Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-azd-2_11-cv-01603/USCOURTS-azd-2_11-cv-01603-1/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 820
Nature of Suit: Copyright
Cause of Action: 17:501 Copyright Infringement

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WO

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

Raw Films, Ltd., 

Plaintiff, 

vs.

John Does 1-20, Jay Roth, Josip Gotvald,

and John Doe 28, 

Defendants. 

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No. CV-11-1603-PHX-JAT

ORDER

Plaintiff filed a copyright infringement suit against a group of Doe defendants.

Pending before the Court are Plaintiff Raw Films, Ltd.’s Motion for Entry of Default

Judgment against Defendants Jay Roth and Josip Gotvald (Doc. 41), Defendant Josip

Gotvald’s Motion to Set Aside Clerk’s Entry of Default (Doc. 44), John Doe 28's Motion to

Quash Supoena [sic] (Doc. 11), and John Doe 5's Ex Parte Motion seeking to seal his name

and contact information and further seeking permission to file a separate motion to

quash/modify a subpoena and to dismiss (Doc. 19). The Court now rules on the motions.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Raw Films, Ltd. owns the copyright to an adult film. Doc. 1 at 3-4. 

Plaintiff alleges that this film was made available through a peer-to-peer file sharing

protocol known as BitTorrent. Id. at 9. Plaintiff further alleges that each of the 36 Doe

Defendants originally named in this lawsuit used BitTorrent to illegally share and

download Plaintiff’s copyrighted film, thereby infringing Plaintiff’s copyright. Id.

Case 2:11-cv-01603-JAT Document 45 Filed 06/22/12 Page 1 of 7
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Mr. Roth moved for an extension of time to file an answer (Doc. 32). Though the

Court granted the extension and gave Mr. Roth until March 16, 2012 (Doc. 35), Mr. Roth

never filed an answer or any additional motions. 

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Because Plaintiff could only identify the Defendants by the IP addresses associated with

the computers used to download the film, this Court granted Plaintiff leave to serve

subpoenas on the Defendants’ Internet Service Providers to determine the true names and

contact information of the subscribers using those IP addresses. Doc. 9. Plaintiff then

entered into confidential settlement agreements with Does 21-25 and 29-36, see Doc. 36,

and filed an Amended Complaint against only John Does 1-20, Jay Roth, Josip Gotvald,

and John Doe 28 on February 9, 2012. Doc. 23. The Amended Complaint otherwise

contained the same allegations of copyright infringement that were in the original

Complaint. Id. Plaintiff subsequently settled with or otherwise dismissed all but two of

the remaining Defendants, Josip Gotvald and Jay Roth. Docs. 29, 36 & 42.

Because Mr. Gotvald and Mr. Roth failed to answer or otherwise defend against

the Complaint, Plaintiff applied for an entry of default on March 22, 2012.1

 Doc. 38. The

Clerk entered default against Mr. Roth and Mr. Gotvald on March 23, 2012. Doc. 39. 

Plaintiff then filed a motion for default judgment against Mr. Roth and Mr. Gotvald,

seeking statutory damages, injunctive relief, and awards of costs and attorney fees. Doc.

41. Mr. Roth has not responded to Plaintiff’s motion. However, Mr. Gotvald filed a

motion to set aside the Clerk’s entry of default on May 24, 2012. Doc. 44. Plaintiff did

not respond to Mr. Gotvald’s motion. 

II. ANALYSIS

A. Defendant Josip Gotvald’s Motion to Set Aside the Entry of Default

under Rule 55(c)

The Court may set aside the entry of default if good cause is shown. Fed. R. Civ.

P. 55(c). In determining whether good cause has been shown, the Court considers: 1)

whether there was culpable conduct on the part of the defendant that led to the default; 2)

whether any meritorious defenses are available; and 3) whether reopening the default

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judgment would prejudice the plaintiff. Franchise Holding II, LLC v. Huntington

Restaurants Grp., Inc., 375 F.3d 922, 925 (9th Cir. 2004). The party seeking to set aside

an entry of default under Rule 55(c) bears the burden of demonstrating that these factors

favor setting aside the entry of default. TCI Grp. Life Ins. Plan v. Knoebber, 244 F.3d

691, 696 (9th Cir. 2001). This burden, however, is not “extraordinarily heavy.” Id. at

700.

