Arista Records LLC v. Does 1-27 case brief

Arista Records LLC v. Does 1-27 case brief summary
584 F.Supp.2d 240 (D. Me. 2008)

CASE SYNOPSIS

In a copyright infringement action filed by plaintiffs, various copyright owners and licensees, defendant students filed a motion to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) The magistrate recommended that the motion be denied.

DISCUSSION

• On review, the court rejected the students' contention that the complaint contained only bald assertions and assertions that fell short of alleging a plausible entitlement to relief. 
• The complaint alleged sufficient facts under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.S. § 101 et seq. 
• There were only two elements to a claim of copyright infringement: 
• (1) copyright ownership and
• (2) violation of any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, including reproduction and distribution rights under 17 U.S.C.S. §§ 106 and 501. 
• The complaint alleged ownership and pled facts in support of those allegations. 
• The complaint also alleged that each student, without permission or consent, used an online distribution system to download and distribute copyrighted recordings. 
• The complaint did not merely allege distribution and reproduction but contained factual allegations specific to each student, identifying each by an IP address. 
• Further, associated with each IP address was a detailed list of songs that were allegedly distributed to or downloaded from others on the same file sharing network. 
• As such, the complaint gave the students fair notice of the claim and the grounds upon which it rested.

CONCLUSION
The motion to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) was denied.


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