that each ISP produce information sufficient to identify 7 the Doe defendant who subscribed to its service, including the defendant’s name, address, telephone 8 number, email address, and media access control address. Motion, ECF No. 5 at 15. 9 Taken together, the court finds that the foregoing factors demonstrate good cause exists to grant Furthermore, the court finds that early discovery furthers the interests of justice and poses little, if 12 For the Northern District of California Hard Drive leave to conduct early discovery generally. See Semitool, 208 F.R.D. at 276. 11 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 any, inconvenience to the subpoena recipient. Permitting Hard Drive to engage in this limited, early 13 discovery is therefore consistent with Rule 26(d). 14 B. Hard Drive Failed to Show that Permissive Joinder is Appropriate 15 Under Rule 20(a), permissive joinder of defendants is appropriate where “any right to relief is 16 asserted against them jointly, severally, or in the alternative with respect to or arising out of the 17 same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences; and [ ] any question of law or 18 fact common to all defendants will arise in the action.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(2). Where misjoinder 19 occurs, the court may, on just terms, add or drop a party so long as “no substantial right will be 20 prejudiced by the severance.” See Coughlin v. Rogers, 130 F.3d 1348, 1351 (9th Cir. 1997); Fed. R. 21 Civ. P. 21. Courts should construe Rule 20 liberally “in order to promote trial convenience and to 22 expedite the final determination of disputes.” See League to Save Lake Tahoe v. Tahoe Reg’l 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 Hard Drive arguably did not plead the elements for a civil conspiracy claim. See Millennium TGA, Inc. v. Doe, No. C 11–2258 SC, 2011 WL 1812786, at *2 (N.D. Cal. May 12, 2011) (dismissing an identical claim asserted by Hard Drive’s counsel in a different case). Also, other than allegations that the Doe defendants engaged in similar conduct, Hard Drive has not pled sufficient facts to show that they agreed to commit a wrongful act (i.e. they were part of the same swarm). Nonetheless, because Hard Drive sufficiently pled the essential elements of a copyright infringement claim, it satisfied the third requirement for early discovery. C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 4 1 Planning Agency, 558 F.2d 914, 917 (9th Cir. 1977). Courts may consider various factors to 2 determine whether joinder “comport[s] with the fundamental principles of fairness,” including the 3 possibility of prejudice to the parties and the motives of the party seeking joinder. See Desert 4 Empire Bank v. Ins. Co. of N. Am., 623 F.2d 1371, 1375 (9th Cir. 1980). 5 Other courts in this district and elsewhere have found misjoinder in similar copyright 6 infringement cases. See, e.g., Diabolic Video Prods. v. Does 1-2099, No. C 10-5865 PSG, 2011 7 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58351, at *9 (N.D. Cal. May 31, 2011); Pac. Century Int’l, Ltd. v. Does 1-101, 8 No. C 11-02533 DMR, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73837, at *7-*14 (N.D. Cal. Jul. 8, 2011) (collecting 9 cases); IO Group, Inc. v. Does 1-435, No. C 10-4382 SI, 2011 WL 445043, at *3-*6 (N.D. Cal. Feb. the same copyrighted files insufficient to support joinder. See, e.g., Pac. Century Int’l, 2011 U.S. 12 For the Northern District of California 3, 2011) (collecting cases). Those courts have found allegations that BitTorrent users downloaded 11 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 Dist. LEXIS 73837 at *12-*13. In contrast, other courts have found joinder appropriate at this stage 13 in the litigation. See, e.g., Call of the Wild Movie, LLC v. Does 1-1,062, 770 F. Supp. 2d 332, 342- 14 43 (D.D.C. 2011); Donkeyball Movie, LLC v. Does 1-171, Civil Action No. 10–1520 (BAH), 2011 15 WL 1807452, at *4-*5 (D.D.C. May 12, 2011); West Coast Prod., Inc. v. Does 1-5829, Civil Action 16 No. 11–57 (CKK), 2011 WL 2292239, at *5-*6 (D.D.C. Jun. 10, 2011). 17 The court concludes here that Hard Drive fails to demonstrate that joinder is appropriate. It 18 argues that the Doe defendants are properly joined “even if they were not engaged in a 19 contemporaneous swarm because they have contributed to the chain of data distribution due to their 20 prior involvement in like swarms.” Complaint, ECF No. 1 at 3, ¶ 5, see also Hansmeier Declaration, 21 ECF No. 5-1 at 4-5, ¶ 9 (acknowledging that different uploaded versions of the protected work 22 spawn discrete swarms that cluster around the original seed file). Moreover, the “nature of the 23 BitTorrent distribution protocol necessitates a concerted action by many people in order to 24 disseminate files.” Id. But, these arguments fail. See, e.g., Pac. Century Int’l, 2011 U.S. Dist. 25 LEXIS 73837 at *12-*13. Hard Drive relies on the fact that the Doe defendants engaged in the same 26 behavior concerning the same protected work to justify joinder. Complaint, ECF No. 1 at 3, ¶ 5. 27 Without more, permissive joinder is inappropriate, particularly given that 58 Doe defendants are 28 potentially from “states across the United States,” and downloaded the protected work at various C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 5 1 dates and times ranging from May 3, to May 24, 2011. Complaint, ECF No. 1-1 at 2-3, Ex. A; See 2 Diabolic Video Prods., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58351 at *11 n.16 (collecting cases); Hansmeier 3 Declaration, ECF No. 5-1 at 5, ¶ 10. 