A Los Angeles judge has granted Ariana Grande the fast-track subpoena power she says is crucial to identifying hackers who allegedly stole her unreleased music, photos and videos, then sold the material on the “dark web” for “significant sums of money.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark H. Epstein ruled Wednesday that because Grande currently has no way to identify the alleged hackers, she doesn’t have to comply with a waiting period tied to providing notice to the defendants in her recently filed invasion of privacy lawsuit.
“The 20-day waiting period will never run because plaintiff cannot — even with reasonable
diligence — [determine] the defendant’s identity without this discovery, and therefore will never be
able to serve defendants,” the judge wrote in his minute order obtained by Rolling Stone.
In her application for expedited discovery, Grande says she needed to accelerate her legal lawsuit, first filed on July 27, because if she doesn’t quickly identify the alleged hackers, “their hacking, theft, dissemination, sales, and publication of [her] content will continue.” She argues that any delay subjects her to “the 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.”
In her lawsuit and related court filings, Grande claims the alleged hackers broke into the personal digital accounts and devices of her photographers and producers using stolen login credentials and phishing schemes. She claims they then helped themselves to her private creative output, including unreleased masters, demos, and recording-session footage.
Grande and her lawyers claim that in 2023 alone, 45 unreleased songs she was working on were stolen and leaked. Since her 2011 music debut, hundreds of similar leaks have occurred, causing her “irreparable harm,” her filings allege. Grande alleges the stolen materials have been hosted or published on platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Discord, TikTok, Leaked.CX, YouTube, WeTransfer, Pillowcase, Pixeldrain, WeSendIt, Krakenfiles, and Dropbox.
“Despite an ongoing, multi-year investigation undertaken by plaintiff, including repeated preservation and takedown demands to relevant platforms, and because defendants are actively and sophisticatedly concealing their identity – such as by using multiple, pseudonymous accounts across multiple internet platforms, impersonating domain names, and completing transactions through peer-to-peer payment platforms that do not publicly disclose subscriber or account-holder identity – plaintiff has been unable to determine defendants’ true identities,” her new filing states.
Grande and her lawyers argue she desperately needs immediate discovery subpoena power to obtain the business records needed to identify perpetrators “hiding behind anonymous accounts across various platforms.”
The case is due back in court on Jan. 25 for a status hearing.
In a February 2024 interview with the Zach Sang Show, Grande addressed the leak of “Fantasize,” explaining that she had written the song for a television show, not for herself. “So ‘Fantasize’ comes out … Crazy,” she said. “Was stolen — thieves, pirates, illegal. I’ll pay you more to put it away, to get it back.”
