WOW, Movie Companies Fight Over Amended Piracy Complaint

Cable ISP WideOpenWest and movie production companies suing it for secondary liability for movie piracy by WOW subscribers (see 2111010043) are clashing over the proposed filing of an amended complaint. Nearly two years after suing WOW, the plaintiffs are trying to use a proposed second amended and supplemental complaint to add new plaintiffs, new allegations and hundreds of new copyrighted works, WOW said in opposition to the plaintiffs' motion to file the amended complaint (docket 1:21-cv-01901). It told the U.S. District Court in Colorado Wednesday that the plaintiffs are "attempting to piggyback off of the filing date of Plaintiffs’ complaint to avoid statute of limitations issues for its new claims, even though those new claims have virtually nothing to do with the existing case." In the motion last month asking to file the supplemental complaint, the plaintiffs said the case had been stayed from December 2021 until March 31 of this year, pending a ruing on WOW's motion to dismiss, so they could not have sought to amend the pleading until March 31 anyway. They said the motion picture copyright registrations for some of the titles sought to be added in the amended pleading were obtained while this case was stayed.