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Verizon to Reveal Customers in DMCA Subpoena Case

Posted by michael on from the end-of-the-line dept.

JulisJ writes "NYTimes reports that Verizon will turn over the names of online subscribers accused of swapping music. This could be a big blow to the file-swapping community, even if you're swapping legit." There's also a story on News.com. See our previous story for background.

10 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. where is it going to stop? by sweeney37 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The Court of Appeals decision confirms our long-held position that music pirates must be held accountable for their actions and not be allowed to hide behind the company that provides their Internet service," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement.

    Pirates by whose account? Their good guess? To the RIAA/MPAA we're all guily until proven innocent. We've already seen cases where the RIAA has made mistakes in identifying the true pirates. How many more mistakes are they going to be allowed to make without a penalty for their actions?

    Mike

    1. Re:where is it going to stop? by Lord_Slepnir · · Score: 4, Insightful
      How many more mistakes are they going to be allowed to make without a penalty for their actions?

      Lets see, it's a $10,000 bribe per congress-person per mistake. Assuming they want to bribe a little over half of congress, that's about 300 bribes, so about 3 million per mistake. Now, we all know that they are losing about 3 billion a year to piracy according to their own numbers, and, by their logic, once we see the error in our ways we'll start buying like we should, so that means that this will get them back that 3 billion. So they only need to make 1000 major mistakes before it becomes economiacally viable for them to do this!

    2. Re:where is it going to stop? by blueZhift · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Where it stops depends on whether a backlash develops that hurts legitimate sales. If the people being dragged into court are clean cut kids from Wisconsin instead of the slimy guy selling pirated CDs out the back of his Chevy, then the backlash could be pretty strong.

      I used to think that if they busted a few kids to make an example out of them, it might put the brakes on it. But file swapping has gotten too big now to really stop casual piracy. Besides, what RIAA is trying to do right now won't stop the slimy guy anyway. What will help is getting the price of CDs down and making legitimate, no strings attached, music buying/downloading easy and widespread. That makes sense to me, but some people just have to learn the hard way.

      --
      To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
    3. Re:where is it going to stop? by Wavicle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Remember: This whole RIAA/Verizon stint has been RIAA wanting to find the real people so it can file claims against them.

      If that were true, RIAA would have simply side-stepped the Verizon issue, presented a judge with their evidence that copyright infringement has occurred, and asked the judge to sign a subpoena.

      The issue is can a media giant making billions of dollars a year just ask a clerk making a few tens of thousands a year to sign off on a subpoena? Isn't there an appearance of impropriety here?

      RIAA didn't sidestep the issue because they do not want to lose this ridiculous power granted to them by the DMCA, and withdrawing the clerk-signed subpoena in favor of a judge-signed one would set a precedent they don't want set.

      --
      Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
      Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
  2. Big Blow to WHO? by spiedrazer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    How could this be a big blow to those who are file swapping legit? If you are legit but the activity looks like you are a major illegal abuser, you will probably be investigated, but the chances of that are slim.

    You 'Kids' need to understand that MOST file swapping is illegal, so the legit uses will suffer because of it.

    --
    Keep passing the open windows...
  3. My boss sent me this via email today ... by SuperDuG · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I don't know why exactly it is that I was sent this article, maybe because he was bored and wanted to send it out to all the employees or maybe he thinks we're all pirates.

    I think that the RIAA and MPAA have gone way too far. We don't need a private or secret police force in america, and we certainly don't need already super rich industries suing everyone with a DSL line to their home.

    I'm truly begining to wonder when it is exactly that the public at large is going to stand up against this horrible abuse of power and perfect example of corruption of democracy and say, ENOUGH. This is getting very old very quickly and I'm tired of always hearing about the *AA lawsuits.

    P2P is here to stay because people don't value the bilboard top $100 as worth $15 a CD, they value it as giving it the time to download the song. It's the same with anything else, entertainment is valued at what the consumer is willing to pay for it, it's the fact that these companies think that they're losing income. NO YOUR NOT, it's not that valuable to us and we're not going to pay for it so quit trying.

    Is this concept really so hard to understand?

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  4. Will you continue filesharing? by rkz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After hearing this news many people are going to be discouraged by filesharing. This could be the end of people thinking they can get away with it.

    So the implications will be:

    1) People will stop sharing their files and leech

    2) People will stop sharing and move over to services like eMusic/Apple.

    3) Everyone starts using freenet!


    The last option sounds the best, its the evolution of Filesharing like Kazaa was after Napster. The more they attack pirates the further underground they push them.

    --
    There is no god
  5. Re:Well... by clonebarkins · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If I were one of those people, I would sue Verizon for releasing my information.

    That's dumb and counter-productive. Verizon has been supporting (probably at significant legal costs to themselves) the rights of these people to remain anonymous. To turn around and sue them is, to use a cliché, like biting the hand that feeds you.

    --

    "The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it." -- Ayn Rand

  6. Guilty Until Proven Innocent! by mikewren420 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is also known as guilty until proven innocent, for those of us that may show up as a false-positive on the illegal P2P scale.

    Even more interesting, as mentioned in the News.com article, is a related story from yesterday morning that I missed. It seems the Republicans are getting it right... or at least are trying to. Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas is seeking to regulate how digital rights management (DRM) is incorporated into consumer products. Also, the proposed bill would require that a copyright holder gets permission from a judge before receiving the name of any alleged illegal P2P user.

    Of course, DRM goes against everything I believe in, but any kind of regulation of how this technology is deployed is a step in the right direction. Allowing the marketplace to intelligently decide what amount (if any) of copy protection is reasonable is a Good Thing.

  7. a difference without a difference..... by endoboy · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "stop calling it 'stealing', it is..."


    stock fraud
    hooking up cable TV without paying
    phone phreaking
    identity theft
    software piracy
    etc., etc., etc.


    It's unlikely that you're going to get caught or punished for "sharing", but don't kid yourself about what you're doing...