Permissive joinder of anonymous defendants, such as in a BitTorrent illegal downloading case, requires a causal connection between the defendants beyond the common allegation of infringement of the same copyrighted work, the Court ruled in Malibu Media, LLC v. John Does 1-19, No. 12-cv-6945 (D.N.J. Mar. 28, 2013) (Arpert, M.J.).
Malibu Media sued 19 anonymous defendants for allegedly downloading unauthorized copies of movies using a BitTorrent service. Upon motions by three of the defendants, the Court was effectively asked to reconsider its decision in a 2012 Malibu Media case, where the Court had denied a motion to sever, in light of other recent decisions by the Court. In particular, two recent decisions by District Judges Hochberg and Hayden had dismissed and severed all but the first anonymous defendant.
As Judge Hochberg explained, permissive joinder requires a "connection between the defendants beyond the copyrighted work and method of distribution, namely that the defendants were involved in the same transaction with the same downloader at the same time." Judge Hayden similarly concluded that severing and dismissing all but the first anonymous defendant would best "promote case-management efficiency, judicial economy, and fairness."
Judge Arpert concurred with Judges Hochberg and Hayden, finding that Malibu had not presented the requisite causal connection between the defendants and that permitting joinder would cause a strain on judicial resources. The Court thus granted the motions and sua sponte severed and dismissed the non-moving defendants except for John Doe #1.
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