Strike 3 Holdings Lawsuit: Subpoenas, Settlements, and Defenses

A Strike 3 Holdings lawsuit is a federal copyright infringement case brought by an adult film company that monitors BitTorrent networks, identifies internet users by IP address, and sues them anonymously as “John Doe” defendants to pressure settlements — usually between $12,000 and $18,000 — before the subscriber’s name ever becomes public.¹ Strike 3 is the most prolific copyright filer in the federal court system, with 4,082 lawsuits filed in 2025 alone.² A federal judge in Washington, D.C. once called the company a “copyright troll” whose litigation “smack[s] of extortion.”³

If you have received a notice from your internet service provider that your subscriber information has been subpoenaed, you are already on a clock. What you do in the next 30 days shapes what this costs you.

How the Case Reaches You

Strike 3 owns the brands Blacked, Blacked Raw, Tushy, Tushy Raw, Vixen, Deeper, MILFY, and Slayed, along with more than 1,000 registered motion picture copyrights.⁴ The company uses proprietary monitoring software called VXN Scan to connect to computers sharing files on BitTorrent networks, download pieces of those files, and record the IP address, date, time, and cryptographic hash values.⁵ The MaxMind geolocation database traces that IP address to a city and state, which Strike 3 uses to establish court jurisdiction.⁶

With an IP address in hand, Strike 3 files a federal lawsuit against a John Doe defendant and asks the court for permission to subpoena the ISP early, before normal discovery would allow it. If the judge grants that request, the ISP must notify the subscriber, usually within five to ten days. The subscriber then has roughly 30 days to take legal action before the ISP hands over their name and address.⁷ Do nothing, and your identity is disclosed and the case can be amended to name you personally.

What Strike 3 Claims You Owe

Complaints usually accuse a defendant of downloading dozens of the company’s films. Each film is treated as a separate copyrighted work, and Strike 3 seeks statutory damages under the Copyright Act, which range from $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 per work if the infringement is deemed willful.⁸ A complaint alleging 96 downloads can carry a stated claim exceeding $76,000.⁹

Those numbers are the demand, not the outcome. They exist to make settlement look reasonable by comparison. One federal judge noted that “given the nature of the films at issue, defendants may feel coerced to settle these suits merely to prevent public disclosure of their identifying information, even if they believe they have been misidentified.”¹⁰

Settling Anonymously

Most Strike 3 cases end in settlement rather than a court ruling. The company typically opens negotiations at about $750 per title, a number that often drops to roughly $600 per title during back-and-forth. Because Strike 3 usually alleges years of downloads across many titles, total settlements tend to fall between $12,000 and $18,000.¹

Per-title figures vary. Some defendants who demonstrate real financial hardship have settled for as little as $50 per title; the more common range is around $500 per title, and some cases have settled as high as $50,000.¹¹ Number of films alleged, jurisdiction, and whether the defendant has counsel all move the number.

Two features of the settlement process matter. First, negotiations happen before you are publicly named — you are identified only by IP address, so a deal reached in that window keeps your identity out of court records. Once a settlement is signed, Strike 3 typically sends a “notice of abeyance” to the ISP, withdrawing the subpoena so the subscriber’s identity is never disclosed.¹² Second, the release language matters. A comprehensive settlement should cover all past alleged infringement of any Strike 3 title, not just the films named in the complaint, so the same monitoring data cannot be recycled against you later.¹

Waiting is expensive. Settlement demands tend to rise 20 to 40 percent after a subscriber is formally identified and served.⁷

Fighting the Case

Defendants do win. The route depends on how far you want to take it.

Motion to Quash the Subpoena

A motion to quash asks the court to block the ISP from releasing your personal information. Outcomes vary by jurisdiction. Courts in the Eastern District of Virginia frequently deny these motions when Strike 3 has followed procedural requirements for early discovery.¹³ In the Middle District of Florida, a defendant successfully quashed a subpoena directed at Charter Communications in Case No. 8:20-cv-1328.¹⁴ Even when the motion fails, it can preserve anonymity, challenge jurisdiction, and buy time to prepare.⁸

Challenging the IP-to-Person Link

An IP address identifies a subscription, not a person. The Ninth Circuit’s 2018 decision in Cobbler Nevada, LLC v. Gonzales held that simply alleging someone is the registered subscriber of an IP address tied to infringement is not enough to state a claim for direct or contributory copyright infringement. Multiple people and devices share a connection, and the law does not put subscribers under a duty to police their own network for infringement.¹⁵¹⁶

