Month: July 2025

Das neue Arcade-Set hat einige Überraschungen parat, wenn es aufgeklappt wird. Lego hat hier viele Details untergebracht. (Lego, Spiele)

Animationen zeigen, wie Samsung sich sein eigenes faltbares Smartphone mit zwei Gelenken vorstellen kann - anders als Huawei. (Faltbares Smartphone, Smartphone)

Disney+ hat noch keine Entscheidung darüber getroffen, ob es weiter an Doctor Who interessiert ist. Es könnten düstere Tage auf die Fans zukommen. (Science-Fiction, Disney)

Reihenweise missachten Onlinehändler in Deutschland gesetzliche Regeln. Entsprechende Gesetze sollen Kunden eigentlich helfen. (VZBV, eBay)

Reddit has gone head-to-head with a group of filmmakers over the past two years, aiming to protect the privacy of its users.

In three separate cases, the filmmakers subpoenaed Reddit for details of users who commented on various piracy-related topics.

The movie companies said they are not planning to go after these people in court but want to use their comments as evidence in piracy liability lawsuits against ISPs, including Frontier Communications.

Anonymous Reddit Comments as Piracy Evidence

The film companies, including Killing Link Distribution and movant Voltage Holdings, argued that the Redditors’ comments were key evidence to show that ISPs didn’t implement a suitable repeat infringer policy, and that subsequently acted as a draw for pirating subscribers.

Reddit viewed the requests as intrusive. The company repeatedly objected to the subpoena requests with federal courts agreeing on three separate occasions that the Reddit users could remain anonymous.

The film companies disagreed with these decisions and took the matter to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting a reversal. However, after the underlying court case against ISP Frontier was settled a few weeks ago, this appeal was moot, with the plaintiffs requesting a dismissal.

Reddit Seeks $55k in Compensation

This week, Reddit is back in a California Federal Court, requesting compensation for the fees it incurred in successfully defending its users’ right to anonymous speech. Specifically, Reddit seeks $55,204.19 in attorneys’ fees from the film companies.

“In three separate cases now, Reddit has defeated what is essentially the same motion to compel, brought by the same group of movants, by the same counsel, seeking to enforce effectively the same unnecessary and irrelevant subpoena,” Reddit starts its motion.

The fees request only applies to the last subpoena battle. After previous courts struck down similar attempts, Reddit believes that the third subpoena request was not substantially justified. To back this up, it cites the court’s ruling, which concluded that the connection between the subpoena and the underlying lawsuit was “very, very weak” and that it would have “zero impact” on the case.

Under the federal rules, recipients of subpoenas can request to be compensated for their costs if the subpoena request was not “substantially justified”. Reddit argues that applies here.

Anti-Piracy Publicity Campaign

Additionally, Reddit argues that compensation is appropriate in this case because the subpoena request was unduly burdensome and improperly motivated. The filmmakers have already tried to get Reddit to comply with three separate requests, and it fears that these attempts may not be the last..

From Reddit’s motion

Reddit is also concerned that the filmmakers will continue to drag Reddit into similarly ‘improper’ subpoena battles, noting that these actions appear to be an “anti-piracy publicity campaign”.

The filmmakers spent substantial time and money on these subpoenas, which Reddit suggests is an attempt to publicly threaten its users and discourage them from discussing piracy on the site. That would essentially chill free speech, the motion concludes.

“Movants’ dogged pursuit of discovery litigation despite loss after loss, together with the complete irrelevance of the information sought, demonstrates their improper purpose—an attempt to chill lawful speech by Reddit’s users,” Reddit writes.

Pseudonymity is a Reddit Feature

Reddit believes that the $55,204 it spent on costs is reasonable, as the company was trying to protect an important feature of the site: the ability for users to communicate pseudonymously without requiring their legal names or addresses.

In a declaration, attorney Hayden Schottlaender of Perkins Coie LLP, who represented Reddit, notes that the 70+ hours spent on the case, were needed to properly protect Reddit’s interests.

“This level of counsel was necessary in light of the possible significant implications on Reddit’s business and users from an adverse ruling that would permit non-party discovery to unmask pseudonymous Reddit users notwithstanding their First Amendment rights to anonymous online speech,” Schottlaender writes.

From the declaration

With a proposed order for fees now on the table, the filmmakers still have the option to challenge the justification or the specific amount requested. After that, the court will have to decide whether Reddit is entitled to receive compensation.

—

A copy of Reddit’s motion for fees is available here (pdf). The cited declaration of attorney Hayden Schottlaender can be found here (pdf).

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Nvidia ist auf dem Weg zum wertvollsten Unternehmen überhaupt zu werden und hat kurzzeitig den Rekordwert von Apple überschreiten können. (Nvidia, Börse)

Samsung hat viel Vertrauen in die Langlebigkeit seiner Akkus. Das ergibt sich aus den Daten für das EU-Energielabel bei Smartphones. (Samsung, Apple)

Eine neue iOS-Funktion erkennt schlafende Nutzer und pausiert die Wiedergabe bei Beats und Airpods, um den Akku nicht unnötig zu entleeren. (Airpods, Apple)

Microsoft macht auch klar: Bald gibt es Exchange Server nur noch als Abonnement, da Exchange 2016 und 2019 im Oktober auslaufen. (Exchange, Microsoft)

Viele Rechenzentren des Bundes verfügen wohl nicht einmal über eine angemessene Notstromversorgung. Und auch an Redundanzen fehlt es häufig. (Cybersicherheitsstrategie, Sicherheitslücke)