Filmmakers are turning to the courts, to obtain a subpoena that will disclose the identities of Reddit users who have made comments on piracy topics. The goal is to get information and evidence to help a lawsuit against internet provider RCN. Reddit has responded, saying the demand goes against free speech.
In the United States, copyright law states internet providers should terminate the accounts of people found to be pirating content. These are known as repeat infringers and accounts should be terminated in all “appropriate circumstances”.
However, many ISPs have not been taking such action, preferring a more lenient approach. Filmmakers have responded by opening copyright infringement lawsuits.
RCN is one of the ISPs filmmakers have taken to court for infringing copyright laws. Several major filmmakers are involved in the suit. They argue that RCN was not meeting legal requirements when punishing subscribers who were pirating movies.
RCN denies the allegations but the case is ongoing and filmmakers are looking for evidence from Redditors.
Reddit is a semi-anonymous platform where users can say what they want without anyone knowing their identity. Many discussions focus on piracy, including posts on ISP actions, piracy warnings, and more.
Filmmakers have now obtained a subpoena that will force Reddit to share account information and IP address logs for users such as ‘ben125125', ‘SquattingCroat', “Griffdog21′, ‘aromaticbotanist', ‘ChikaraFan', ‘compypaq', ‘dotsamantha', ‘ilikepie96mng' and ‘matt3324'.”
In response, Reddit has slammed the action.
“Reddit maintains its objections to the subpoena's remaining requests for identifying information associated with the eight additional accounts listed in the subpoena,” Reddit's attorneys told the filmmakers in an email.
“Reddit has reviewed the examples provided by plaintiffs and continues to believe the requests for identifying information associated with the additional eight accounts are more in the nature of a fishing expedition and are neither relevant nor permissible under the First Amendment.”
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