Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Andaya

District Court, N.D. California·Decided November 4, 2021·No. 5:21-cv-00760·Unknown

Opinion

STRIKE 3 HOLDINGS, LLC, Case No. 21-cv-00760-VKD

Plaintiff, ORDER FOR REASSIGNMENT TO A DISTRICT JUDGE v. REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION JUDGMENT Defendant. Re: Dkt. No. 20

Plaintiff Strike 3 Holdings, LLC (“Strike 3”) filed this action for copyright infringement and now moves for default judgment. No party has consented to proceed before a magistrate judge. 28 U.S.C. § 636(c); Fed. R. Civ. P. 73. Additionally, defendant Emmanuel Andaya has not appeared and is in default. All named parties must consent to magistrate judge jurisdiction before a magistrate judge may hear and decide a case. 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(1); Williams v. King, 875 F.3d 500 (9th Cir. 2017). Because not all parties have consented to magistrate judge jurisdiction, this Court directs the Clerk of the Court to reassign this action to a district judge, with the following report and recommendation that Strike 3’s motion for default judgment be granted with some modification. Strike 3 alleges that it owns the registered copyrights for several motion pictures. Dkt. No. 10 ¶¶ 2, 42, 45, 56 and Ex. A.1 According to the complaint, Mr. Andaya used the BitTorrent protocol to illegally (and anonymously) download and distribute 35 of Strike 3’s motion pictures. Id. ¶¶ 4, 5 and Ex. A. Strike 3 initially did not know Mr. Andaya’s identity but says that its investigation traced the alleged infringing activity to the internet protocol (“IP”) address 73.162.81.234. Prior to filing the present action, Strike 3 obtained a Florida state court order permitting Strike 3 to serve a subpoena on internet service provider (“ISP”) Comcast Cable to discover the subscriber for that IP address. Id. ¶ 5. Based on the information received in response to that subpoena, as well as publicly available sources and its own investigation, Strike 3 says that it identified Mr. Andaya as “the true infringer.” Id. ¶ 6. Strike 3 then filed the present action in this Court by filing a complaint, redacting all of Mr. Andaya’s identifying information. Dkt. No. 1. Shortly after, the Court provisionally granted Strike 3’s motion to seal an unredacted version of the complaint (Dkt. No. 10), and required Strike 3 to publicly file a version of the complaint and summons that redacted Mr. Andaya’s name and other personal identifying information. Dkt. No. 9. That order also provided that if Mr. Andaya wished to proceed anonymously in this action, he would need to file a motion seeking leave to do so. If no such motion was filed within two weeks from the date Mr. Andaya’s response to the complaint was due, Strike 3’s complaint would be unsealed and the docket would be updated to reflect Mr. Andaya’s name. Id. The docket reflects that on February 24, 2021 Strike 3 personally served Mr. Andaya with the Court’s provisional sealing order, along with the unredacted complaint and summons and other documents. See Dkt. No. 14. As noted above, Mr. Andaya has failed to answer the complaint or otherwise appear in this matter.2 On Strike 3’s motion, the Clerk of the Court entered Mr. Andaya’s default on May 11, 2021. Dkt. Nos. 17, 18. Although the docket indicates that Strike 3 served Mr. Andaya by mail

serve a copy of this report and recommendation on Mr. Andaya, along with a chart that identifies the titles of the 35 films at issue.

2 Accordingly, the Clerk of Court is directed to amend the case caption to reflect defendant’s true name, Emmanuel Andaya, in place of “John Doe infringer identified as using IP address with a copy of its request for entry of default (Dkt. No. 19), Mr. Andaya has not filed any response. Strike 3 now moves for default judgment on its sole claim for direct copyright infringement, seeking $26,250.00 in statutory damages and $658.97 in costs, as well as a permanent injunction.3 Strike 3 also requests that the Court retain jurisdiction over this action to enforce the judgment for a period of six months or until the judgment is satisfied. Although the docket indicates that Strike 3 served its motion for default judgment on Mr. Andaya by mail (Dkt. No. 22), he has never filed a response. At the Court’s request, Strike 3 submitted further briefing to address the impact, if any, of Cobbler Nevada, LLC v. Gonzales, 901 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 2018) in the default judgment context. Dkt. Nos. 24, 25. Briefing on this matter is closed. Civil L.R. 7-2, 7-3. Strike 3’s motion for default judgment is deemed suitable for determination without oral argument. Civil L.R. 7-1 (b). Default may be entered against a party who fails to plead or otherwise defend an action. Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(a). After entry of default, a court may, in its discretion, enter default judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(2);4 Aldabe v. Aldabe, 616 F.2d 1089, 1092 (9th Cir. 1980). In deciding whether to enter default judgment, a court may consider the following factors: (1) the possibility of prejudice to the plaintiff; (2) the merits of the plaintiff’s substantive claim; (3) the sufficiency of the complaint; (4) the sum of money at stake in the action; (5) the possibility of a dispute concerning material facts; (6) whether the default was due to excusable neglect; and (7) the strong policy underlying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure favoring decisions on the merits. Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 1471-72 (9th Cir. 1986). In considering these factors, all factual allegations in the plaintiff’s complaint are taken as true, except those relating to damages.

3 Although the Copyright Act authorizes an award of reasonable attorney’s fees, 17 U.S.C. § 505, Strike 3 does not seek its fees. See Dkt. No. 20-2 ¶ 13.

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