Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | natatravel)

Film studios that filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a cable Internet provider are trying to force Reddit to identify users who posted comments about piracy.

The lawsuit was filed in 2021 against cable company RCN in the US District Court in New Jersey by Bodyguard Productions, Millennium Media, and other film companies over downloads of 34 movies such as Hellboy, Rambo V: Last Blood, Tesla, and The Hitman’s Bodyguard. In an attempt to prove that RCN turned a blind eye to users downloading copyrighted movies, the plaintiffs sent a subpoena to Reddit last month seeking identifying information for nine users.

Plaintiffs specifically asked Reddit for “IP address registration and logs from 1/1/2016 to present, name, email address and other account registration information” for nine users. Reddit’s response provided at least some information about one user but no information on any of the other eight. According to the film studios, Reddit argued that “the requests for identifying information associated with the additional eight accounts are more in the nature of a fishing expedition and are neither relevant nor permissible under the First Amendment.”