A reader alerted us today to the interesting lawsuit of Mick Haig Productions v. Does 1-670, filed in the Northern District of Texas (pdf copy of complaint found here). Mick Haig is in the adult entertainment business, and filed suit against 670 “John Doe” defendants alleging copyright infringement. Mick Haig alleges that defendants unlawfully reproduced its copyrighted motion picture “Der Gute Onkel” (“The Good Uncle”) by “means of file transfer technology called BitTorrent.”
According to Mick Haig, it does not know the names of the 670 Texans, but does know their IP addresses. It indicated that it will seek discovery as to the “true names” of defendants and amend its complaint accordingly. In fact, Mick Haig recently filed a motion for leave to take discovery (pdf copy of motion here), which seeks permission to subpoena internet service providers to unearth the names of the 670 defendants.
In a recent Texas Lawyer article (available here), Mick Haig’s counsel indicated that he brought suit in the Northern District of Texas due to the Fifth Circuit’s holding that a copyright owner need not have a copyright registration in hand prior to filing suit:
You have met the copyright registration requirements just for having applied for copyright,” [Mick Haig’s counsel] says of Texas federal jurisdictional requirements for filing infringement complaints, “where in other jurisdictions, you have to hold the copyright.”
(On a side note, we note that the Supreme Court recently held in Elsevier v. Muchnick that holding a copyright registration is not a jurisdictional requirement to bringing a copyright lawsuit, apparently overruling those circuits that disagreed with the Fifth Circuit.)
Mick Haig’s lawsuit seeks actual damages or statutory damages under the Copyright Act, costs, and attorney’s fees.
But Mick Haig’s counsel states in the Texas Lawyer article that he intends, once he obtains the names of the John Doe defendants, to “send demand letters to the defendants offering to settle out of court for $1,500 to $2,500—with the stipulation that the defendants destroy their copies of the allegedly infringed movie.” Many defendants may see this as a bargain when compared to finding themselves named in a federal lawsuit for allegedly downloading an adult film.
The case is before Judge Godbey.
Mick Haig is represented by Evan Stone, of the Law Offices of Evan Stone.