Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-azd-2_13-cv-00592/USCOURTS-azd-2_13-cv-00592-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 820
Nature of Suit: Copyright
Cause of Action: 17:101 Copyright Infringement

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WO

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 

Dead Season LLC, a Delaware Limited 

Liability Company, 

Plaintiff, 

v. 

John or Jane Doe 1 or Black and White 

Company 1 with IP address: aka Computer, 

IP Address No. 67.1.190.106, et al., 

Defendants.

No. CV-13-00592-PHX-GMS

ORDER 

 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff Dead Season, LLC’s Motion for Leave to 

Take Discovery Prior to Rule 26(f) Conference. (Doc. 7.) 

 The issue of the election of damages raises serious questions about the 

appropriateness of permissive joinder. At the hearing held on May 31, 2013, Plaintiff’s 

counsel indicated that Plaintiff may seek separate damage awards against each Defendant 

individually. Plaintiff may not pursue actual damages against some Defendants and 

statutory damages against other Defendants while maintaining all Defendants as parties 

to the same suit. 17 U.S.C. § 504’s provision allowing the copyright owner to choose 

between actual and statutory damages applies the owner’s choice to “all infringements 

involved in the action.” If Plaintiff wishes to make separate elections, then it must bring 

separate lawsuits, or at the least, separate claims in which it does not pursue its current 

theory of joint and several liability. Columbia Pictures Television v. Krypton Broad. of 

Case 2:13-cv-00592-GMS Document 11 Filed 06/05/13 Page 1 of 5
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Birmingham, Inc., 106 F.3d 284, 294 (9th Cir. 1997) rev’d on other grounds sub nom. 

Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc., 523 U.S. 340 (1998) (holding that when 

statutory damages are assessed against a group of defendants held to be jointly and 

severally liable, “each work infringed may form the basis of only one award, regardless 

of the number of separate infringements of that work”). If Plaintiff does not wish to 

proceed on a theory of joint and several liability, then the rationale for allowing 

permissive joinder in this case is seriously undermined. 

 Therefore, before allowing expedited discovery and this case to proceed on the 

numerous Doe Defendants named in the Complaint, the Court desires to understand 

Plaintiff’s position with respect to whether it claims the right to pursue statutory damages 

against some of the named Defendants and actual damages as to others, and if so, on what 

bases. 

 Further, the Court has drafted a Notice, attached to this Order, that Plaintiff shall 

provide to the ISPs to serve upon the listed subscribers, along with the Complaint and the 

Court’s Order to issue after the hearing. If Plaintiff objects to the issuance of the Notice 

to subscribers or any language therein, it may bring such objections at the hearing to the 

Court’s attention. 

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Plaintiff’s counsel shall appear at a 

hearing, with these issues in mind, on Friday, June 14, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom 

602 at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona, to resolve the 

issue of expedited discovery in this matter. 

 Dated this 5th day of June, 2013. 

Case 2:13-cv-00592-GMS Document 11 Filed 06/05/13 Page 2 of 5
COURT–DIRECTED NOTICE REGARDING ISSUANCE OF SUBPOENA 

A subpoena has been issued directing your Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) to disclose 

your name. The subpoena has been issued because you have been sued in the United States 

District Court for the District of Arizona, in Phoenix, Arizona as a “John Doe” by Plaintiff Dead 

Season, LLC. This is a civil, not a criminal, case. Plaintiff alleges that a computer with your 

internet protocol (“IP”) address was involved in a BitTorrent swarm in which that computer 

downloaded an unauthorized copy of the movie Dead Season, a horror/sci-fi film to which 

Plaintiff holds the copyright. Plaintiff has thus far only been able to identify you as a “John Doe” 

and has served a subpoena on your ISP to learn your identity. This notice is intended to inform 

you of some of your rights and options. 

Plaintiff alleges, but has not yet proved, that you are liable for infringing the copyright of its 

movie. It alleges that you infringed its copyright because you are the owner of the IP address that 

participated in the BitTorrent swarm which resulted in the infringement of the movie. Plaintiff 

also alleges that you may be jointly and severally liable for the infringements of others with 

whom you conspired to infringe the copyright of its movie by participating in the same 

BitTorrent swarm. 

YOUR NAME HAS NOT YET BEEN DISCLOSED. YOUR NAME WILL BE 

DISCLOSED IN 21 DAYS IF YOU DO NOT CHALLENGE THE SUBPOENA. 

Your name has not yet been disclosed. Plaintiff has given the Court enough information about 

your alleged infringement to obtain a subpoena to identify you as the owner of the IP address of 

a computer that participated in the BitTorrent swarm, but the Court has not yet decided either 

that you personally participated in the swarm or that you are liable for infringement. You can 

challenge in Court the subpoena that requests your identity. You have 21 days from the date that 

you receive this notice to file a motion to quash or vacate the subpoena. If you file a motion to 

quash the subpoena, your identity will not be disclosed until the motion is resolved (and Plaintiff 

cannot proceed against you until you are identified). 

If you, or an attorney representing you, do not file a motion to quash by the end of the 21-day 

period, your ISP will send Plaintiff your identification information. Plaintiff may contact you, 

but may not release your name to the public or a third party without a Court Order. 

