The Middle District of Florida this morning granted Celestial’s motion for an enlargement of time in which to name and serve defendants in Celestial, Inc. v. Does, 2:12-cv-00082-UA-DNF, giving the pornographic film company until October 1, 2012, in which to name and serve Defendants. This window gives the company more time to try to effect settlements out of said Defendants, currently named as John Does 1 through 252.
Celestial asked the Court on June 1, 2012, for the extension of time, explaining in part:
At the time of filing its Complaint, Plaintiff was only been [sic] able to identify the Doe Defendants by their Internet Protocol (“IP”) and the date and time of alleged infringement. The only way that Plaintiff can determine Defendants’ actual names is from the Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to which Defendants subscribe and from which Defendants obtain Internet access, as this information is readily available to the ISPs from documents they keep in the regular course of business.
After this (and another similar) lawsuit was filed, Celestial was granted leave to serve, and did serve, subpoenas against non-party Internet service providers. Subsequently, hundreds of individuals recieved letters from their Internet providers explaining that they had been targetted in the lawsuit, and had an option to file a motion to quash. Those who did not file motions to quash and whose contact information will be given to Celestial, Inc., can, prior to being named in the lawsuit, expect to receive a settlement demand letter, according to Celestial’s June 1, 2012, motion, which says, “Plaintiff plans on sending correspondence to the Doe Defendants identified by the ISPs before naming and serving them.”
Our firm has been filing motions to quash and responding to these settlement demands on behalf of numerous John Does in this and other “copyright troll” cases. If you’d like us to help with your own matter, give us a call at 407-965-5519.
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