Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM

A San Francisco federal judge this week quashed a subpoena from a limited-liability company he previously suggested was abusing the judicial process, saying the Twitter user's interest in anonymity outweighs the group's interest in the person's identity. 

The 15-page order from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California stops short of the unusual measures he appeared to be mulling during an oral argument on May 12, when he wondered aloud if he had a duty to push for more information from Bayside LLC about its identity and possible connections to billionaire Brian Sheth, despite its lawyer's statement that he doesn't wish to submit any. 

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California

Instead, citing Twitter's lack of interest in an evidentiary hearing, Chhabria said, "The record will stand, and the people connected to this mysterious company will succeed in preserving their own anonymity."

Sheth was targeted by the account @CallMeMoneyBags with racy photographs suggesting infidelity, which were then removed after Bayside Advisory LLC obtained copyrights for the photographs and notified the user of infringement.

The LLC wants to sue the person behind the account for copyright infringement, and its lawyers at Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen & Shapiro sought an order in U.S. District Court to force Twitter's compliance with its subpoena for identifying information about @CallMeMoneyBags, which Chhabria's order shortened to MoneyBags.

At the same time, Twitter filed a motion to quash the subpoena.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu sided with Bayside, but Twitter's lawyers at Perkins Coie requested de novo review from an Article III judge. 

The case was assigned to Chhabria, who pressed Bayside's lawyer Lawrence Hadey, a partner at Glaser Weil, in a 70-minute Zoom hearing about the LLC's possible connection to Sheth, saying he suspected one exists. The judge also said then that the presence of an anonymous speaker moves the case beyond a typical copyright case.

Tuesday's ruling reiterated those positions, with Chhabria writing that Bayside's stated business purpose is "hard to accept at face value, given the suspicious circumstances surrounding" its litigation trying to secure compliance with its subpoena. Chhabria said he had no evidence of Bayside's potential market, and how copyright infringement could harm it.

"And Bayside declined an opportunity (offered at the hearing) to supplement the record with actual evidence of market harm. This factor therefore weighs in favor of fair use," Chhabria wrote, adding, "Even if Bayside had made a prima facie showing of copyright infringement, the subpoena would still need to be quashed because the balance of equities tilts in MoneyBags's favor."

The judge said the court "is left scratching its head."

Bert Kaufman, who is the registered agent for Bayside Advisory LLC, said Chhabria's decision "embraced Twitter's distraction from the core issues and has put at risk the constitutional rights of artists, photographers, sole proprietors, small businesses, and content creators to protect their copyrights and exercise their legal remedies."

"This ruling stands for the dangerous notion that a social media giant can also be judge and jury with impunity; where an anonymous Twitter account that purchased followers and stole copyrighted material is allowed to get away with theft without even showing up," Kaufman said. "Bayside is disappointed and is evaluating its options" for both a lawsuit against the anonymous MoneyBags account and an appeal of Chhabria's order.