“A defendant’s conduct is culpable if he has received actual or constructive notice

of the filing of the action and intentionally failed to answer.” Id. at 697. Intentional

conduct, in this context, must rise to the level of conduct which is willful, deliberate, or

done in bad faith. Id. 697-98. There is no evidence that Mr. Gotvald acted in bad faith

when he failed to file an answer. The first factor therefore weighs in favor of setting

aside the entry of default. 

To establish that a meritorious defense exists, the defendant must allege specific

facts that would constitute a defense. Id. at 700. The Court need not conclude that the

defendant will prevail on the alleged defense to determine that this factor weighs in favor

of setting aside default. See Apache Nitrogen Prods., Inc. v. Harbor Ins. Co., 145 F.R.D.

674, 682 (D. Ariz. 1993). Instead, the Court need only find that after a trial on the merits,

the alleged defense may cause a different result than default. Id. 

Here, Mr. Gotvald denies any involvement in the downloading of Plaintiff’s film. 

Indeed, thus far the only apparent connection between Mr. Gotvald and any potential

infringement is that the IP address registered to Mr. Gotvald was used to download the

film. However, Mr. Gotvald alleges that he did not download nor view Plaintiff’s

copyrighted material. He further alleges that he does not own a computer nor know how

to download files through a BitTorrent client. Such a defense goes to the merits of

Plaintiff’s claims. See West Coast Prods., Inc. v. Does 1-5829, 275 F.R.D. 9, 13 (D.D.C.

2011) (noting that movants’ objections “that they have no knowledge of the alleged

infringing activity, or that someone else downloaded and/or distributed Plaintiff’s

copyrighted film using their IP address, possibly through an unsecured wireless network

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connection . . . go to the merits of Plaintiff’s claims”) Thus, at trial it may be established

that, though the internet connection used to download the copyrighted material is

registered to Mr. Gotvald, he is not liable for any copyright infringement because he did

not participate in or know about any illegal downloading of Plaintiff’s film through his

internet connection. This result, of course, is very different than default, and this factor

accordingly weighs in favor of setting aside the default. 

For the setting aside of an entry of default to be prejudicial under the third factor,

the plaintiff’s ability to pursue its claim must be hindered. TCI, 244 F.3d at 700. There is

no evidence that Plaintiff’s ability to pursue its claim will be hindered if the entry of

default against Mr. Gotvald is set aside.

Because all three of the factors weigh in favor of setting aside the entry of default,

the Court will grant Defendant Josip Gotvald’s motion to set aside the entry of default. 

Further, because Plaintiff did not respond to Mr. Gotvald’s motion and because the Court

does not consider oral argument on this issue to be necessary, the Court will deny Mr.

Gotvald’s request for oral argument. See L.R. Civ. 7.2(f). 

B. Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment

Plaintiff has moved this Court to enter a default judgment against Defendants Jay

Roth and Josip Gotvald. Because the Court has found good cause exists to set aside the

Clerk’s entry of default against Mr. Gotvald, it will deny Plaintiff’s motion to enter a

default judgment against him. Thus, the Court will only consider Plaintiff’s motion with

respect to Mr. Roth.

Once the Clerk of Court has entered default, the Court has discretion to grant

default judgment pursuant to Rule 55(b). See Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(2); Aldabe v. Aldabe,

616 F.2d 1089, 1092 (9th Cir. 1980). When the Court considers the entry of default

judgment, the well-pleaded “factual allegations of the complaint, except those relating to

the amount of damages, will be taken as true.” Geddes v. United Fin. Group, 559 F.2d

557, 560 (9th Cir. 1977) (citing Pope v. United States, 323 U.S. 1, 12 (1944)). “Factors

which may be considered by courts in exercising discretion as to the entry of a default

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judgment include: (1) the possibility of prejudice to the plaintiff; (2) the merits of

plaintiff’s substantive claim; (3) the sufficiency of the complaint; (4) the sum of money at

stake in the action; (5) the possibility of a dispute concerning material facts; (6) whether

the default was due to excusable neglect; and (7) the strong policy underlying the Federal

Rules of Civil Procedure favoring decisions on the merits.” Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d

1470, 1471-72 (9th Cir. 1986). 

