WOW, Movie Producers Clash Over Subscriber Info Discovery

WideOpenWest and movie production companies suing it for secondary copyright infringement liability are at odds over attempts to get the names and addresses of thousands of WOW broadband subscribers. The plaintiffs told the U.S. District Court in Denver in a reply (docket 21-cv-1901) last week that WOW counsel never raised in discussions the time burden issue it's now bringing up. They said the court already ruled the plaintiffs can't use the identifications to bring other lawsuits, though WOW still claims that's the motivation. WOW said in its opposition last month it "would be extremely costly and labor-intensive" to ID the subscribers at issue and send them notice of a court order. WOW said if it needs to address its safe harbor defense, it would produce documents and information showing the stages of its Digital Millennium Copyright Act process, up to terminating subscribers' accounts, and no part of the inquiry requires discovery about the identities of individual accused infringers.