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Subpoena Blizzard in Forecast; ISPs Brace for Impact
Posted by Ernest Miller on Tuesday, January 21 @ 16:33:33 EST Digital Millennium Copyright Act
In a major blow to privacy and ISPs everywhere, Verizon has lost to the RIAA in a major court battle according to a C|Net News report by Declan McCullagh (RIAA wins battle to ID Kazaa user). The EFF has a case file (RIAA v Verizon). Read the 37-page order to comply (In Re: Verizon Internet Services Inc.: Memorandum Order [PDF]). Favorite quote:
With copyright legislation such as the DMCA, "[t]he wisdom of Congress' action ... is not within [the Court's] province to second guess." Eldred v. Ashcroft, slip op. at 32.
What this means is that as easily as sending a cease and desist order, copyright holders may now request the names and addresses of ISP customers they suspect are copyright pirates. Given the embarrassing lack of oversight copyright holders have demonstrated with C&Ds (such as claiming that people were infringing George Harrison's work by sharing "Portrait of mrs. harrison Williams 1943.jpg" and "Nude Preteens and Young Teens Naked ... Brian is 14 and Harrison is 8.") we can imagine that there will be no privacy whatsoever for ISP customers following this ruling. Furthermore, expect ISP costs to increase as they deal with a non-trivial number of these requests.

Thank you, Congress, for the eminently abusable 17 USC 512, which reads in pertinent part:

(h) Subpoena To Identify Infringer. -
(1) Request. - A copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf may request the clerk of any United States district court to issue a subpoena to a service provider for identification of an alleged infringer in accordance with this subsection.
Maybe abuse of this provision (which is certain to happen) will wake up a mighty big industry to the need for DMCA reform.
 
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Related Links
· Verizon
· RIAA
· C|Net News
· Declan McCullagh
· RIAA wins battle to ID Kazaa user
· EFF
· RIAA v Verizon
· In Re: Verizon Internet Services Inc.: Memorandum Order
· 17 USC 512
· More about Digital Millennium Copyright Act
· News by Ernest Miller


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"User's Login" | Login/Create an Account | 3 comments | Search Discussion
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That was fast! (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Tuesday, January 21 @ 17:32:01 EST
The Eldred decision sure was cited quickly. Nice to see the judicial non-review extended to the DMCA.


[ Reply to This ]

Re: Subpoena Blizzard in Forecast; ISPs Brace for Impact (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Wednesday, January 22 @ 12:08:46 EST
This doesn't seem like a big deal to me . What the RIAA doesn't seem to understand is that technological innovations move much faster than law provisions. Therefore the likelihood this will prevent music trading in the future is null.

In fact, it is that much more of a reason for aspiring tech heros to create distributed networks of encrypted file sharing clients and servers.

Gnutella is an interesting effort only hampered by the scaling effects of connections slowing everything down. I'm sure someone will introduce a dampening algorithm to speed it up, then a tight encryption algorithm to protect all the users, then an automatic file sharing system distributing to distribute the most popular songs the fastest. Its not that hard and the RIAA is really hurting the artists by painting itself into a corned. In fact if anyone de-crypts the network connections between peers then they will be breaking the DCMA themselves.

They're giving the criminals the guns!

Believe me - I'm the last one who wants to see the value of media dissolve, but the lack of software investment by the media industry is the cause. People don't want to steal music, they want to listen to it. If you make an easier, more user friendly way to listen to music. People will use it (and pay for it). Period.


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Re: Subpoena Blizzard in Forecast; ISPs Brace for Impact (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Wednesday, January 22 @ 17:41:27 EST
Now is the time to petition your ISP to rotate and
delete logs on a rapid schedule.


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