Torrent Lawsuit Defense

Illinois

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Malibu Media Continues to File Lawsuits in Illinois, Michigan, and New York

Reddit user /u/beardfearer may fear beards, but not copyright noticesMalibu Media continues to file more copyright lawsuits in Illinois (14 cases), Michigan (4 cases), and New York (12 cases). They filed 30 cases on September 21 and 23, meaning they have filed over 100 lawsuits so far in September alone.

Malibu Media owns the X-Art brand of adult films and is notorious for mass filing lawsuits against anonymous internet subscribers, referred to as John Does, and identified only by their IP addresses. They allege the John Does downloaded and shared their copyrighted films using BitTorrent networks.

The Plaintiff argues that in order to properly serve the lawsuits on defendants, they must get their identity through the subscribers’ Internet Service Provider (ISP). Courts routinely grant subpoenas to allow the Plaintiff to demand the identity of an internet subscriber from the ISP.

Although these lawsuits are filed regularly, they are serious. It may be tempting for a defendant to hope that the Plaintiff forgets about their case but failure to fight the lawsuit can result in tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages depending on the number of alleged infringements. In civil court, not defending your case can be seen as the same as admitting fault.

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Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media File 90+ Lawsuits Over 3 Days

Reddit user /u/beardfearer may fear beards, but not copyright noticesStrike 3 Holdings, joined by Malibu Media, continue to mass file copyright lawsuits against John Doe internet subscribers they allege downloaded their copyrighted material through BitTorrent networks. Over 3 days, Strike 3 Holdings filed 85 lawsuits in California (26 cases), Florida (3 cases), New Jersey (26 cases), and New York (30 cases). Malibu Media filed an additional 6 cases in Illinois (3 cases) and Michigan (3 cases). These case are in addition to 83 similar lawsuits already filed in the first half of September.

Although Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings are separate companies that own separate brands (Malibu Media owns the rights to X-Art brand films and Strike 3 Holdings owns rights to Tushy, Vixen, Blacked, and Blacked Raw), the two Plaintiffs are very similar in their approach. They both hire investigators to monitor Bittorrent networks and record the IP addresses of people allegedly downloading their copyrighted material. They then sue the subscriber associated with the IP address. However, in order to properly serve the defendant, they subpoena the identity of the subscriber from the Internet Service Provider.

Although these lawsuits are filed regularly, they are serious for the defendant. The Plaintiffs consider each alleged infringement as worth $1,000s in damages if they win in court.

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Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings File 140 More BitTorrent Lawsuits

Reddit user /u/beardfearer may fear beards, but not copyright noticesMalibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings continue to blanket the country in copyright lawsuits against John Doe internet subscribers they allege downloaded their copyrighted material through BitTorrent networks. September has already seen 83 lawsuits filed by Malibu Media and another 57 by Strike 3 Holdings. Malibu Media has filed 5 lawsuits in Connecticut, 8 in Maryland, 16 in Michigan, 11 in New Jersey, 22 in New York, 13 in Pennsylvania, 8 in Texas, and 8 in Virginia. During the same time period, Strike 3 Holdings filed 8 lawsuits in Connecticut, 6 in Florida, 9 in Illinois, 24 in Michigan, and 10 in New York.

Although Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings are separate companies that own separate brands (Malibu Media owns the rights to X-Art brand films and Strike 3 Holdings owns rights to Tushy, Vixen, Blacked, and Blacked Raw), the two Plaintiffs are very similar in their approach. They begin by identifying an IP address they claim participated in downloading and sharing of their films through Bittorrent and then sue the unnamed account holder as a John Doe. As they only have an IP address, they ask the courts to subpoena the defendant’s identity from the Internet Service Provider (ISP) so the defendant can be formally served.

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More than 80 File Sharing Lawsuits Filed in the Past Week by Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media

Reddit user /u/beardfearer may fear beards, but not copyright noticesStrike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media have continued to sustain their record breaking pace of filing copyright infringement lawsuits. Combined, they filed more than 80 lawsuits in the past week. Malibu Media was particularly active, filing 12 lawsuits in Illinois, 3 in Michigan, 15 in New York, and 16 in Texas. Strike 3 Holdings filed an additional 9 lawsuits in Colorado, 4 in Illinois, 10 in Maryland, and 12 in Pennsylvania. In August, Malibu Media has filed more than 100 cases and Strike 3 Holdings has filed more than 300. Combined, they file more than a dozen lawsuits a day on average.

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Malibu Media Files 36 Bittorrent Lawsuits in 5 Days

Reddit user /u/beardfearer may fear beards, but not copyright notices

In a weekend blitz, Malibu Media has filed 36 Bittorrent lawsuits in Illinois, New York, and Connecticut between July 20 and 24. Illinois alone accounted for 17 lawsuits, while there were 10 filed in  New York and 9 in Connecticut.

Unfortunately, bulk filings like these are typical for the Plaintiff, with similar allegations for each suit. Despite similar filings, each suit is potentially worth thousands of dollars in damages. This year has seen an explosive growth in new suits filed from Malibu Media and there seems to be no sign of slowing.

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Explosion in Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media Piracy Bittorrent Lawsuits Shows No Signs of Slowing

Reddit user /u/beardfearer may fear beards, but not copyright notices

In just 10 days, Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media have already filed 123 new copyright infringement lawsuits in just 6 states: Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

These plaintiffs are known for suing IP addresses they allege used Bittorrent to illegally downloaded their movies, often with many infringements per IP The online nature of the alleged infringement presents a challenge to defendants wishing to put forth a full legal defense. Defendants often find the litigation more complicated, protracted, and expensive, than a simple case of file-sharing would initially seem.address.

Together, Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media have filed more than a dozen lawsuits a day across just 6 states.

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