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Verizon to Reveal Customers in DMCA Subpoena Case

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.

16 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. 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...
  2. Doesn't effect me by Spuds · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the reason I only download movies and Tv shows. Music is much too dangerous.

  3. Re:where is it going to stop? by Adaere · · Score: 5, Interesting
    There's actually something about RIAA making a mistake in the article:

    Ms. Deutsch, the Verizon lawyer, noted that the industry trade group apologized last month to Pennsylvania State University for sending a warning to the school's astronomy department demanding that songs by the musician Usher be removed.

    It turned out the trade group's automated search program had matched files containing the name of a retired professor named Peter Usher and "mp3," the name of a popular music format, spurring the group to issue the erroneous cease-and-desist letter.

    So, they didn't even listen to see what the file was before sending out the letter.
    I wonder... was the professor singing one of their songs, singing one of his own songs, or was it just a lecture?

    --
    On the internet, no one knows you're a frog.
  4. 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
    1. Re:My boss sent me this via email today ... by ckokotay · · Score: 5, Informative

      Stop calling it 'stealing', it is copyright infringement. Why the hell do you people have such a hard time understanding that concept?

      To 'steal', you take someones tangible good/property. Now you have it, they do not - you have deprived them of their property. Not so with so-called IP. You copy it, and they still have their own copy. Now if you were take a CD, say from a store - you have 'stolen' something tangible - but you have not committed copyright infringement under the law. Curiously, the penalty for swiping a CD is leagues lower than trading a song on the internet.

      People sound so stupid and uneducated when they make posts such as yours. Get your facts and definitions straight before you blurt it out.

      --
      It does not matter what you do, it's wrong.
  5. 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.

  6. Didja get the memo, Peter? Re:I'm kinda curious by bourne · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do these people who are being identified know who they are?

    Let's me do some extensive research for you...

    (reads article)

    Yes, they do:

    "Ms. Deutsch said Verizon had already informed the two people whose information is the subject of its lawsuits against the recording industry group. The group has filed two additional subpoenas, and those subscribers have also been informed that their names are to be divulged."

  7. 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.

  8. Senator writing bill to oppose this sort of thing by Phoenix666 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I submitted this story earlier today, but it didn't make it. Basically, Sen. Sam Brownback from Kansas is announcing the "Consumer,Schools, and Libraries Digital Rights Management Awareness Act," which will, among other things, require that a copyright holder win a lawsuit in order to obtain the name of an alleged peer-to-peer pirate.

    In the meantime, I say turn about's fair play: let's all of us accuse the RIAA of illegally distributing our copyrighted material and invade their privacy without bothering with the courts. Let's rat out every music executive out there who's downloading kiddie porn or sending naughty emails to their mistresses. Hey, if they can do it to us, why can't we do it to them?

    my 2 cents...

    --
    Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
  9. Well... by Anixamander · · Score: 5, Funny

    This could be a big blow to the file-swapping community, even if you're swapping legit.

    Exactly. Both of those people may be forced to use ftp.

    --
    Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
  10. Re:What are they gonna do? by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > > BRB, someone's knocking on my doo..&)DFF *& &FEfew8afujewa8iop9u
    >NO CARRIER
    >
    > Heh, file swapping with a modem? He deserved to get nailed!

    Yeah, but it's a 56k modem. Even limited to 53K by FCC regs, that's equivalent to more than 177 separate 300 baud modems! Talk about mass piracy!

    (P.S. Yo, WTF's up with the big fonts, Slashguys? Am I the only one seeing the sans-serif fonts as huge?!)

  11. Copyrighting My Identity? by javacowboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know this may be out of left field, but could I not copyright my identity? What's to stop me from copyrighting my name, address, phone number, email, IP address, etc? If my ISP were to reveal my identity, I could then initiate the same process that the **AA is initiating against file swappers. This way, anyone who infringes on my privacy by either sending my spam, telemarketing, revealing my address, engage in identity theft, or revealing my identity to people/organizations I don't want would be guilty of copyright infringement.

