The copyright owner of a pornographic film can proceed with an infringement suit against an Internet user who allegedly downloaded the movie. Denying a motion to dismiss, Eastern District Judge Arthur Spatt found that the copyright owner adequately pleaded its case at this early stage of the proceedings by providing sufficient details as to the actions of the John Doe defendant.
Spatt (See Profile) noted in Patrick Collins Inc. v. Doe, 12-cv-1154, that "there are doubts that the subscribers of [Internet protocol] addresses are actually the individuals who carried out the complained of acts. However, the difficulty that the Plaintiff will ultimately have in proving that the individual John Doe Defendant was the one who actually utilized the IP address to commit the accused copyright infringement is not relevant in the context of a motion to dismiss."
