In re Subpoena to Reddit: Movie Studios Fail to Unmask Anonymous Reddit Users

Beginning in 2023, owners of motion-picture copyrights pursuing infringement claims against internet service providers served third-party subpoenas on Reddit seeking to identify anonymous accounts that had posted comments about torrenting and piracy. The plaintiffs — film companies including Voltage Holdings and Screen Media Ventures, represented by attorney Kerry Culpepper — argued the posts showed the ISPs knew their subscribers were pirating films and failed to act. Reddit objected, asserting that compelled disclosure implicated its users' First Amendment right to speak anonymously.

In one matter tied to a suit against Grande Communications, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler (N.D. Cal.) denied the motion to compel in mid-2023, finding the plaintiffs had not shown a compelling need outweighing the users' anonymity. A parallel matter arising from a suit against Frontier Communications produced a similar result: in a February 2024 order, Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson quashed the subpoena, emphasizing 'the paramount importance of protecting the First Amendment rights of anonymous speakers.' Federal courts in the Northern District of California ultimately sided with Reddit on three separate occasions.

The courts applied the Ninth Circuit's framework from In re Anonymous Online Speakers, which permits unmasking only in the exceptional case where the requesting party's compelling need outweighs the speaker's rights. The studios fell short on relevance and availability, because the posts themselves could be entered as evidence without identifying their authors. Reddit also pushed back aggressively, at one point characterizing the subpoena effort as a 'publicity campaign' and seeking roughly $55,000 in attorneys' fees.

The Frontier dispute moved toward the Ninth Circuit on appeal, where the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief in late 2024 arguing there is 'no copyright exception' to constitutional protections for anonymous speech. The appeal was ultimately dismissed as moot in 2025 after the underlying suit against Frontier settled, leaving the favorable district-court rulings intact. Separately, in August 2025 the Ninth Circuit issued a broader decision limiting intrusive DMCA subpoenas — a related win for online anonymity that the EFF celebrated alongside the Reddit cases.