OTHER ISSUES REGARDING THE LAWSUIT AGAINST YOU 

Challenging the subpoena: To maintain a lawsuit against you in the District of Arizona, 

Plaintiff must establish jurisdiction over you in Arizona. If you do not live or work in Arizona, or 

visit the state regularly, you may be able to challenge the Arizona court’s jurisdiction over you. 

If your challenge is successful, the case in Arizona will be dismissed, but Plaintiff may be able to 

file against you in another state where there is jurisdiction. Additionally, you can challenge 

“joinder,” the fact that Plaintiff has sued 15 Defendants together, because Plaintiff must establish 

Case 2:13-cv-00592-GMS Document 11 Filed 06/05/13 Page 3 of 5
that the alleged violations arose out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions 

and occurrences. 

Plaintiff must prove its claims against you: Plaintiff has informed the Court that it seeks to 

discover your name to pursue its rights under the copyright laws. It is, therefore, possible that 

Plaintiff will assert that it has claims against you, or against someone who used your computer, 

in downloading its copyrighted movie. But, before getting damages from you in Court, Plaintiff 

would have to prove all of its claims against you personally. For example, a jury may determine 

that even though you are the owner of the IP address that participated in the BitTorrent swarm, 

you were not personally involved in the swarm. In such a case Plaintiff would not be able to get 

damages from you. 

Settlement: It is also possible that Plaintiff will contact you to discuss the possibility of settling 

any claims it may have against you before adding you as a party to this lawsuit. Plaintiff has the 

right to propose such a settlement. The decision whether to participate in such discussions is 

entirely up to you. 

Damages: If Plaintiff proves its case against you at trial, copyright law requires Plaintiff to elect 

between receiving either what are called (1) statutory damages or (2) actual damages against 

you. The statute requires Plaintiff to choose either actual or statutory damages for all persons in 

the same suit; in other words, Plaintiff may not choose to pursue one form of damages against 

you while pursuing another form of damages against another Defendant in the same suit. 

If Plaintiff elects statutory damages, the Court may, in its discretion, award as little as $750 as 

total damages against all participants in a conspiracy to infringe a copyrighted movie, or as much 

as $30,000 for such infringement. That means, if Plaintiff proves its case against you, and if it 

elects statutory damages, the Court may hold you, and all other individuals that participated in 

the conspiracy with you together, liable to the Plaintiff for a total of as little as $750 and as much 

as $30,000 for all of the infringements that occurred as a result of the BitTorrent swarm in which 

your IP address allegedly participated. Plaintiff would only be entitled to recover the total 

amount awarded one time. It could recover some amount of the total award from among all 

participants, or it could recover the total amount from any single participant, who could then try 

to obtain contributions from other participants in the conspiracy. 

In deciding the amount between $750 and $30,000 of statutory damages to award, the Court 

would consider, as one factor, that Plaintiff monitored the BitTorrent network to ascertain and 

bring claims against numerous users. The damages awarded may be limited to the extent that a 

considerable portion of the value of the copyright to Plaintiff comes from its strategic attempts to 

recover for copyright infringement. The Court, however, would also consider other evidence 

related to the extent and infringement of the copyright resulting from any infringing session. 

If, on the other hand, Plaintiff elects to recover actual damages, the damages that it may 

recover are not limited to the amount between $750 and $30,000. It may recover either more or 

Case 2:13-cv-00592-GMS Document 11 Filed 06/05/13 Page 4 of 5
less than that amount. Actual damages are usually measured by the loss Plaintiff suffered in the 

fair market value of its copyright due to the infringement. This is generally measured by what a 

willing buyer would have reasonably paid a willing seller for the movie or the value or profits 

that you or others with whom you conspired gained by using the movie. Jarvis v. K2 Inc., 486 

F.3d 526, 533–34 (9th Cir. 2007); Wall Data Inc. v. Los Angeles Cnty. Sheriff’s Dep’t, 447 F.3d 

769, 786 (9th Cir. 2006). If Plaintiff successfully proves that you were involved in a civil 

conspiracy, it may also be able to recover against you not only the fair market value of its loss 

for your infringement of its movie and/or the profits you gained by using it, but the value or 

profits that others in your conspiracy gained by using the movie. You may wish to find your own 

lawyer (see resource list below) to help you evaluate whether it is in your interest to try to reach 

a settlement or to defend against the lawsuit. 

RESOURCE LIST AND REPRESENTATION 

This Resource List can assist you in locating an attorney, and lists other resources to help you 

determine how to respond to the subpoena. If you live in or near Arizona or Phoenix, the second 

listing below provide referrals for local attorneys. The third listing contains important 

information, such as the Local Rules, Contact Information and answers to Frequently Asked 

Questions. 

You also have the right to represent yourself in federal court if you wish to do so. Should you 

choose to do so you will be responsible for following the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and 

the local rules of Civil Procedure, both of which can be found on the Court’s website 

(http://www.azd.uscourts.gov/). 

American Bar Association 

http://www.abanet/org/legalservices/findlegalhelp/home.htm 

Arizona Bar Association 

http://www.azbar.org 

The District of Arizona 

www.azd.uscourts.gov/ 

Case 2:13-cv-00592-GMS Document 11 Filed 06/05/13 Page 5 of 5