hand em over

Porn copyright troll sues Verizon, angry it won’t cough up user names

Verizon has objected to subpoenas in dozens of copyright-trolling porn cases.

Joe Mullin – Nov 26, 2012 9:10 pm | 47

The mass-copyright lawsuits brought against anonymous BitTorrent users by porn companies in the past few years have run into legal hurdles. One of the lawyers representing Third Degree Films, which makes movies like Illegal Ass 2, was found not to be licensed. In another case, a New York federal judge blasted Malibu Media (maker of Veronica Wet Orgasm and Gangbanged) for an "astonishing" failure to follow discovery rules.

At the end of the day, though, it's all about getting the names. Once the lawyers prosecuting these cases can get names of people who they can level their accusations against, they know at least a percentage are going to pay up. It's telling that the sweet spot for mass-copyright suits is pornography; it strongly suggests a strategy of deterring defendants from fighting cases by embarrassing them.

Internet providers don't seem to care for these lawsuits either. Verizon is now the third ISP to find itself being attacked in court directly by porn copyright trolls. Patrick Collins Inc., Third Degree Films, and Malibu Media have sued Verizon directly, asking a judge to throw out the many objections filed and to force Verizon to hand over subscriber contact information.

One of Verizon's objections is that its users have privacy and First Amendment rights that aren't being respected by the massive subpoena requests. The co-plaintiffs here say those rights are outweighed by their own right to collect damages for copyright infringement, and in any case, the First Amendment "affords no protection" to "mask copyright infringement."

"The identifying information sought for the Doe Defendants, e.g., name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, is not only relevant, but crucial to Plaintiffs’ case," writes Hao Ni, the Texas lawyer who filed the case on behalf of Patrick Collins and the co-plaintiffs.

Verizon's suggestion that the subpoenas are "unduly burdensome" is equally silly, writes Ni. "Plaintiffs compensate Verizon at a rate of $40.00 per IP address. Verizon’s objection is thus akin to the ISP claiming it cannot identify its own customers easily and in a timely fashion if called upon and paid to do so."

The motion to compel Verizon to disclose user names is reminiscent of another copyright troll's attempt in August to force AT&T and Comcast to do the same thing. As my colleague Tim Lee suggested then, it's a move that may backfire. The ISPs have vast legal resources, and being brought directly into the legal fight may actually encourage them to fight against copyright trolling even harder. That's especially true since the practice has been generally disfavored by judges thus far.

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Joe MullinTech Policy Editor

Joe MullinTech Policy Editor

Joe has covered the intersection of law and technology, including the world's biggest copyright and patent battles, since 2007.