Adult Film Producer Unmasks Prolific ‘John DOE’ Torrent Pirate as Meta Executive

成人电影制作商揭露多产的“无名氏”BT下载盗版者竟是 Meta 高管

For well over a decade, copyright holders have used U.S. federal courts to unmask anonymous BitTorrent users. Adult film producer Strike 3 Holdings has turned this into an industry of its own, filing thousands of John Doe lawsuits every year. In most of these “John Doe” cases it subpoenas the Internet provider for the subscriber’s name, offers the alleged pirate a settlement, which effectively ends the case. This process is then repeated over and over. 十多年来，版权持有者一直利用美国联邦法院来揭露匿名的 BitTorrent 用户。成人电影制作商 Strike 3 Holdings 已将此发展成了一项专门的业务，每年提起数千起“无名氏”（John Doe）诉讼。在大多数此类案件中，该公司会向互联网服务提供商发出传票以获取订阅者的姓名，并向涉嫌盗版者提供和解方案，从而有效地结案。这一过程被反复执行。

Last summer, the company took aim at a much larger target. Together with Counterlife Media, Strike 3 sued Meta, accusing the tech giant of downloading thousands of its films via BitTorrent to train AI models. With 2,973 films at stake, the case could be worth up to $446 million. This multi-million dollar case is now running into one of Strike 3’s routine “John Doe” lawsuits. According to a motion filed last week, an anonymous pirate behind a residential AT&T connection is an executive at Meta’s Reality Labs division, which develops the Quest VR headsets. 去年夏天，该公司瞄准了一个更大的目标。Strike 3 联合 Counterlife Media 起诉了 Meta，指控这家科技巨头通过 BitTorrent 下载了其数千部电影用于训练 AI 模型。涉及 2,973 部电影，该案索赔金额可能高达 4.46 亿美元。这起数百万美元的案件现在与 Strike 3 的一起常规“无名氏”诉讼产生了交集。根据上周提交的一份动议，一名使用 AT&T 家庭宽带连接的匿名盗版者，竟是 Meta 负责开发 Quest VR 头显的 Reality Labs 部门的一名高管。

From John Doe to Reality Labs Exec

从“无名氏”到 Reality Labs 高管

The John Doe case started in March, when Strike 3 filed a complaint against the subscriber of IP address 162.192.7.34 at the same California federal court. In April, Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi granted a subpoena to AT&T, noting that the name should not be publicly disclosed. After AT&T shared the information, Strike 3 says its investigation revealed that the subscriber is an executive in Meta’s Reality Labs division. Citing his LinkedIn profile, the company notes that he has worked at Facebook and Meta for more than a decade. The executive’s name and title are redacted, as shown below. Meta has asked the court to keep them under seal, as it did earlier for two other individuals named in the Meta case. 这起“无名氏”案件始于三月，当时 Strike 3 在加州同一家联邦法院对 IP 地址 162.192.7.34 的订阅者提起了诉讼。四月，地方法官 Virginia K. DeMarchi 批准了向 AT&T 发出传票，并指出该姓名不应公开披露。在 AT&T 分享了相关信息后，Strike 3 表示其调查显示该订阅者是 Meta Reality Labs 部门的一名高管。该公司援引其领英（LinkedIn）资料指出，此人在 Facebook 和 Meta 工作已超过十年。该高管的姓名和职位已被遮盖。Meta 已请求法院将这些信息保密，正如其此前对 Meta 案件中提到的另外两人所做的那样。

From the attorney’s declaration

来自律师的声明

However, Strike 3 argues that this is no ordinary home pirate, using the timing of the downloads as evidence. On March 20, 2025, the porn producer’s general counsel first emailed Meta’s lawyers with forensic evidence of BitTorrent activity on the tech giant’s corporate IP addresses. “Just hours later, Strike 3 first recorded BitTorrent infringement on John Doe’s residential IP Address,” the motion reads. “This may suggest that Meta desired to shift infringing activity to this hidden residential IP Address in order to prevent further detection,” Strike 3 adds. 然而，Strike 3 辩称这并非普通的家庭盗版者，并以下载时间作为证据。2025 年 3 月 20 日，该成人电影制作商的总法律顾问首次向 Meta 的律师发送了电子邮件，提供了 Meta 公司 IP 地址上存在 BitTorrent 活动的取证证据。动议中写道：“仅仅几个小时后，Strike 3 首次记录到该‘无名氏’家庭 IP 地址上的 BitTorrent 侵权行为。”Strike 3 补充说：“这可能表明 Meta 希望将侵权活动转移到这个隐藏的家庭 IP 地址，以防止被进一步发现。”

