The RIAA's Hit List Named

Carpoolio writes "TechTV is the first I've seen to name names in the fight between the RIAA and music downloaders. Using an online court records search service, they've found a number of the subpoenas served by the RIAA to ISPs, which will ultimately end in lawsuits for the people named on this list. Right now, they've published a number of the P2P user names filed with the US District Court in Washington, DC, mainly Kazaa users. Are you on the list?"

Comments

What about people who don't live in the US?

[Omicron32]

I live in the UK, can these lawsuits be filed over here from the RIAA?

Re:What about people who don't live in the US?

[dJCL]

The only thing is that most countries actually have something near sensible laws(ok, not close, but better then the US). You cannot get the precedent set on the case like was dont with Verizon because you would actually have to talk with a lawyer to get the going, not some random clerk that gives you a form to fill. The DMCA appears to allow them to do this. Up here in the dotCA it appears that they would have to get a search warrant from a lawyer before they could demand the info from a ISP... A little harder for them, they have to actually do some work, and the judge may tell them to mess off... I'm pretty sure it could happen in most civilized countries out there.

Interesting that

[stevezero]

They named the default username given to those who install Kazaa Lite...

So I wonder how many people that covers?

hmm...

[KoalaBear33]

I wonder how all this is going to play out... I'm guessing most will settle out of court like that guy they cite (who paid $12000).

RIAA will probably make more out of lawsuit settlements than through their music ;) What's the lifetime value of a consumer to RIAA? I imagine it is less than $12000...

KoalaBear33

True Names

[PotatoMan]

It's been well established that I'm paranoid, but is anyone else bothered by the number of (apparent) True Names in the list?

UserID to Person Mapping

[GillBates0]

What happens if you registered on Kazaa, logged in once, and then forgot to log off? You don't have to relogin again, if the password is "remembered". What if you logged on a public computer, used by thousands of users (in a school or library), who subsequently downloaded stuff without relogging in.

Not that I'm on the list, but do they intend to catch the person who actually created the account, but may not have downloaded any copyrighted material, but inadvertently forgotten to log off? Failing to log off isn't a crime by itself, nor should you be responsible if your account was used for illegal activity, unknown to you.

Let us know if you're on the list & the lowdow

[felonious]

If you are on the list do everyone a favor including yourself and let us know here. Keep us up to date on what's occuring and how you intend to fight it. Maybe the community here can help or atleast offer solid advice on how to proceed.

If I were to end up on the list I'd damn sure let everyone know and I'd fight it with everything I have.

Remember don't fund an entity that will only sue you into financial ruin. We can hurt them where it hurts them most...in the wallet. This is the only way to make a statement. Once these lawsuits start then the shit is really going to hit the fan and the backlash will be severe.

Think of it this way...what's more important violent crime or copyright violations? Well the RIAA is sending out so many subpoenas without judicial oversight I might add that court systems are having to redistribute their workers to cover the overwhelming workload. That means less work on violent, horrible crimes and more work on copyright infractions? This is beyond ridiculous!

Join the boycott starting August 1-30th and do not buy any music in this period.

Here's a list of who to boycott Boycott List

Here's the products to boycott Products to Boycott

Jack-O says NO

[Evets]

A little off topic, but on the subject of the RIAA.

Michael Jackson has denounced the RIAA

couple o' quotes:

"I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music. It is wrong to download, but the answer cannot be jail,"

"Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws ...," he said. "It is the fans that drive the success of the music business; I wish this would not be forgotten."

It's not surprising that I actually had to do a search to find the story, although it was on the front page yesterday. It's not even on the entertainment page anymore.

in the navy ...

[s20451]

Failing to log off isn't a crime by itself

At the risk of telling boring old war stories, I attended a military college where one sad soul forgot to log his machine off. Someone found the machine and used it to send a vulgar message to the universal e-mail alias, including the commandant, director of cadets, and professors, on down to the lowliest first year. In true military fashion, they made no attempt to find the real author of the e-mail, but instead threatened to court martial the guy who left the computer logged on, for violating security rules. Eventually he avoided court martial, but was given a severe administrative punishment.

But who the hell is being sued?

[Angry Pixie]

First off, the entire list of potential defendents should be public record and available for free. But that's another story...

But who the hell is being sued? Is the RIAA suing downloaders or sharers -- or both? Is the RIAA really selectively choosing defendents based on the particular songs? If I download an MP3 of an unsigned local band or an independent whose music is not owned by the RIAA, will the RIAA sue me anyway?

I'd like to see these details. They speak to the ultimate motive of the lawsuit, especially if it appears that the RIAA is intentionally trying to flatten the independent music scene or prevent artists from choosing production/distribution by an entity other than the RIAA and its members.

Incidentally, Munkeyspankers 1-20 can hide out at my place until the heat blows over. #21 is SOL.

Re:Oh man!

[dubious9]

Actually, I have a solution.

Get a wireless router

Reformat and securely erase your harddrives

Claim that somebody taped into your wireless router and was using it routinely
How could they prove you were lying?

Any good ISPs out there that destroy records?

[geddes]

Does anyone know of any good ISPs that have a policy of destoying thier records of who connected with what ip daily?

I know that many librarians, after the Patriot act was passed, started to destroy circulation records daily - it wasn't illegal for them to do it, and they felt very strongly that the government shouldn't be able to see what books people were getting. (Incidentally, this is a tragedy in some literary circles since a popular field of study in literature now is examining old library records from the 18th century onward to see which books were popular during eras past).

These big ISPs, comcast, earthlink, etc. offer unlimited plans, and have no need to record which account is mapped to which IP for anything longer than a day (just to ensure bandwidth usage isn't being abused or something). If they were to have a policy of discarding the records every day at midnight, it would save them hassle (what a pain in the neck it must be to recieve 200 lettes from the RIAA in the morning) and protect thier user's rights. How can they go wrong?

Re:Oh man!

[Semi-Psychic Nathan]

It seems that my ISP is against the RIAA's actions, and is trying to convey this fact to its users without officially taking a stance against it. This was in their newsletter:

According to this press release from the RIAA (Recording Industry Artists of America), there will be some major crackdowns on music piracy on the Internet. The RIAA plans to launch a massive investigation on peer-to-peer networks. Peer-to-peer network is the term for the networks that power such software as BearShare, Limewire, Gnutella, Morpheous, and of course the now-defunct Napster. They will be targeting users that are sharing copyrighted files and collecting evidence. This evidence will be the basis of hundreds of lawsuits they have planned, which are scheduled to start as early as August.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The River is required to assist the RIAA, MPAA, or anyone else with copyright concerns. We can be subpoenaed for information on our customer's full names, addresses and other information, should the copyright holder prove a valid suspicion that the account in question has been distributing copyrighted materials.

On a related note, a recent statement by the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) espouses destroying computers suspected of illegal behavior remotely. You may read the AP article here.

As always, we will do our best to protect your privacy within the constraints of the law and keep you educated on what you need to know to stay safe.

Other Links:

EFF's response to RIAA lawsuits
The Slashdot discussion thread
Artists Against the RIAA

Interesting, huh? It sounds to me that they're basically saying "We're resisting as well as we can, but we can only do so much when the law's on their side, and in the meantime you might want to pay a bit more attention to politics 'cause there's this senator that wants to blow up your computer if anyone even suspects you're doing something that might be illegal."