    Just a thought.

    --
    This space left intentionally blank.
  12. Legal ways to stop their web crawlers? by Arcturax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I put up a web page on my machine or in the FTP headers and such, on my IP saying that site cannot be accessed by the RIAA, its affiliates or anyone working for the RIAA for any reason and that doing so constitutes illegal intrusion into my system, would that make the RIAA liable for accessing my system illegally. Is there any kind of electronic tresspass law which people could use to make it illegal for them to send their web crawlers and such over your website and such?

    Given that I don't host their crap on my site, what gives them the right to eat up my bandwidth constantly by randomly searching for mp3's? (My personal webserver has been crawled by a suspected RIAA bot about 15 times this week) I know they are doing this as they have Embarrased themselves in the past by searching harmless systems.

    This makes going over my log files when I need to a real pain too when I have access logs showing some damn bot pouring over every file name on the system.

    So do those of us who are sick of them using these abusive tactics have any recourse to go after the RIAA for intruding on our systems with annoying bots? I for one am tired of them cataloging my web server and trying to FTP in anonymously every 10 hours or so just because I *might* have something of theirs posted up.

    --

    --Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
  13. Re:Yeah, but can they prove guilt? by rusty0101 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Checklist for protecting myself from RIAA

    Back up all data to stranger's off site secure data storage center.

    Buy a couple of new hard drives.

    Move all non-infringing work to the new hard drives.

    Buy and install a bench grinder.

    Grind down the old hard drives with infringing material on them to dust.

    Buy a bench forge.

    Melt down dust from grinding hard drives.

    Make ingots of the materil.

    Ask Drive Savers to recover the infringing material from the ingots, they claim a 95% recovery rate, should be a good test.

    Turn over recovered material to RIAA when they come a knocking at the door.

    Spend several years in penn for resisting arrest and destruction of evidence.

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
  14. Offtopic: Dual, not Duel by Osty · · Score: 5, Funny

    (emphasis added by me)

    It reminds me of when I was 13 years old, and was at the stereo store waiting to plunk down some of my hard earned paper route money for a duel cassete deck (these things used to be expensive), and the sales person went on a long lecture about how if I used this to make copies of my freinds tapes I'd be ruining it for everyone, and if I did that, someday you wouldn't be able to buy duel tape decks.

    I guess the two decks in the player could have been in a prearranged, formal combat between two persons, usually fought to settle a point of honor, but I highly doubt it. I'm sure you meant it was composed of two usually like or complementary parts instead. Too bad you didn't say that.

  15. i am a verizon customer using kazaa by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i am at work but my home computer is on right now swapping songs.

    what are they going to do? cut off my access?

    i go to another isp.

    are they going to sue me?

    show me my illegal files. they are all on an external usb drive. oops, no more drive.

    prove i traded files with a certain name/ ip?

    someone hacked my account. my ip changes every time i login. prove it's really me.

    and if they do, i will proudly go down as a martyr for the cause of intellectual property common sense. if those legions of lawyer assholes want to make me a fallguy for the fucking riaa, so be it.

    the corporatization of intellectual property has gotten to the point where innovation is stifled in the name of maximizing corporate profits.

    intellectual property laws should FOSTER creativity, not squash it. i would be proud to be turned into a bankrupt cause celeb for the sake of publicizing and casting a spotlight on a bankrupt morality.

    some of you think no one will care. well, guess what, more and more people are caring every day about individual rights being trampled in the name of the bank accounts of large corporations. i am completely unapologetic about my file swapping and i will be proud to be sued by these mother fuckers if what i get in return is the image of the little guy getting screwed by corporate interests broadly publicized.

    first rule of public relations: there is no such thing as bad pr. any noise that is made over this case is good pr for the cause of individual rights versus corporate greed. fuck them. go ahead and sue me assholes.

    my file swapping is going on right now and will not be stopped. i will switch isps, i will switch file swapping programs. and there is nothing you can do to stop me.

    and oyu can take "me" to be the individual in pursuit of intellectual property common sense.

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it