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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/reddit-beats-film-industry-wont-have-to-identify-users-who-admitted-torrenting/ [arstechnica.com]

Film companies lost another attempt to force Reddit to identify anonymous users who discussed piracy. A federal court on Saturday quashed a subpoena [courtlistener.com] demanding users' names and other identifying details, agreeing with Reddit's argument [arstechnica.com] that the film companies' demands violate the First Amendment.

The plaintiffs are 20 producers of popular movies who are trying to prove that Internet service provider Grande is liable for its subscribers' copyright infringement because the ISP allegedly ignores piracy on its network. Reddit isn't directly involved in the copyright case. But the film companies filed a motion to compel Reddit to respond to a subpoena demanding "basic account information including IP address registration and logs from 1/1/2016 to present, name, email address and other account registration information" for six users who wrote comments on Reddit threads in 2011 and 2018.
[...]
This is the second time Beeler ruled against the film companies' attempts to unmask anonymous Reddit users. Beeler, a magistrate judge at US District Court for the Northern District of California, quashed [arstechnica.com] a similar subpoena related to a different set of Reddit users in late April.
[...]
Reddit's filing [courtlistener.com] pointed out that the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is three years. The film companies said [courtlistener.com] the statute of limitations is irrelevant to whether the comments can provide evidence in the case against Grande.
[...]
When a court evaluates an unmasking request, it considers whether a subpoena "was issued in good faith and not for any improper purpose," whether "the identifying information is directly and materially relevant" to a core claim or defense, and whether "information sufficient to establish or to disprove that claim or defense is unavailable from any other source," the ruling said.
[...]
The fact that Grande already provided names of 118 subscribers factored into Beeler's explanation of why she denied the film companies' motion.

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