Nearly 20,000 Files

近 2 万个文件

In addition to the timing, Strike 3 uses the number of downloads in the John Doe case as an argument. The company logged all BitTorrent activity detected from the executive’s connection, which was nearly 20,000 files. This includes VR adult titles made for Meta’s Quest headset. Strike 3 suggests the downloads are consistent with work to make the headset compatible with adult films. As recently as August 25, Strike 3 says it recorded more than 150 daily downloads, from multi-language “Mega Packs” of TV shows, movies, software and books to what it describes as AI-generated pornography and VR adult films. That included nearly a dozen of its own titles. 除了时间点，Strike 3 还将“无名氏”案件中的下载数量作为论据。该公司记录了从该高管连接中检测到的所有 BitTorrent 活动，涉及近 2 万个文件。这包括为 Meta Quest 头显制作的 VR 成人影片。Strike 3 认为，这些下载行为与使头显兼容成人电影的工作相吻合。就在 8 月 25 日，Strike 3 表示其记录到每天超过 150 次下载，内容从多语言的电视节目、电影、软件和书籍“大礼包”，到其所描述的 AI 生成的色情内容和 VR 成人电影。其中还包括近十几部其自有的作品。

“In short, this is a lot for one person to torrent on an average day, particularly one who has a demanding job,” Strike 3 writes. The company believes the pattern makes more sense as AI training data or research. “简而言之，对于一个人来说，在普通的一天里下载这么多内容是非常罕见的，尤其是对于一个工作繁忙的人来说，”Strike 3 写道。该公司认为，这种模式作为 AI 训练数据或研究用途更为合理。

Meta: ‘Nothing Ties’ Downloads to Company

Meta：没有任何证据将下载行为与公司挂钩

This week, Meta responded to the motion to link the cases. Officially, the company takes no position yet, as it can’t investigate whether the subscriber is even an employee without knowing his name. However, even if the subscriber is who Strike 3 claims, Meta argues that nothing ties the downloads to the company. “They simply assume that the Subscriber is responsible for everything done on the IP address, and then leap to the additional, similarly unsupported assumption that he did it for Meta,” Meta writes. 本周，Meta 对合并案件的动议作出了回应。官方而言，该公司尚未表明立场，因为在不知道姓名的情况下，它无法调查该订阅者是否确实是其员工。然而，Meta 辩称，即使该订阅者确实是 Strike 3 所称的那个人，也没有任何证据将这些下载行为与公司联系起来。Meta 写道：“他们只是假设订阅者对该 IP 地址上发生的一切负责，然后又跳跃到另一个同样缺乏证据的假设，即他这样做是为了 Meta。”

The tech company leans on a common defense in BitTorrent piracy lawsuits, stressing that an IP address doesn’t identify the infringer. Judge DeMarchi flagged the same point when she allowed the subpoena. Meta also flags a contradiction in Strike 3’s theory that downloads were switched to the home connection hours after the March 2025 warning. Strike 3’s own complaint alleges that Meta’s “off-infra” activity started in 2018, and that downloads on corporate IP addresses continued long after the notice. “Plaintiffs’ new theory cannot be logically reconciled with those it is already pursuing,” Meta writes. 这家科技公司采用了 BitTorrent 盗版诉讼中常见的辩护理由，强调 IP 地址并不能识别侵权者本人。DeMarchi 法官在批准传票时也指出了这一点。Meta 还指出了 Strike 3 理论中的一个矛盾点：即下载行为是在 2025 年 3 月的警告发出几小时后才转移到家庭连接的。但 Strike 3 自己的诉状却声称，Meta 的“非基础设施”活动始于 2018 年，且在收到通知后，公司 IP 地址上的下载行为仍在持续。Meta 写道：“原告的新理论与其已经在追求的理论在逻辑上无法自洽。”

Whether Judge Lee agrees to link the John Doe case to the $446 million Meta lawsuit has yet to be seen. For now, the Reality Labs executive remains anonymous, even to Meta. Lee 法官是否会同意将这起“无名氏”案件与 4.46 亿美元的 Meta 诉讼案合并，目前尚不得而知。目前，这位 Reality Labs 高管的身份依然保密，甚至连 Meta 自己都不知道。