Millennium TGA, Inc. v. Does 1-800, No. 10 C 5603, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Nov. 30, 2010) (Manning, J.).

Judge Manning sua sponte severed each Doe defendant in this copyright suit over alleged use of copyrighted materials via BitTorrent, except for one Doe IP address. And the Court granted that Doe’s motion to quash the subpoena.

The Court previously granted plaintiff leave to subpoena Internet Service Providers ("ISP") to obtain identities associated with certain IP addresses – unique strings of numbers that can often be associated with a single computer or location. Plaintiff had met the Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(2)(A) joinder requirements because it could not show that the Does acted in concert. Furthermore, the case in its current position could leave the Court with dozens or hundreds of factually unique motion to dismiss, quash or sever. And there was no indication that venue was proper. Plaintiff had no connection to Illinois, and it was not clear that any Doe did either.