[1549] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
NYTimes.com Article: Record Industry May Not Subpoena Online Providers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jimmbswu@ALUM.MIT.EDU)
Fri Dec 19 14:27:42 2003
Errors-To: articles-email@ms1.lga2.nytimes.com
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 12:09:55 -0500
Reply-To: jimmbswu@alum.mit.edu
From: jimmbswu@ALUM.MIT.EDU
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by jimmbswu@alum.mit.edu.
Does this mean that MIT does not need to provide names of MIT users to RIAA?
Jimmy
jimmbswu@alum.mit.edu
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Record Industry May Not Subpoena Online Providers
December 19, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:13 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Friday
rejected efforts by the recording industry to compel the
nation's Internet providers to turn over names of
subscribers suspected of illegally swapping music online.
The ruling from a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia was a dramatic setback
for the industry's controversial anti-piracy campaign. It
overturned the trial judge's decision to enforce a type of
copyright subpoena from a law that predates the music
downloading trend.
The appeals court said the 1998 law doesn't cover the
popular file-sharing networks currently used by tens of
millions of Americans to download songs.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act ``betrays no awareness
whatsoever that Internet users might be able directly to
exchange files containing copyrighted works,'' the court
wrote.
The appeals judges said they sympathized with the recording
industry, noting that ``stakes are large.'' But the judges
said it was not the role of courts to rewrite the 1998
copyright law, ``no matter how damaging that development
has been to the music industry or threatens being to the
motion picture and software industries.''
The appeals ruling throws into question at least 382 civil
lawsuits the recording industry filed since it announced
its legal campaign nearly six months ago.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates had approved use of the
subpoenas, forcing Verizon Communications Inc. to turn over
names and addresses for at least four Internet subscribers.
Since then, Verizon has identified dozens of its other
subscribers to music industry lawyers.
The appeals court said one of the arguments by the
Recording Industry Association of America ``borders upon
the silly,'' rejecting the trade group's claims that
Verizon was responsible for downloaded music because such
data files traverse its network.
The law, passed years before downloading music over
peer-to-peer Internet services became popular, compels
Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected
pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's
office. A judge's signature is not required. Critics
contend judges ought to be more directly involved.
Verizon had argued at its trial that Internet providers
should only be compelled to respond to such subpoenas when
pirated music is stored on computers that providers
directly control, such as a Web site, rather than on a
subscriber's personal computer.
In his ruling, the trial judge wrote that Verizon's
interpretation ``makes little sense from a policy
standpoint,'' and warned that it ``would create a huge
loophole in Congress' effort to prevent copyright
infringement on the Internet.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Downloading-Music.html?ex=1072853795&ei=1&en=8dc5133f3114d105
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