An adult film company based in California has filed suit in New York to obtain the identities of individuals who illegally downloaded one of its pornography movies.

 

Digital Sin wants to track down at least 176 IP addresses of people who used BitTorrent to download My Little Panties #2.

 

In her ruling, Judge Alison Nathan expressed “serious reservations” about Digital Sin’s request regarding the potential for “false positives.”

 

“The Court is concerned about the possibility that many of the names and addresses produced in response to plaintiff's discovery request will not in fact be those of the individuals who downloaded ‘My Little Panties #2,’” Nathan wrote. “The risk is not purely speculative; plaintiff's counsel estimated that 30 percent of the names turned over by ISPs are not those of individuals who actually downloaded or shared copyrighted material. Counsel stated that the true offender is often the ‘teen-aged son...or the boyfriend if it’s a lady.’ Alternatively, the perpetrator might turn out to be a neighbor in an apartment building that uses shared IP addresses or a dormitory that uses shared wireless networks.”

 

Nathan ordered the Internet service providers to turn over the IP addresses, but also said the information would be sealed for 60 days so the defendants would have time to “fight resulting subpoenas anonymously,” according to Courthouse News Service.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

The Hunt for 'My Little Panties' Pirates (by Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News Service)