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Federal Judge Rules For Defendant in Porn Copyright Case

By Saranac Hale Spencer
February 28, 2015

An anonymous pro se defendant has beaten copyright infringement claims brought against him in federal court by a maker of pornographic videos. The defendant's victory runs counter to the result in a similar case in front of a different Eastern District judge.

The John Doe defendant won on summary judgment in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania last month after Malibu Media had filed suit alleging he had used BitTorrent software to download 14 of its copyrighted movies without paying. Malibu Media v. Doe, Case No. 2:14-cv-01280 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 2, 2015).

“Malibu Media cannot prevail here because it does not identify any evidence upon which a jury could reasonably find for it,” said U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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