Strike 3 Holdings has been filing lawsuits at a breakneck pace. The 9 cases in Colorado, 10 in Illinois, 4 in Maryland, 9 in Michigan, and 10 in Pennsylvania represent only a portion of the cases filed across the country. Each lawsuit is nearly identical. Strike 3 claims they hired investigators to monitor BitTorrent traffic for IP addresses they allege download and share Strike 3’s films. Strike 3 owns the rights to Vixen, Tushy, and Blacked. The Plaintiff then files a lawsuit against the subscriber the IP address belongs to.
Since the Plaintiff only has an IP address, they ask for a subpoena to find out the name of the internet subscriber the IP address belongs to. However, this is a tenuous connection. Many people, with and without permission, may have access to a person’s internet connection. Sometimes the subscriber doesn’t even live where the internet is being provided, such as when the subscriber is a landlord. There are numerous other reasons a subscriber may not be the one responsible for copyright infringement.
Most subscribers find out about the lawsuit when they receive a notice from their Internet Service Provider (e.g., Charter, Comcast, Optimum Online, RCN, Spectrum, Time Warner Cable, etc.) saying they have received a subpoena from Strike 3 Holdings to discover the subscriber’s identity. The ISP is obligated to comply with the subpoena unless a Motion to Quash is filed. This is a motion to void or “quash” the subpoena. However, Motions to Quash are complex in these cases as the subpoena is between the Plaintiff and the ISP, meaning the subscriber is a third party.
If you’ve received one of these notices or have even been served with the lawsuit, it’s vital to retain counsel without delay. This Plaintiff is notoriously aggressive and an effective defense can help secure the best possible outcome for you.
In a seemingly never-ending stream of lawsuits, Strike 3 Holdings has filed another 10 file-sharing lawsuits in Colorado. They claim that each named IP address contributed to downloading or sharing the Plaintiff’s adult films, which are marketed under the brands Vixen, Tushy, Blacked, and Blacked Raw. Strike 3 Holdings is a notorious mass-filer of copyright suits and has been described as a copyright troll by Judge Lamberth of Washington, DC, who criticized Strike 3 Holdings for conducting a “high tech shakedown” and treating the court system “as an ATM.”