A US federal court in California has thrown out an attempt by the Hollywood film industry to compel Reddit to reveal the names and IP addresses of users who discuss online piracy on its platform.
A group of 20 major film companies have been using Reddit posts as a way to locate copyright infringers and find parties to sue and accept fault for online piracy.
At the moment, the most you can do to prevent copyright infringement online is compel internet service providers (ISP) or VPN providers via court order to block known online piracy websites, so that users can’t access them, or raid the servers used to host these websites and take them down.
It is difficult to locate actual individuals you can charge with copyright infringement.
In this particular case, the film companies analysed comments written on Reddit’s online communities in 2011 and 2018 and demanded that the social media platform unmask the identities of six anonymous users.
In one post written in 2018, a Reddit user called roboweiner commented that they were illegally downloading — also known as “torrenting” — movies and that their internet service provider (ISP) was a Texas-based firm called Grande Communications, recently rebranded as Astound Broadband.
The user added that he was impressed that Grande was not willing to release the names of its customers that illegally downloaded content to authorities or copyright owners looking to sue.
This post and other comments like it have given film companies a target to sue, but they also decided to subpoena Reddit and try to force the social media platform to reveal the users’ identities, since they were openly admitting to committing online piracy.
Reddit argued that the film companies should be contacting ISPs directly to identify the users, and that users are protected by their First Amendment rights to speak anonymously.
Fortunately, US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler agreed, ruling that the film companies had not demonstrated “a compelling need for the discovery” that outweighs the users’ First Amendment rights.
Is the clock ticking for online pirates?
However, Grande Communications has in some ways given in.
Despite arguing that it should not be made to police copyright infringement since 2016, Grande has turned over the names of 118 users who are the most prolific in illegally downloading pirated content to the film companies.
It is for this reason that the judge let Reddit off the hook, since Grande had already provided the plaintiffs with the information they needed. However, she did caveat that the First Amendment would not always protect the social media platform from having to divulge user details.
Separately, the ISP is already on the hook for $46.8m (£36.8m) in damages that it has been ordered to pay some major music record labels, in relation to 1,400 tracks illegally distributed using its networks. Grande is currently appealing this ruling and doesn’t believe it should be held responsible or blamed for not doing enough to stop online piracy.
This raises the question — will the music and movie industries eventually start suing ISPs individually in countries across the world?
At the moment, ISPs in the UK only block online piracy websites when they receive a court order. The most recent one was issued by the High Court in London in July 2021, forcing major UK internet providers like Sky, BT, Virgin Media, and TalkTalk to block 19 more websites.
Technology lawyers have previously told The Standard that parts of the UK, namely England and Wales, are particularly good if you don’t have a specific party in mind to sue, as you can demand that third parties hand over details so you can identify people to take legal action against.
Last September, Hollywood took action against the largest ISPs in the US all in one go, hitting the likes of Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast with copyright lawsuits.
