Are you a resident of Ohio who has recently been contacted by Strike 3 Holdings LLC’s attorneys? Is this the first time you’ve encountered such an issue and are unsure of how to proceed? If so, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC is a copyright holder that files lawsuits against accused John Doe subscribers in federal courts in multiple states across the US (recently, they have been filing in California, New York, Florida, and Texas). The news in this article is that Strike 3’s attorneys are now filing copyright infringement federal lawsuits in Ohio.
This adult movie film company has been taking legal action against people they claim have illegally downloaded copyrighted material for many years now — while Strike 3 lawsuits really heated up in 2020, 2021 and 2022, we have been tracking them since they first showed up in 2016. These new Strike 3 Holdings Ohio filings seem to be part of a new coordinated Strike 3 Holdings strategy to expand their lawsuits into states where the demographics comprise accused defendants who have the profile of stable, responsible adult males who save for the future and to this company, would be happy and willing to pay a settlement to keep them out of court.
Even reddit has been lit up with the thousands of lawsuits that Strike 3 Holdings filed in the Northern District of California and the recent local cases filed in Florida filed by Strike 3 Holdings LLC (the Miami-Dade cases, where Strike 3 filed many lawsuits alleging federal copyright, but they abused the Florida legal system by filing their infringement claims in their state and local courts). Just so it is said, Strike 3 must file copyright infringement lawsuits in FEDERAL COURTS, not local courts.
So you see why it immediately bothered me when this “copyright troll” traded their federal copyright infringement claims for a Florida state-based loophole where they can easily get the names of every account holder who received a subpoena from their ISP when the lawsuit was filed in the wrong court. This was purposeful.
It has also come to me that the recent Ohio cases against a John Doe subscriber assigned IP address are also purposeful. A typical resident of this state is not aware of the ISP subpoena lawsuits that are filed in other states, and they are not aware of the copyright infringement defenses that defense law firms such as our Cashman Law Firm PLLC and other law firms have publicly shared with our readers.
All they know is that they downloaded movies without a license, and now they received a Strike 3 Holdings LLC subpoena from their Charter / Spectrum ISP. Unlike the Comcast letters, the Charter / Spectrum letters suggest that unless they file a motion to quash the subpoena, their ISP will be forced to hand over their contact information to the plaintiff attorneys who sued them. Now they need to pay their own attorney fees to settle with Strike 3 Holdings for the pornographic films they watched publicly, but they thought were being watching in the privacy of their homes.
Now Strike 3 also did a good job planning this. They watched the activities of the Ohio residence since mid-2022 without warning any of them with even one DMCA violation notice giving them notice that they could be sued if they continue to access their three website brands without a license.
So after almost two years of tracking and saying nothing, now they sent a subpoena from Strike 3 to the Spectrum / Charter internet service provider (ISP) asking them to reveal your name and address to their lawyers.
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New Strike 3 Holdings LLC Lawsuit Filing Strategy
If you’re a target in a Strike 3 Holdings Ohio lawsuit, and you are a mid-aged man who owns a home, it’s important to know that you were likely targeted. One of their key tactics with Ohio was called “forum shopping,” where they chose a state where there are no defense attorneys with experience in defending against their cases.
Definition of Forum Shopping
I firmly believe they came up with a plan to file Strike 3 Holdings Ohio lawsuits where the attorneys there are less knowledgeable about their kind of cases, and thus are not knowledgeable of the legal defenses to defend against them.
This practice of filing suits outside of areas with defense attorneys who know how to litigate these cases effectively can be called “forum shopping,” although typically, this term applies to finding a court where the judges or their rulings would be most favorable to them. But by filing in the Ohio Northern District Court, they effectively reduced the likelihood that their claims will be challenged or defeated in court due to insufficient legal defenses.
Why it benefits them to file lawsuits where there are no copyright defense attorneys.
Filing lawsuits in courts that are not familiar with the nuances of copyright infringement cases may seem counterintuitive, but it is a strategy that for the moment I am concerned will be successful. The lack of experienced defense attorneys in thes Strike 3 Holdings Ohio cases increases the likelihood that defendants will settle out of court instead of being defended by competent counsel.
Furthermore, filing in courts where familiarity with copyright law varies can also provide tactical advantages such as motion to dismiss based on improper jurisdiction, improper venue, or other challenges to their lawsuits under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP).
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Why of all places, Ohio?!
We know that Strike 3 Holdings LLC is a copyright infringement litigation company that has filed thousands of cases across the US; now the Ohio Northern District Court has joined the ranks of places where their cases can be found.
Their cases are filed against individual IP address owners (really, assignees), who are accused of downloading adult digital media without authorization. When filing these Strike 3 Holdings Ohio cases, their attorneys must adhere to the rules and regulations set forth in Title 28 U.S.C Section 1406 and Title 28 U.S Code Section 1391(b)(2) which require them to file the case in a court that has jurisdiction over the defendant and venue for the action.
Due to this strict adherence to legal requirements, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Strike 3 Holdings has chosen Northern Ohio as their primary region for filing lawsuits against alleged infringers – this part of Ohio serves as home for many mid-aged men who own homes there, providing an ample pool of potential targets with sufficient financial resources to make settlement offers worthwhile enough for them to file lawsuits, but not need to actually get into litigation.
This strategy also allows them to use Settlement Factories – volume-based law firms who specialize in manipulating accused defendants into settling the claims against them [whether they did the downloading or not] – which bring added efficiency and cost savings when settling dozens or even hundreds of cases at once.
Overall, filing well-structured turn-key “copycat” lawsuits helps both sets of attorneys save time since they don’t have to go through numerous negotiation rounds or long hours spent at conferences trying to settle each separate complaint – making it easier for both of them (Strike 3 Holdings and Settlement Factories) to reach pre-litigation settlements while keeping Strike 3 Holdings’ costs under control.
