Federal Trade Commission v. Netscape Communications Corp.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Plaintiff Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) seeks documents containing identity information regarding two subscribers of defendant Netscape Communications Corp. Now before the court is the FTC’s motion to compel the production of those documents. Based on the parties arguments and submissions, and for the reasons set for below, the court enters the following memorandum and order.

BACKGROUND

On September 14, 1999, the FTC filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against various defendants, alleging violations of 15 U.S.C. § 45 (a), the FTC unfair competition statute. Netscape is not a defendant in that action. On November 1, 1999, the FTC issued a subpoena under this court’s auspices to a Netscape officer pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45. The subpoena was part of pretrial discovery in the underlying action. The subpoena sought the production of documents indicating personal information relating to the following e-mail addresses: “kewling@netscape.net” and “hugsandkissamanda@netscape.net.” The information the FTC sought from the documents included the account holders’ names, addresses,…