Here, the only damages Plaintiff seeks are statutory damages. Under federal

copyright law, “the copyright owner may . . . recover . . . an award of statutory damages

for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work . . . a sum of not

less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just.” 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(1). 

These damages may be increased to up to $150,000 where the infringement is willful. 17

U.S.C. § 504(c)(2). 

Having considered Plaintiff’s motion for entry of default judgment and the Eitel

factors, and having reviewed the well-pleaded factual allegations of the complaint, the

Court concludes that an entry of default judgment against defendant Jay Roth is

appropriate in the amount of $750. Though Plaintiff asks for $30,000 in damages,

Plaintiff largely bases that number on what it deems to be “the lost sales of its DVDs to 

. . . thousands of infringers.” Doc. 41-1 at 9. However, Plaintiff has settled with or

dismissed nearly every other defendant in this action and has not shown that it has not

been adequately compensated for the infringements of the other defendants. Further, the

Court does not find that increased damages based on any alleged willful infringement are

appropriate. Hence, the Court, in its discretion, finds that an award of $750 is just in this

case.

Plaintiff has also requested $1340.00 in attorney fees and costs. In copyright

cases, a court “in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs by or against any

party . . . [and] may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party. . . .” 

17 U.S.C. § 505; see also Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. v. Entm’t Distrib., 429 F.3d

869, 883-85 (9th Cir. 2005) (discussing the scope of § 505). However, Plaintiff has done

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nothing more than simply state the total amount of attorney fees it requests—there is no

itemization or other explanation of the fees that the Court could use to determine the

reasonableness of the requested attorney fees. With respect to costs, Plaintiff also fails to

provide evidence of the costs it requests or to demonstrate the reasonableness of

allocating the requested costs to Mr. Roth, one of multiple defendants joined in this

lawsuit. Plaintiff’s request for attorney fees and costs is therefore denied. 

Finally, Plaintiff has also requested injunctive relief. The Copyright Act

authorizes a court to grant injunctions “on such terms as it may deem reasonable to

prevent or restrain infringement of a copyright.” 17 U.S.C. § 502. Here, Plaintiff seeks

an injunction that enjoins Mr. Roth from continuing to infringe Plaintiff’s copyright and

orders Mr. Roth to delete any copies of Plaintiff’s copyrighted film on computers in his

possession. The Court finds that the requested injunction and its terms provide a

reasonable method for preventing further infringement of Plaintiff’s copyright. 

Therefore, Plaintiff’s requested injunction is granted. 

C. Remaining Pending Motions

Defendant John Doe 28 filed a motion to quash subpoena (Doc. 11). However,

Plaintiff subsequently voluntarily dismissed John Doe 28 with prejudice (Doc. 42). That

motion is therefore denied as moot. 

Defendant John Doe 5 also filed a motion seeking to seal all documents containing

that Defendant’s name and contact information (Doc. 19). The motion further seeks

permission to separately file a motion to quash or modify the subpoena and to dismiss,

which does not include John Doe 5's true name or contact information. The motion to

quash and to dismiss is currently lodged under seal at Doc. 20. Because John Doe 5 was

also voluntarily dismissed with prejudice (Doc. 42), the Court will strike both Docs. 19

and 20 and order that they remain under seal.

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III. CONCLUSION

Accordingly,

IT IS ORDERED granting Defendant Josip Gotvald’s Motion to Set Aside

Clerk’s Entry of Default (Doc. 44).

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Mr. Gotvald shall answer the Complaint or

otherwise defend within 20 days from the date of this Order.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED denying in part and granting in part Plaintiff’s

Motion for Entry of Default Judgment (Doc. 41). The motion is denied with respect to

Mr. Gotvald. The motion is granted with respect to Defendant Jay Roth to the extent

provided in the Default Judgment filed herewith.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED denying the Motion to Quash Supoena [sic] at

Doc. 11 as moot.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED striking Defendant John Doe 5's Motions at Docs.

19 and 20. The Clerk shall leave Docs. 19 and 20 under seal. 

DATED this 22nd day of June, 2012.

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