At the start of August, Atlantic Records took legal steps to request that Reddit hand over the IP address of a user the label suspected of leaking a pre-release of ‘Heathens’ by Twenty One Pilots (that was used in the Suicide Squad soundtrack).
Reddit has not responded and is refusing to give the label the user’s details, calling the whole thing “an impermissible fishing expedition”. The track was linked to via Dropfile on 15th June and Atlantic/Fueled By Ramen argue it threw their marketing plans for the track into disarray. Due to the tight controls around the track and the limited number of people who would have had early access to it, the record label suspects it must have been leaked by an employee, making this both a piracy issue and a breach of contract issue. Reddit’s statement runs, “Of course, in order to obtain pre-action discovery, Atlantic must demonstrate now that it has meritorious claims against the Reddit user. However, Atlantic has failed to show that its claims are meritorious for two, simple reasons. First, it has failed to establish that it has a contractual relationship with the Reddit user. Second, it has failed to establish that it has a fiduciary relationship with the Reddit user. Because Atlantic has not demonstrated that it has meritorious causes of action against the unidentified Reddit user, its petition for pre-action discovery related to such user should be denied.” Reddit also added that Atlantic should be focusing its legal efforts on Dropfile instead. Atlantic has not yet issued a statement in response to Reddit’s refusal to willingly hand over the user’s IP details.
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