Collegian Fretting About Link To "Illegal Ass 2"

JULY 11--A “promising young college student” at Purdue University wants a federal judge to quash a subpoena that seeks to attach a name to an IP address to which a copy of the porno film “Illegal Ass 2” was downloaded late last year.

The 19-year-old Boilermaker--identified only as “Doe 26” in court filings--filed a motion Friday seeking to keep Third Degree Films, a major distributor of adult films, from obtaining their name from the Indiana school.

In a bid to identify those who have improperly downloaded its films from BitTorrent sites, Third Degree last year filed a lawsuit against more than 2000 “Doe” defendants known only by their respective IP addresses. A U.S. District Court judge in California signed an order permitting the film company to serve subpoenas on Internet service providers so that the firm could match up names to IP addresses.

One of those subpoenas was served on Purdue to determine who downloaded “Illegal Ass 2” on October 10 at 7:33 PM. The X-rated film stars Sasha Grey, one of porn’s best-known actresses, who has also appeared in HBO’s “Entourage” and director Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 movie “The Girlfriend Experience.” Grey is pictured below.

After receiving the subpoena, Purdue informed “Doe” on June 10 that Third Degree Films was seeking their identity. 

The motion to quash--which does not reveal whether the student is male or female--contends that “Doe” resided in a Purdue dormitory “on the date of the alleged copyright violation.” “Doe” was “surrounded by other college students and a roommate who was known to use a router and Wi-Fi conections for internet access.” Additionally, the opportunities for others to access the IP address of “Doe” “is too great to support any correlation” between the student and the “Illegal Ass 2” download.

While never specifically denying that “Doe” obtained the porno film, the motion cites “the risk of reputational injury to a promising young college student from public exposure and association (even if later disproven) with the Third Degree Films allegation.” A federal court hearing has yet to be scheduled on the “Doe” bid to quash the subpoena.

Court records show that “Illegal Ass 2” was downloaded via IP addresses registered to several other schools, including Southern Methodist University, The George Washington University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. (6 pages)