4 Joinder also fails to promote trial convenience and expedition of the ultimate determination of 5 the substantive issues in this case. Though the 58 Doe defendants may have engaged in similar 6 behavior, they are likely to present different defenses. See BMG Music v. Does 1-203, No. Civ.A. 7 04-650, 2004 WL 953888, at *1 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 2, 2004). As one court noted, “Comcast subscriber 8 John Doe 1 could be an innocent parent whose internet access was abused by her minor child, while 9 John Doe 2 might share a computer with a roommate who infringed Plaintiffs' works. John Does 3 defendants are from “states across the United States,” this court may not have personal jurisdiction 12 For the Northern District of California through 203 could be thieves, just as Plaintiffs believe.” Id. Additionally, because the Doe 11 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 over some, if not all, of the Doe defendants.3 Hansmeier Declaration, ECF No. 5-1 at 5, ¶ 10. In 13 short, joining 58 Doe defendants who will likely assert a multiplicity of defenses and who may not 14 even be subject to personal jurisdiction in this court will not promote trial convenience and 15 expedition of the ultimate determination of the substantive issues in this case. 16 IV. CONCLUSION 17 For the reasons stated above, the court SEVERS Does 2-58 from this action and DISMISSES 18 WITHOUT PREJUDICE Hard Drive’s claims against them. Should Hard Drive refile separate 19 complaints against any of these defendants within 20 days of this order, those suits will be deemed a 20 continuation of the original action for purposes of the statute of limitations. 21 The court GRANTS Hard Drive’s Ex Parte Motion for Expedited Discovery with respect to Doe 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3 Using geolocation technology that is publicly-available, Hard Drive apparently could identify the physical locations of the IP addresses down to the city or the adjacent city in which the IP address is located. See Nu Image, Inc. v. Does 1-23,322, Civil Action No. 11–cv–00301 (RLW), 2011 WL 3240562, at *4 (D.D.C. July 29, 2011) (permitting early discovery on Doe defendants who had IP addresses located in a 30-mile radius around Washington, D.C.). While Hard Drive provided the court with the ISPs corresponding to the target IP addresses, it does not indicate the physical locations of the IP addresses, other than stating that Mr. Hansmeier “observed swarms that were hundreds of users large that contained peers from states across the United States as well as many countries around the world.” Hansmeier Declaration, ECF No. 5-1 at 5, ¶ 10. C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 6 1 1 as follows. 1. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff may immediately serve a Rule 45 subpoena on 2 3 the Internet Service Provider (ISP) listed in Exhibit A to the complaint to obtain information to 4 identify Doe 1, including his or her name, address, telephone number, email address, and media 5 access control address. The subpoena shall have a copy of this order attached. 6 2. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the ISP will have 30 days from the date of service upon 7 them to serve Doe 1 with a copy of the subpoena and a copy of this order. The ISP may serve Doe 1 8 using any reasonable means, including written notice sent to his or her last known address, 9 transmitted either by first-class mail or via overnight service. him or her to file any motions in this court contesting the subpoena (including a motion to quash or 12 For the Northern District of California 3. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Doe 1 shall have 30 days from the date of service upon 11 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 modify the subpoena). If that 30-day period lapses without Doe 1 contesting the subpoena, the ISP 13 shall have 10 days to produce the information responsive to the subpoena to Plaintiff. 14 15 4. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the subpoenaed entity shall preserve any subpoenaed information pending the resolution of any timely-filed motion to quash. 16 5. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the ISP that receives a subpoena pursuant to this order 17 shall confer with Plaintiff and shall not assess any charge in advance of providing the information 18 requested in the subpoena. The ISP that receives a subpoena and elects to charge for the costs of 19 production shall provide a billing summary and cost reports that serve as a basis for such billing 20 summary and any costs claimed by the ISP. 21 22 6. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff shall serve a copy of this order along with any subpoenas issued pursuant to this order to the necessary entities. 23 7. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that any information disclosed to Plaintiff in response to a 24 Rule 45 subpoena may be used by Plaintiff solely for the purpose of protecting Plaintiff's rights as 25 set forth in its complaint. 26 /// 27 /// 28 /// C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 7 1 This disposes of ECF No. 5. 2 IT IS SO ORDERED. 3 Dated: August 5, 2011 _______________________________ LAUREL BEELER United States Magistrate Judge 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 For the Northern District of California UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 C 11-02537 LB ORDER RE EARLY DISCOVERY 8
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