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| The Japanese company Toei Animation filed a copyright infringement complaint against 869 "John Does" on September 29, 2011 over the 515th episode of the One Piece television anime. According to the suit, which was filed in district court for the District of Columbia, the unidentified defendants "worked in concert, via the internet ... to reproduce and distribute unlawful, digital copies" of the episode "One Piece: No 515, I Will Get Much, Much Stronger! Zoro's Pledge to his Captain!" via the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. The suit lists defendants by their host IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and Internet service providers. The alleged incidents of copyright infringement took place between September 16 to September 23. Toei Animation also filed a Motion for Leave to Take Discovery in order to find the names and addresses of the defendants, which the court granted on October 5. Toei claims in its suit that these defendants in turn "may lead to the identification of additional infringing parties." The filed complaint identifies the representative "hash" number of the file as 5683D0EFD0C703237918E2A626D8DADE9D02046D. Toei Animation is filing the suit in the District of Columbia because Toei claims "on information and belief ... at least a portion of the Defendants reside or may be found in [that] District." |