Ninjastic
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Re: BFL subpoena
by
Quickseller
on 17/04/2015, 20:02:10 UTC
Quote from: QuestionAuthority on April 17, 2015, 07:56:29 PM
Quote from: Quickseller on April 17, 2015, 04:50:44 PM
Quote from: RocketSingh on April 17, 2015, 04:44:02 PM
Quote from: theymos on April 17, 2015, 05:36:49 AM
I recently received a subpoena related to a case against BFL (Case No. 14-CV-2159-KHV-JPO). I had to release all database info on a few employees/ex-employees of BFL (including their PMs), plus a complete copy of every thread in which anyone mentioned BFL or in which a BFL employee participated. (It was a huge hassle to put all of this info together.) The subpoena originally demanded all PMs that even mentioned BFL, which is ridiculous, but I managed to get this part eliminated.

If a PM of yours was released due to this, then I already sent you a PM about it.

I don't think that I'm going to send PMs about deleted posts that were released. 3196 users had deleted posts released, and I don't really want to send that many PMs when almost no one would care. I feel like people should have basically no expectation of privacy for something that they posted publicly anyway.

I also released all "report to moderator" reports involving or mentioning BFL. I don't think that these are very sensitive, so I'm not going to send out PMs about these.

I wonder how do they send you Subpoena ? Does not it require to have your physical address ? But, do they have it ? What would they have done if BitcoinTalk owner were not located in USA ? Sending Subpoena to forum admins appear ridiculous to me. Conversations are all open in public. They can directly collect their info from there. And how would they verify whether you are sending them correct PMs or not ? How can this become an evidence in a judicial process ?
They mostly needed official business records from theymos not what can be accessed publicly. Also they needed a lot of PM's as well as deleted posts.

They most likely emailed him the subpoena, at least that is how they served him the DPR subpoena
It doesn't stop at the subpoena. I had to go to court for an employer as the custodian of records. I was required to sign an affidavit certifying the records I presented were true and correct and testify to that in open court. I hope theymos has some free time blocked out in the future. If they use those records to support their case he'll need it.
IIRC the DPR subpoena required theymos to appear in court, however it gave him the option to sign a affidavit saying essentially that the records he provided were true and correct copies of the business records; I don't think there would be any reason why it would be different in this case.

If either party wanted to dispute the completeness of what was provided or wanted to dispute anything that was provided was actually a true and correct copy of the forum's records then he would need to testify (or if either party wanted to otherwise dispute what was provided). I would say there is a pretty good chance that theymos won't need to personally appear, or if he does it will most likely only be for a disposition. I would say the BFL case(s) will most likely get settled out of court (and plea agreements will be reached for criminal cases)