A judge Wednesday said Ariana Grande can issue deposition subpoenas on third parties as the singer tries to identify unknown hackers who have stolen songs, videos, photographs and other materials and illegally profited by selling them on the “dark web.”
The 33-year-old “Yes, And?” singer’s lawsuit, filed July 27 in Santa Monica Superior Court, does not name any specific defendants, but says she is taking legal action “to uncover the identities of these currently unknown and unscrupulous individuals in order to hold them accountable for their invasive and reprehensible conduct.”
On Wednesday, Judge Mark H. Epstein granted an expedited order allowing Grande’s attorneys to conduct discovery and issue third-party deposition subpoenas for production of business records. The subpoenas would target what the lawyers allege are internet platforms and other entities whose services were used to perpetrate the “illegal dissemination and transactions,” and which are believed to have information and data that will allow Grande to “identify and unmask these unknown defendants.”
Without the third-party discovery, further informal investigative efforts will continue to be “fruitless,” Grande’s attorneys further stated in their pleadings.
“Plaintiff may serve the discovery aimed at identifying the identities of the Doe defendants at any time,” the judge said.
The judge said there was no need to file the motion on a normal noticed basis.
“In this case the question arises: notice to whom?” the judge said. “Given that there is no one to whom notice can be given anyway, it makes little sense to wait the 16 days.”
The state Code of Civil Procedure directs that in most standard civil noticed motions, moving and supporting papers must be filed and served at least 16 court days before a scheduled hearing.
Grande’s suit claims hackers engaged in phishing scams and other cyberattack methods to access digital accounts and materials from photographers and producers with whom Grande has worked. Grande’s real name is Ariana Grande-Butera.
Since 2019, the unknown perpetrators have allegedly hacked the personal digital accounts and devices of Grande’s photographers and producers, including through stolen login credentials and phishing schemes, and stolen Grande’s private, unreleased creative content, including unreleased masters, demos, recording-session footage, and photographs, according to the singer’s lawyers’ pleadings.