Reddit is refusing to provide details of a user that Atlantic Records alleges is responsible for leaking ‘Heathens’ by Twenty One Pilots online ahead of its official release, thereby harming its launch.
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According to TorrentFreak, the file was first posted on anonymous file-sharing service Dropfile.to and a link was then posted on Reddit drawing a whole lot more attention to the file.
The problem for Atlantic, Reddit says, is that it hasn’t fulfilled its obligations for being granted access to the details of the user that posted it online. If it could prove that the person who posted it was an employee with a non-disclosure agreement, or that it was the same person that uploaded it to Dropfile.to, it would hand over the data. Atlantic, couldn’t, however.
As a result, Reddit’s legal counsel described Atlantic’s request as an “impermissible fishing expedition” and requested that it not be forced to hand over the data. Atlantic is requesting not only the account owner’s details, but also anyone else that logged in to Reddit from that IP address on the same day. If that’s a busy public WiFi network, that could be a whole lot of people.
Given that this is a fairly high-profile song, the track was also set to debut on ‘Suicide Squad: The Album’, it’s likely that the court will order at least some data to be handed over. Until then, good on Reddit for refusing to hand over details without evidence that would warrant it.
