Last week, a federal court in California issued a subpoena ordering Pornhub to supply the names, emails, and IP addresses of account holders suspected of sharing over 1,000 copyright-infringing videos on its platform.

The Montreal-based, MindGeek-owned website hosts the largest collection of adult streaming content in the world. Though—like YouTube—it started life as a platform for users to share their own clips in 2007, Pornhub knows all about DMCA takedown notices.

According to TorrentFreak, Pornhub's usual policy is to terminate user accounts if they're linked to sharing pirated content. In this case, Foshan Ltd, the company perhaps best known for the Wankz and Wankz VR brands, is going deeper, seeking the details of those who appear to have stolen its content.

It's expected that Foshan intends to prosecute individuals, should the evidence be sufficient to do so. But the company isn't announcing its intentions either way. This is thought to be the first time a rights holder has used a DMCA order to ask for Pornhub customer details, but it's not the first time that alleged porn pirates have been specifically targeted.

In 2012, Ben Dover Productions successfully forced UK ISP O2 Broadband to hand over the details of more then 9,000 customers, although copyright infringement was only ever successfully matched to under 1,000 individuals.

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PornHub must either comply with the court order or raise an appeal by May 1.

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