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Verizon Loses Suit Over Subpoena of Subscriber Info

Posted by michael on from the riaa-now-knows-if-you're-a-dog dept.

Brian Golden writes "As a result of a suit filed by the RIAA, the identity of a Verizon customer with a penchant for mp3's was ordered to be released. Man, how many people are now sweating bullets trying to remember what they downloaded?" News.com.com also has a story. If you've forgotten about this case, see our earlier story. Verizon wasn't making any sort of principled stand to protect its users' privacy, it just wanted to avoid the costs of complying with the (many) subpoenas it will now receive.

1 of 626 comments (clear)

  1. Re:sky.isFalling() = True by _bug_ · · Score: 5, Informative

    What if instead of MP3s this guy was suspected of transferring 6000 kiddy porn images?

    And what if some cracker has rooted your machine with some trojan and is doing the downloading of kiddy porn. But the FBI only sees your IP address and when they ask the owner of that IP address (the ISP) to identify the user using that IP at that specific time, they come to you. You "claim" you "don't know anything about this" but of course the FBI won't believe that. They take your computer, your fax, all your CDs, all your disks, your home movies, go through your closets, your drawers, ask you to open up that safety deposit box you have at the bank that your spouce doesn't know about, ect...

    Far-fetched? Not at all.

    And as far as I can tell from the parent post, the poster isn't claiming that the internet should be a place for actions without consequences.

    What we're talking about is the loss of privacy. Now any organization can subpoena your ISP claiming they saw W.X.Y.Z IP address downloading or sharing copyrighted music. They don't stop to question whether or not it's legal. (Yes, downloading an mp3 off an album you own is very legal.) The ISP, after this court's ruling, will be far more inclined to give up that information outright and most likely without your knowledge.

    So now the company can go and subpoena a thousand IP addresses a week to an ISP. From that they can start to keep track of who is online and when and what they're doing. Suddly there's a database that notes who you are, your typical online hours, and what FILES (not songs, remember p2p is more than just mp3s) you may have on your computer.

    Sure you might be innocent.

    But they've got all this personal information about you and they've done it legally.

    Is that the kind of world you want to live in?

    'Cause that's where we are.