Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media don’t seem to be taking any time off for the holidays. They have continued to sweep New York with 75 more file sharing lawsuits against John Does. Strike 3 Holdings has been particularly busy, filing 57 new BitTorrent lawsuits, including 23 on Christmas Day. Malibu Media has also filed 18 more cases against internet subscribers.
Although different companies, Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media have similar strategies. They both pay overseas investigators to monitor BitTorrent activity and record the IP addresses observed downloading their copyrighted films. Strike 3 Holdings owns the rights to Vixen, Tushy, Blacked, and Blacked Raw and Malibu Media owns X-Art. Both companies are notorious mass-filers of these copyright suits. The companies then sue the IP addresses for copyright infringement, asking for thousands of dollars in damages per infringement.
The Plaintiffs are able to file so many lawsuits because each lawsuit is virtually identical, with only the IP address and details of the alleged infringements differing. They sue each IP address as a “John Doe” and then subpoena the internet service provider (ISP) to discover the name of the subscriber. Usually the defendant first finds out about the lawsuit when they receive a notice from their ISP regarding the subpoena and the option to file a motion to quash. It is important to begin an effective defense at this stage. Securing representation early can provide you with more options to protect your identity and how to fight the allegations.
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