Reddit Can Shield Identities of Users Who Posted About Pirating

Reddit doesn’t have to comply with a subpoena seeking the log-in information for users who anonymously posted on the website about pirating movies, a federal magistrate judge said.

Film companies including Voltage Holdings LLC and Screen Media Ventures LLC filed proofs of claim against internet service provider Frontier Communications Corporation in a bankruptcy proceeding for allegedly allowing users to download their copyrighted materials. As part of that proceeding, the film companies have sought information about pseudonymous Reddit users who allegedly posted on the website about pirating movies on Frontier without consequences.

The need for the information about such users doesn’t outweigh the First Amendment rights of the anonymous speakers in this case, Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson, of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, said Wednesday.

Hixson analyzed the motion to compel under factors laid out in a similar case from the US District Court for the Western District of Washington and other district courts, saying a “dispositive question here is whether the information is available from ‘any’ other source.”

“Movants...cannot show that the information they seek here is unavailable from other sources,” Hixson said. “Frontier has indicated it will provide Movants with identifying information for those IP addresses upon receipt of a subpoena. If Movants sought further information, they need only subpoena the [internet service provider] for the subscriber information associated with that IP address, as the ISP does not share Reddit’s interest in protecting the anonymity of that user,” he added.

Hixson also concluded that to the extent the film companies are saying the Reddit posts themselves constitute evidence that Frontier allows users to pirate movies, "[m]ovants need not unmask the Reddit users to admit that evidence.”

Perkins Coie LLP represents Reddit. Culpepper IP LLLC and Clinton Firm represent Voltage and Screen Media.

The case is In re Subpoena To: Reddit, Inc., 2024 BL 40450, N.D. Cal., 24-mc-80005-TSH, 2/7/24.