On August 15 and 16, Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media filed a combined 93 lawsuits in addition to the 51 filed earlier this week. Strike 3 Holdings was responsible for the majority of the lawsuits, filing 19 in California, 7 in Nevada, 12 in Texas, 4 in Maryland, 25 in Michigan, 6 in New York, and 13 in Virginia. Malibu Media also filed 7 lawsuits in Virginia during the same time period.
It appears the record-breaking pace at which Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media file lawsuits is only speeding up. They are capable of filing such an extraordinary amount of lawsuits because each one is so similar. They begin by identifying an IP address they claim contributed to downloading and sharing of their copyrighted adult films through Bittorrent and then sue the unnamed account holder as a John Doe. As they only have an IP address, they then ask the courts to subpoena the defendant’s identity from the Internet Service Provider so the defendant can be formerly served.
Because federal civil lawsuits are generally public record, the resulting lawsuit is easily visible when doing online searches under the defendant’s name. This is understandably distressing for many defendants as this has the ability to impact them professionally and privately. The plaintiffs know that the potentially embarrassing nature of being accused of downloading adult films can create additional motivation for defendants to settle. [Read more…] about Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media File Almost 100 New Lawsuits over 2 Days