In an opinion that was dominant Florida District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro refused to issue a subpoena, claiming that IP address signs isn’t sufficient to reveal who has downloaded a pirated film.
Over recent months “Manny Film” has filed 215 suits across several districts.

Like all copyright holders, the makers of the movie rely on IP addresses as signs. Then they request the courts to give a subpoena, compelling Internet providers to deliver the private details of the account holders that are associated.

In Florida this is not as clear-cut, although generally the courts sign off on these requests.

When District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro was imputed a Manny Film case she requested the enterprise to explain how an IP address can nail the real individual who downloaded a pirated movie. Additionally, she requested them to demonstrate that geolocation tools are good enough to establish that the alleged pirate resides in the district of the Court.

In a comprehensive response the filmmakers claimed that IP addresses can identify the defendant and that a refusal to allow a subpoena would establish a “dangerous precedent.” Manny Film additionally said that “all other courts” differed with the view an IP address isn’t a man.

This last comment did not go down nicely with Judge Ungaro. In an order handed down she mentions various cases where courts ruled that IP addresses do not consistently identify the alleged wrongdoers.

The referenced cases certainly refute the claim that all other courts disagreed with the Judge Ungaro’s concerns of Manny Film, as well as the Judge isn’t convinced by the other arguments.

“As in those cases, Plaintiff here neglects to demonstrate how geolocation applications can confirm the identity of the Defendant. Particularly, there’s nothing linking the IP address place to the identity of the individual really downloading and viewing the copy righted content and nothing confirming the man really lives in this district,” Judge Ungaro writes.

“Even if this IP address can be found within a dwelling, geolocation applications cannot identify who’ve access to that home’s computer and who’d really be utilizing it to infringe Plaintiff’s copyright,” she adds.

At exactly the same time, it offers an excellent review to future defendants to resist with claims that are similar elsewhere.