WASHINGTON — A judge has issued orders to four adult entertainment companies requiring they prove that the federal court in Washington has jurisdiction over nondistrict residents who pirated their movies through BitTorrent networks.
If Exquisite Multimedia, Wicked Pictures, Elegant Angel and Axel Braun Productions can prove jurisdiction in the cases, then they can subpoena the IP addresses of scores of John Doe defendants.
The four memorandum opinions issued simultaneously last week by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola take a hard look at "geographic location" of users.
Facciola ordered supplemental briefs from the four studios "showing regarding its good faith belief that the IP addresses identified by plaintiff belong to persons who are domiciled in the District of Columbia and that the ISPs identified by plaintiff serve the District of Columbia."
In the cases — all filed at U.S. District Court in Washington — Wicked sued 87 Does over "XXX Avengers," Elegant Angel sued 72 over "Massive Asses 5," Axel Braun Productions sued 2,823 over "Batman XXX: A Porn Parody,” and Exquisite Multimedia sued 336 over "Supergirl XXX An Extreme Comixxx Parody."
