Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. v. Jefferies, LLC

101 F. Supp. 3d 332, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43230, 2015 WL 1501107
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 31, 2015
DocketNo. 14 CV 04115
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 101 F. Supp. 3d 332 (Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. v. Jefferies, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. v. Jefferies, LLC, 101 F. Supp. 3d 332, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43230, 2015 WL 1501107 (S.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

LORETTA A. PRESEA, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. (“EIG”) and Energy Intelligence Group (UK) Limited (“EIG UK”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) bring suit for copyright infringement and contributory copyright infringement against Jefferies, LLC (“Jefferies”) and Jefferies International Limited (“JIL”) (collectively, “Defendants”). (Compl. ¶ 1.)

Defendants contend that Plaintiffs have failed to satisfy the pleading standards for a copyright claim under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and move to dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. For the reasons that follow, Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

I. BACKGROUND

The following facts are alleged in the Complaint and are accepted as true for the purposes of the Motion to Dismiss.

A. Plaintiffs’ Publications

Plaintiffs publish newsletters and other publications about the global energy industry, (Compl. ¶ 13.) As it relates to the instant action, Plaintiffs publish the weekly newsletter World Gas Intelligence ("WGI”) and the daily newsletters International Oil Daily (“IOD”) and Oil Daily (“OD”). (Id.) Plaintiffs register WGI, IOD, and OD with the U.S. Copyright Office on a monthly basis. (Id. ¶¶ 24-33.) These publications are marketed to bankers, investors, researchers and other individuals with an interest in the energy industry, and are accessible by subscription only via Plaintiffs’ password-protected website or e-mail. (Id. ¶¶ 14, 21.)

B. The WGI and IOD Infringement Claims

1. Defendant JIL

Defendant JIL is a United Kingdom limited company with its principal place of business in London. (Id. ¶ 5.) On October 18, 2010, JIL entered into subscription agreements for one single-user license to access WGI and one single-user license to access IOD. (Id. ¶¶ 35-36.) JIL’s subscriptions to WGI and IOD are governed by the terms and conditions attached to the Complaint. (Id. ¶¶ 11, 34-36, 39, 40; [336]*336Ex. A.)1 The WGI and IOD licenses limit access to Authorized Users on a per-person basis, although some distribution to unauthorized users is allowed in a “non-systematic manner.” (Id., Ex. A at 1.) The terms and conditions state, in pertinent part:

(b) Access.... The [publications] may be accessed via [Plaintiffs’] website ... and/or provided by email ... Subscriber shall permit only Authorized Users to access and use the [publications]. Each Authorized User is authorized to access and use the [publications] on an individual, per-person basis [or] through the creation of a unique password, the validation of a unique e-mail address ...
(c) Use.... Authorized Users may download the licensed [publications] only for their respective individual referential use. In addition, Authorized Users may occasionally distribute a copy of a story from the [publications] to a few individuals, and in a non-systematic manner, in the ordinary course of business ... Except as otherwise noted [here] no content from the [publications] may be downloaded, transmitted, broadcast, transferred, assigned, reproduced or in any other way used or disseminated in an form to any person not specifically identified herein as Authorized User.

(Id.) JIL elected to receive this subscription through its employee Iain Reid (“Reid”), who was given a unique user ID and password providing access to Plaintiffs’ website where Reid could view and download WGI and IOD. (Id. ¶ 37.) Reid was the sole authorized user within JIL at all relevant times during the period alleged in the Complaint. {Id.)

Plaintiffs allege that, between June 2011 and September 2013, copies of WGI and IOD articles were regularly downloaded from Plaintiffs’ website onto several distinct computers using Reid’s username and password, (Id. ¶ 54.) These computers accessed Plaintiffs’ website through a single internet protocol (“IP”) address registered to JIL in London. (Id.) During this period, “several” different computers downloaded copies of the same publication at “close to the same time.” (Id. ¶ 55.) Upon information and belief, Plaintiffs allege that “multiple employees of Jefferies International other than [Reid] downloaded copies” of the WGI and IOD “using [Reid’s] unique user ID and password.” (Id. ¶ 56.)

2. Defendant Jefferies

Defendant Jefferies is a limited liability company incorporated in Delaware with its primary place of business in New York City. (Id. ¶ 4.) Plaintiffs allege that, from December 2012 to August 2013, copies of WGI and IOD were viewed and downloaded using Reid’s user name and password from computers accessing Plaintiffs’ website from three US-based IP addresses registered to Jefferies. (Id. ¶ 63-64.) Reid’s user ID and password were “frequently used” to download WGI and IOD articles from the Jefferies US-based IP addresses on the same day that Reid’s user ID and password were also used to [337]*337download the publications from an IP address registered to JIL in London. (Id. ¶ 65.) Plaintiffs allege, upon information and belief, that “the persons accessing Plaintiffs’ website to download copies [of WGI and IOD] from the U.S. IP addresses were employees of Jefferies” and that these employees “made unauthorized copies of [WGI and IOD] using the unique user ID and password associated with [JIL’s] single subscriptions to WGI and IOD.” (Id. ¶¶ 76, 79.)

On August 14, 2013, Plaintiffs sent Defendant Jefferies a letter stating that they were concerned Defendants were infringing Plaintiffs’ copyrights. (Id. ¶ 86.) The letter requested that Jefferies conduct an internal investigation to determine if their employees were infringing Plaintiffs’ copyrights. (Id.) On August 21, 2013, Jefferies responded that it was conducting inquiries into the matter. (Id. ¶ 87.) On October 1, 2013, Plaintiffs sent another letter to Jefferies to follow up on the results of the investigation. (Id. ¶ 88.) Jefferies did not respond. (Id.) All suspicious activity from the JIL and Jefferies’ IP addresses ceased in September 2013. (Id. ¶¶ 58, 66.)

C. The OD Infringement Claim

Defendant Jefferies has been an OD subscriber since October 1998, at one point holding a maximum of thirty subscriptions. (Id. ¶¶ 43-44.) On May 19, 2012, EIG sales representatives met with employees of Jefferies in Houston, Texas as part of a sales effort. (Id. ¶ 80.) At the time of the visit, Jefferies held five OD subscriptions. (Id. ¶ 81.) During the meeting, an employee within Jefferies’ Information Services Group indicated Jefferies had a need for twenty-five subscriptions for the firm’s Investment Banking Division employees. (Id.) Following the meeting, Jefferies reduced the number of its subscriptions to three. (Id.

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101 F. Supp. 3d 332, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43230, 2015 WL 1501107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/energy-intelligence-group-inc-v-jefferies-llc-nysd-2015.