Porn Film Studio Must Prove D.C. Jurisdiction

(CN) - A federal judge called for a pornographic film studio to prove that the court has jurisdiction to sue nonresidents who illegally downloaded its movie, "Juicy White Anal Booty 4."

West Coast Productions, which produces and distributes urban and interracial adult movies, claimed that more than 1,000 anonymous file-sharers pirated its film over the Internet. Though the company did not know the identities of the alleged infringers, it claimed it could track them by their computers' Internet Protocol addresses.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola ordered West Coast to show that the court has personal jurisdiction over the numerous defendants before it could subpoena their IP addresses.

Unless the infringers reside in the District of Columbia, West Coast must prove that the alleged illegal conduct occurred in D.C., Facciola said.

"Irrespective of whether the injury is viewed to be the uploading of the movie, the downloading of the movie, or both, the focus would be on the physical location of the computers bearing the unique IP addresses plaintiff claims were involved in the unauthorized distribution of its film," the ruling states. "For non-resident defendants, that would most likely be outside of the District of Columbia, unless it were shown that they were visiting the District of Columbia at the time of the alleged infringement."

West Coast will also have to prove that Facciola's court is the proper venue for its copyright action.

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