Expedited Discovery Sought on Altice’s Venue Transfer Motion vs. BMG

BMG Rights Management and its co-plaintiffs asked the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Marshall for expedited discovery on Altice’s motion to transfer the case to the Eastern District of New York, said BMG’s unopposed motion Thursday (docket 2:22-cv-00471). BMG alleges Altice ignored copyright infringement committed by thousands of its high-speed internet subscribers (see 2212150019). Altice said virtually every witness and document custodian with information relevant to Altice’s policies for addressing alleged infringement is located in Eastern New York, where Altice is headquartered (see 2301230037). Good cause exists for the parties to conduct expedited venue discovery before briefing begins on BMG’s opposition to Altice’s venue transfer motion, said BMG. Venue discovery will be useful to the court in addressing whether Eastern New York is a more convenient venue than Eastern Texas, it said. Expedited venue discovery is sought “to yield evidence of relevance and use” to the court in deciding the venue dispute, including gaining access to nonpublic information about Altice’s operations, it said.