WWE Launches Array of BitTorrent Piracy Suits

WWE is pursuing across multiple courts an array of John Doe defendants who allegedly illegally copied and distributed its video content online. The company in a motion (in Pacer) for discovery filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu asked for a green light to serve a third-party subpoena on Hawaiian Telcom and Time Warner Cable (part of Charter Communications) for the identities behind IP addresses responsible for BitTorrent distribution of its motion picture Eliminators. Monday, WWE sued an array of other John Does in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia and said in its suit (in Pacer) they're all Comcast subscribers and it plans to seek discovery including a subpoena of Comcast records for their true identities. U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe of Las Vegas earlier this month approved a WWE ex parte motion (in Pacer) attached to another WWE piracy suit, letting it subpoena unnamed ISPs for John Doe information. WWE has pending motions (here and here, in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and with another federal suit in Las Vegas about serving ISPs with third-party subpoenas regarding piracy of its video content. The ISPs didn't comment Wednesday.