In re Subpoena to Reddit, Inc. (Frontier piracy commenters)
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Docket
- No. 3:24-mc-80005-TSH
- Parties
- Movants: film companies including Voltage Holdings, LLC and Screen Media Ventures, LLC, plaintiffs in the underlying suit against Frontier. Non-party respondent: Reddit, Inc.
- Claim type
- ip-scraping
- Filed
- 2024-01-09
- Outcome
- Motion to compel denied; Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson held the First Amendment protected the anonymous users and that the producers could obtain needed evidence (including IP addresses) from Frontier rather than by unmasking the Reddit commenters (2024 WL 477519). A Ninth Circuit appeal was later filed but became moot after the underlying Frontier case settled.
Summary
Film companies including Voltage Holdings and Screen Media Ventures, who accuse ISP Frontier Communications of facilitating subscriber piracy, subpoenaed non-party Reddit for the login and identifying information of users who anonymously discussed movie piracy, and moved to compel when Reddit refused. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson denied the motion in February 2024, emphasizing the First Amendment rights of anonymous speakers. The court found the producers could obtain the relevant information from Frontier itself and that unmasking the Reddit users was not indispensable. The decision is reported at 2024 WL 477519. The producers later appealed to the Ninth Circuit, but that appeal became moot after the underlying Frontier case settled.