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Reliance on Settlement Factories Make Their Filings Profitable
Everyone knows that this “copyright troll” is a copyright infringement litigation company that has filed thousands of lawsuits against internet users for illegally downloading copyrighted content. The company relies on a unique “return of income” (ROI) filing strategy to make their lawsuits profitable.
By filing their new Strike 3 Holdings Ohio lawsuits in places where there are few defense attorneys who know how to defend against these types of cases; the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio is now one such place. This allows them to settle more quickly and without having to spend additional money on legal fees.
It occurred to me that they might have considered utilizing “settlement factories” in their strategy. Imagine if Strike 3 Holdings LLC realized that they can guarantee the profitability of their cases by assuming that out-of-state volume-based Settlement Factory attorneys would swoop into this new Ohio jurisdiction and settle all the cases they can — even if these attorneys have no affiliation with Ohio and are not admitted to practice law in Ohio or in the Ohio Federal Courts.
Imagine the thousands of dollars in legal costs they could recoup using settlement factories who will have their clients settle as many of the Ohio cases as they can. One settlement covers their filing fees (I’ll explain how), and they can still make thousands more from each subsequent settlement agreement they sign with the John Doe defendants.
And they can do all of this without ever stepping foot in an Ohio courtroom! Allow me to explain.
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How ONE Settlement Covers ALL of Their Filing Fees.
Filing fees for federal court lawsuits are ~$400 per lawsuit. Imagine that they file 30 lawsuits at $400 each. This amounts to about $12,000 in filing fees (30 case filings x $400/filing = $12,000 in filing fees), but one settled case takes care of all the costs. Knowing that there will be settlement factory lawyers who will be on Strike 3 Holdings’ side trying to help them settle lawsuits can easily cover the filing fees they paid to file the 30 lawsuits.
One $12,000 settlement covers ALL of their filing fees (26 average number of titles x $500/title = $13,000 [more than enough]). What they make on the remaining 29 of 30 cases is 100% profit (for Strike 3 Holdings AND for the settlement factories).
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List of Cases filed in the Ohio Northern District Court (UPDATED as of 6/8/2023).
Are there any Strike 3 Holdings cases filed in the Ohio Southern District Court?
I don’t know. I will look and I will edit this response.
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Demographics and Financial Profiles Ohio Defendants.
The Strike 3 Holdings LLC lawsuits in Ohio appear to be filed against financially responsible, mid-aged men who own homes. In many cases, these individuals have typical financial profiles and because of their traditional values, their moral philosophies, and their responsible habits in saving for the future — they appear to have become the perfect targets to pay the settlement costs or lump sum amounts that are asked of them.
The demographics of a typical defendant in an Ohio-filed case could include: age range of 35-45 years old, employed full time, married with two children or more, earning between $60K – $100K per year, owning a house valued at around $200K – $500K.
It’s important to remember that while Strike 3 Holdings LLC has been primarily active in Northern Ohio’s District Court system recently due to its recent splurge in “forum shopping” (okay, that was a poor attempt at a play on words), it doesn’t mean that all their lawsuits are limited only to this district court. They are still filing suits other obscure locations if they find an appropriate jurisdiction where they can leverage large settlement amounts from men with the typical financial abilities of an Ohio homeowner.
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Relevant Hashtags: #Strike3Holdings #lawsuits #ISPsubpoena #copyrightinfringement #settlement #Ohio #legaladvice #lawyers #internetpiracy #copyrightlaw #intellectualproperty #filesharing #digitalrights #fairuse #copyrightdefense #internetfreedom #privacyrights #internetprivacy #internetlaw #legalrights
Conclusion
In this article, I have conclusively stated my thought that Strike 3 Holdings LLC has chosen the strategy of filing lawsuits 1) in jurisdictions where there are no defense attorneys who specialize in copyright infringement cases. By doing this, they can rely on their settlement factories and increase the likelihood that they will be able to negotiate a profitable outcome from the settlement of each of their cases.
2) Based on my conversations with many Ohio defendants this week, the pattern is appearing to me that the demographic of people sued in Ohio is mid-aged men who own homes in Northern Ohio and whose financial profile suggests that they have enough money saved up to pay a settlement to rid them of the shame each one is feeling from being implicated in a public process where these family men are accused of viewing pornography.
Even if an attorney were available and these men did not do the download, they might not have enough resources or time needed for adequate representation during litigation proceedings (think of the uneven playing ground in my policy article to judges and lawmakers) — preemptively leading them towards settling their cases out of court because it’s easier and less exposing than taking the case all the way through litigation in a small town where many grew up with each other.
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Why did Strike 3 Holdings LLC begin suing defendants in Ohio?
Because they believe Ohio defendants have deep pockets and an ability to pay a Strike 3 Holdings large settlement. This is because the average Ohio defendant is a mid-aged male who is a homeowner, who has a wife and a family, who is financially stable, and who has traditional moral values. This makes them perfect targets for Strike 3 Holdings’ settlement extortion scheme because Ohio men would rather pay a large settlement rather than litigate their claims in the Ohio Northern District Court.
Why choose the Ohio Northern District Court as a location for Strike 3 Holdings LLC to sue defendants?
Suing in Ohio is part of a new Strike 3 Holdings Strategy of filing in obscurse states where there are no known defense attorneys who are familiar with their tactics.
I also believe they are relying on out-of-state Settlement Factory attorneys to settle the Ohio Strike 3 Holdings cases in order to cover the filing fees for the 60+ lawsuits they have recently filed in the Ohio Northern District Court.