Under the Cobbler standard, Strike 3 has to allege more than subscriber status to survive a motion to dismiss. Defendants living with roommates, family members, or an unsecured Wi-Fi network can argue the company has not shown they were the person actually downloading. Some have used forensic examinations to demonstrate no infringing files exist on their devices, or filed sworn declarations denying the alleged infringement.¹⁴

Litigating to the End

Full litigation in federal court typically costs $15,000 to $50,000 or more in attorney fees over 12 to 18 months.¹² Defendants have won. In a Washington State federal case, a John Doe defendant prevailed and the court ordered Strike 3 to pay his attorney fees. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the fee award in 2021, holding that Strike 3’s voluntary dismissal of its own claims did not eliminate the defendant’s right to recover fees on a successful non-infringement counterclaim.¹⁷ The fee award exceeded $40,000.¹⁸

What Happens if You Ignore It

Ignoring a Strike 3 lawsuit is widely regarded as the worst option. If you are served with a formal summons and fail to respond, the court can enter a default judgment against you without any defense on the record. In the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a default judgment in Strike 3 Holdings v. John Doe (100.11.204.106), Case No. 2:20-cv-05122, produced a $72,750 award plus court costs. A New Jersey default judgment yielded $108,750.¹⁹

Defaults are not automatic. In a Texas case, a magistrate judge recommended denying Strike 3’s default motion because the complaint did not allege enough facts to link the subscriber to the actual infringement, citing Cobbler Nevada and noting that IP-subscriber identification alone was not a “sufficient basis in the pleadings to support the judgment.” By contrast, in Strike 3 Holdings v. Andaya, default was granted where Strike 3 offered geolocation data, evidence of a single BitTorrent client used consistently over 18 months, and patterns suggesting the subscriber was the only likely infringer in the household.²⁰ The safe assumption is that ignoring the case exposes you to a five- or six-figure judgment.

Florida’s Bill of Discovery Track

If you live in Florida, the first notice you receive may not come from a federal case at all. Strike 3 uses Florida’s “pure bill of discovery,” a state procedural tool that lets the company petition a state court to subpoena ISPs for subscriber identities without first filing a federal copyright lawsuit. This lets Strike 3 consolidate many IP addresses into a single state filing.²¹ In 2020, Strike 3 filed 47 such actions in Miami-Dade County targeting more than 2,500 individuals.²² Once subscribers are identified through the state process, Strike 3 decides whether to pursue individual federal lawsuits. The response window is short in either forum, so a Florida notice should be treated with the same urgency as a federal one.

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Torrent Lawyer. Strike 3 Holdings Anonymous Settlement
2
MetroWest Daily News. Rise in Strike 3 Holdings Lawsuits Drives Demand for Specialized Defense Attorneys
3
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Antonelli Law. What Is Strike 3 Holdings
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GovInfo. Strike 3 Holdings LLC v. John Doe, No. 1:24-cv-11095
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Justia. Strike 3 Holdings LLC v. John Doe, No. 3:2025cv03725
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Rodgers Selvera. Strike 3 Holdings Lawsuit
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Conlin PA. Strike 3 Holdings LLC Files New Lawsuits in Florida
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Los Angeles Times. A Porn Firm That Judge Called Copyright Troll Now Has Meta in Its Sights
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Kohl Cook. How Much Does It Cost To Settle a Strike 3 Holdings Lawsuit
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Antonelli Law. Strike 3 Holdings BitTorrent ISP Subpoena
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Moore Christoff. What Should I Do if I Receive a Strike 3 Holdings ISP Notice
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Vondran Legal. Strike 3 Holdings Defense
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Cobbler Nevada LLC v. Gonzales, 896 F.3d 1033
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Cardozo Law Review. How Do You Know It Was Me: A Case Comment on Cobbler Nevada LLC v. Gonzales
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Antonelli Law. Strike 3 Holdings Loses Federal Appeal in 9th Circuit
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Wolters Kluwer Copyright Blog. Copyright Case: Strike 3 Holdings LLC v. Doe
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Shuttleworth Law. How Much Does It Cost if You Ignore Strike 3 Holdings
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Vondran Legal. Strike 3 Holdings Denied Default Judgment
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McInnes IP Law. Strike 3 Notices Florida Recent Uptick
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Conlin PA. The Year in Review for Strike 3 Holdings