Judge Orders Internet Providers To Help Trace Online Pirates By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 21, 2003; 4:47 PM A provider of Internet connections must turn over the identity of a user suspected of illegally trading music files, a federal judge ruled today in a closely watched online privacy case. The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group that represents the major music labels, had demanded the information from Verizon Communications Inc. after the RIAA had monitored the activities of a Verizon Online subscriber extensively using the KaZaA file-sharing service. The music industry has been waging legal war on such services, arguing that they allow computer users to violate copyright law by downloading and trading songs with each other without paying for them. The RIAA could only identify the user by a numeric Internet address on Verizon's network, and served Verizon with a subpoena demanding the user's identity under provisions of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Verizon refused, arguing that Internet service providers are only required to provide such information if the offending material is stored on its network, not if it is merely the vehicle for transmission. But District Court Judge John D. Bates in Washington ruled that the 1998 copyright act specifies an ability of copyright holders to demand the identities of those suspected infringing on copyrights. "Verizon's assertions to the contrary are refuted by the structure and language of the DMCA," Bates wrote. Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, hailed the decision and said that "we look forward to contacting the account holder whose identity we were seeking so we can let them know that what they are doing is illegal." Sarah Deutsch, Verizon's associate general counsel, said the company would appeal. "We're still studying the decision," she said, "but we think the court was wrong." She said if the decision were to stand, it would have a chilling effect on consumers and Internet service providers.
Thats a bunch of crap. What if there are surfers out there that are d/l songs to listen to and then delete them so they can decide if they want to buy the CD. Thats what I do sometimes
I imagine that they will have to fight in court country-by-country. On a priority list, NZ is probably between Malta and Vatican City, so you should be safe for a while.
So users suspected must be turned over? How is this any different than bugging someone's phone? I mean, isn't that like telling a phone company to monitor ALL calls, and report anything that is suspect? Why is the right to privacy threshold for the Internet so low? What's next?
