Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings have not let the holiday season slow them down, filing 41 more file-sharing lawsuits in New Jersey. Malibu Media filed 13 lawsuits over 3 days and Strike 3 Holdings filed an additional 28 cases on Boxing Day. This has been a record breaking year for both companies. This year in New Jersey alone, Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings have filed more than 150 and 200 cases, respectively.
Both companies are notorious mass-filers of copyright suits against anonymous IP addresses. They hire overseas investigators to monitor bittorrent traffic and identify any IP addresses that download or and share the Plaintiffs’ adult films. Strike 3 Holdings owns the rights to Vixen, Tushy, Blacked, and Blacked Raw. Malibu Media owns the rights to X-Art. Once they have sued the IP address as a “John Doe”, they request the court issue a subpoena to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) to find out the identity of the subscriber. They do this so that the internet subscriber can be named and served – whether or not the subscriber was the one who did the infringing.
Usually the defendant first finds out about the lawsuit when they receive a notice from their ISP about the subpoena and the possibility of filing 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 fight the allegations.
Although each lawsuit by these Plaintiffs is similar, every case represents potentially thousands of dollars in damages per infringement if not properly defended against. These companies invest money into each case and hope to maximize the damages for their financial benefit. These notices are serious. If you do not respond, the ISP is obligated to provide your identity to the Plaintiff, which allows them to serve you with a summons and complaint. Once you are served, you typically have 21 days to respond in Federal court.