Fed Judge to ISPs: ID 'Bareback Street Gang' Purloiners

Meet John Doe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)In Raw Films Ltd. v. John Does 1-15 (Docket No. 2:11-cv-07248-MAM), United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Mary A. McLaughlin this week ordered Internet service providers to provide IP addresses and other information identifying subscribers who allegedly infringed on the copyright of an adult film through a file-sharing Website.

The Legal Intelligencer reports that in her 21-page opinion, Judge McLaughlin said: "A Doe defendant who has allegedly used the Internet to unlawfully download and disseminate copyrighted material does not have a significant expectation of privacy." The allegedly infringed work, a 2006 Czech-language film entitled Bareback Street Gang, is owned by the plaintiff, British adult film Website Raw Films Ltd.

Judge McLaughlin denied the unidentified defendants' motion to quash the plaintiff's subpoena, citing a five-pronged test to strike a balance between online users' First Amendment right to anonymity and intellectual property rights. The factors include: (1) a prima facie case of infringement; (2) the specificity of information sought from the ISP; (3) no alternative means to obtain the information; (4) a vital need for the information to support an infringement claim; and (5) the objecting party's expectation of privacy.

The plaintiff alleged the defendants employed the peer-to-peer BizTorrent protocols to upload, reproduce and distribute the adult film.