Doe

I. BACKGROUND

25 On November 18, 2022, Plaintiff filed a Complaint against Defendant “John Doe,” 26 who is allegedly a subscriber of Spectrum and assigned Internet Protocol (“IP”) address 27 76.167.182.25. ECF No. 1 at ¶ 5. Plaintiff Strike 3 Holdings, LLC, is the owner of 28 numerous adult motion pictures, which Plaintiff distributes through adult websites and DVDs. Id. at ¶¶ 2–3. Plaintiff asserts that Defendant is committing “rampant and wholesale copyright infringement” by downloading, recording, and distributing copies of Plaintiff’s copyrighted motion pictures without authorization through the use of the BitTorrent file distribution network. Id. at ¶¶ 4, 19–30, 44, 50. In the instant motion, Plaintiff seeks leave to conduct early discovery prior to the mandated Rule 26(f) conference to learn Defendant’s identity. ECF No. 6. Specifically, Plaintiff seeks an order permitting it to serve a third-party subpoena under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 on Spectrum,1 the Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) who leased the IP address belonging to Defendant John Doe, which would require Spectrum to supply the name and address of its subscriber…