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Judge Orders Cloudflare To Turn Over Identifying Data In Copyright Case (techspot.com)
Cal Jeffrey reporting for TechSpot: Back in May, several studios started targeting movie-pirating sites and services. Dallas Buyers Club, Cobbler Nevada, Bodyguard Productions, and several other copyright owners filed a lawsuit against ShowBox, a movie-streaming app for mobile devices. The companies tried pressuring CDN and DDoS protection provider Cloudflare into releasing information on the operators of some of these platforms. However, Cloudflare told them if they wanted such information they would have to get it the right way -- through legal action.
The plaintiffs did just that. A subpoena was issued in the case from a federal court in Hawaii. The documents were not made public, but TorrentFreak was able to obtain a portion of the subpoena from a source. The court order demands the details of the operators behind the Showboxbuzz website, Showbox.software, website Rawapk, Popcorn Time, and others. Cloudflare has not filed a motion to quash, so it appears likely that the company will hand over the requested data.
The plaintiffs did just that. A subpoena was issued in the case from a federal court in Hawaii. The documents were not made public, but TorrentFreak was able to obtain a portion of the subpoena from a source. The court order demands the details of the operators behind the Showboxbuzz website, Showbox.software, website Rawapk, Popcorn Time, and others. Cloudflare has not filed a motion to quash, so it appears likely that the company will hand over the requested data.
Generally speaking subpoenas are signed by attorneys licensed to practice before the court rather than by the judge as a practical matter, although there are some exceptions. Then if the subpoena is not legit the person or entity being asked to provide the information can fight it if it makes sense to do so. A judge likely hasn't looked at this yet and won't unless Cloudflare decides they want to fight it, since why would you get a judge involved if everyone agrees on what their legal obligations are with regard to disclosing the information about the customers?
because its pretty much guaranteed that the suing companies are in any way based out of HI. and cloudflare certainly is not . so then the question becomes what standing to they have to choose that specific location. if they had picked one of the states the suing companies are based out of, or one where cloudflare has an office it could still be argued over standing, and those would at least make sense. HI seems like it was chosen purely out of spite, or someone has a judge bought and paid for.