E-Commerce Law

5,000 BitTorrent Users May Not Proceed Anonymously Nor Quash Subpoenas Seeking Their Identities

Over 5,000 John Doe Defendants unsuccessfully sought to quash subpoenas issued to Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") by Plaintiff West Coast Productions to learn the identity of the Defendants known in the Complaint only by their internet protocol ("IP") addresses.  West Coast Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-5829, Civ. Action No. 11-57 (CKK), 2011 WL 2292239 (D.D.C. June 10, 2011).  The District Court for the District of Columbia held that the Defendants failed to show that their privacy interests outweighed the Plaintiff's need to obtain their identifying information to pursue its copyright claims.

Game Over for Winklevosses in Facebook Case

The social networking saga appears to have finally come to an end in a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirming the decision to enforce the Settlement Agreement between Facebook and the Winklevosses.  The Facebook, Inc. v. Pacific Northwest Software, Inc., 2011WL 1843509 (C.A.9 (Cal.)).   The tone of the decision was one of vexation towards the Winklevosses for the protracted litigation, despite the agreement to release all claims against Facebook.  If you have watched the movie, "The Social Network," you know the genesis of the battle between Mark Zuckerberg and the Winklevosses.  Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra (the Winklevosses) claimed that Mark Zuckerberg poached the idea for Facebook from them. The Winklevosses sued Facebook and Zuckerberg in Massachusetts and Facebook countersued them and their competing social network site, ConnectU, in California.  The District Court in California ultimately ordered the ConnectU, Facebook and the Winklevosses to mediate their dispute.