A Los Angeles judge has cleared the way for Ariana Grande to subpoena information aimed at identifying anonymous hackers accused of leaking her unreleased songs and footage from recording sessions and music videos.
Judge Mark H. Epstein approved Grande's proposed order for expedited discovery on Tuesday, waiving the standard waiting period since the defendants remain unidentified. "Given that there is no one to whom notice can be given anyway, it makes little sense to wait the 16 days," Epstein wrote. "And on the merits of the motion, good cause is shown."
Grande's attorneys filed the ex parte application for expedited discovery that same Tuesday, arguing that without being able to name the defendants, the "hacking, theft, dissemination, sales, and publication" of her creative properties would continue unchecked. The filing also warned of an "increased risk that additional content will be stolen or sold, and that the account, subscriber, and login data needed to identify Defendants will be lost."
The legal action stems from a lawsuit Grande initially filed on July 27 against a group of unnamed John Does, accusing them of running phishing scams and hacking schemes that led to the "unlawful and egregious theft, dissemination, and exploitation of unreleased content." According to her legal team, the hackers targeted the personal digital accounts of photographers and producers who worked closely with Grande, then sold the stolen data and content for "significant sums of money."
The suit claims hundreds of such leaks have taken place over the past decade-and-a-half. It specifically points to 2023, when hackers allegedly gained access to 45 of Grande's unreleased songs and leaked them.
Photo: Ciell, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
