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Charter Cable Sues To Quash RIAA Subpoenas
mattOzan writes "Charter Communications, the third largest cable provider in the United States, has filed a motion in St. Louis, Missouri, to block the RIAA's requests for the identities of about 150 Charter customers in the St. Louis area. In the over 1100 subpoenas that have been issued so far, Charter claims they are the only major ISP that has not provided the RIAA with 'a single datum of information.'"
Charter cable sues to block music inquiry
10/03/2003
Charter Communications Inc. filed a suit on Friday seeking to block the recording industry from obtaining the identities of Charter customers who allegedly shared copyrighted music over the Internet.
Charter filed papers in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in a bid to quash subpoenas that the Recording Industry Association of America issued seeking the identities of about 150 Charter customers.
"We are the only major cable company that has not as yet provided the RIAA a single datum of information," said Tom Hearity, vice president and associate general counsel for Charter, which is based in Town and Country.
The recording association has subpoenaed information as part of its effort to crack down on illegal distribution of copyrighted music. So far, the group has filed suits against 261 people, none of them in the St. Louis area.
Charter's move Friday suggested that Charter had undergone a change of heart on the issue. On Sept. 23, after the association issued its first subpoenas to Charter in St. Louis, a Charter spokesman said the company would "fully cooperate."
However, Hearity said that statement meant only that the company would "cooperate in the sense that we're going to operate within the legal process."
Representatives at the association's headquarters in Washington could not be reached.
Anyone can subpoena anyone else to get information to use in a lawsuit. The DMCA makes it easier to do so in the case of alleged copyright infringement, but the right to issue subpoenas is avaialble to any person or corporation.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
The party being subpoenaed (here Charter Communications) has the right to challenge the subpoena in court.
http://www.chartercom.com/aboutus/ourstory/ourstor y.asp
"Years ago, Charter Communications Chairman Paul Allen envisioned a Wired World - a global broadband network that would interconnect every home, facilitating the convergence of television, computers, the Internet and communications.
Today, Paul Allen is Charter's largest shareholder. And with interests in more than 100 other world-class enterprises and investments dedicated to improving the way people live, learn, do business, and experience the world, he and his portfolio companies are creating a Wired World."
I don't know what all those numbers in your post mean, but I assume it has something to do with what you think the word datum means. You should know that datum is simply the singular form of the word data, which is plural.
the riaa claims to have lost millions of dollars. The yearend reports can be found here in pdf format:p
http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/yearend.as
note that the sale of cd's has dropped less than 10%, and that the sale of DVD video and DVD audio has risen far more. The riaa doesn't seem to talk about that much, does it?
Esoteric reference.
aol is mainly dialup users methinks
Indeed. It was found that the McD's coffee was served at an incredibly high temperature and that many hundreds of people had complained of being burned previous to this case. I've spilled coffee on myself before (call me an oaf if you must...) and suffered extensive staining of my t-shirt at worst.
Hundreds of people complaining over the course of several years is a little different to a bunch of obese idiots who believed McDonalds ashburgers are "the healthiest thing in the world." I wouldn't even eat one of them...
The link to the list shows that Time Warner Cable is first runner up with 148 subpoenaes. So that can't be it then. But isn't it that most AOL accounts are dialup? Thougt I read something like that somewhere...
"Be careful or be roadkill" - Calvin
just how much of this benevolent change in heart was motivated by the competing DSL providers standing up for their customers. They were busy licking RIAA's feet while the telcos were saying this, this and this.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Charter may be the first cable ISP to fight but SBC has been fighting already as shown:
here
here
and here
My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
>Say I take my laptop to Starbucks..... They certainly won't be able to find me
Beware of Cookies and JAVA!
If they don't bully the hotspot provider into filtering ports, they'll be tracking you by dropping a sugar coated RFID bug in your coffee. That's in case your location or the weather don't allow the satellites to scan the UV-readable barcode on your forehead, and you're out of view of the cameras in-store, at nearby traffic signals and those watchful ATM machines. Although your IP is more than likely changing from one location and session to the next, chances are you don't alter your MAC (hardware) address, so they're tracking use of your machine too.
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Todays theme: "Sweet Sixteen"
George W. - 16 Words, Arnold S. - 16 Women
Not that I mind them standing up to the RIAA but they realize that SOMEONE is going to have to go back thru all the logs to find out who was using what IP when the "piracy" allegedly happened. Since Charter uses DHCP to keep costs down they are NOT thrilled about having to provide the RIAA anything if Charter has to pay for it. But whatever the reason....YAY
"Ummm... if you really want to boycott the music industry... you'll have to stop listening to the radio too. They do get paid each time a song is played."
The artists and composers get this money. Licensing for radio airplay is handled by ASCAP and BMI, two non-profit societies that are operated by and for artists. They are not related to record companies or the RIAA.
In short: the money doesn't go to record companies or the RIAA.
I am aware that artists and composers are also part of "the music industry" but in the eyes of the typical /. reader, the artists and composers are the good guys, right?
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
can submit a sworn statement alleging a copyright violation to the court clerk and have a subpoena issued
I'd like to clarify a bit here, for other readers.
They must submit a sworn statment that they have a copyright on something - anything (or that they represent a copyright holder). This sworn statement is pretty meaningless, I can file such a statement that I am the copyright holder of this post.
Aside from that sworn statement, the paperwork must make a claim that the target of the subpeona commited infingement. Not only is this NOT a sworn statement, it can be an entirely baseless statement.
This paperwork is then given to the court clerk, NOT a judge. The court clerk's only job is to make sure you didn't botch the paperwork. He is then required to give rubberstamp approval. The involvement of the court is pure formality, in effect the DMCA grants copyright holders the power to issue subeonas. The process lacks any actual judical review.
The DMCA is an insanely lopsided peice of legislation, written by the copyright lobby for the copyright lobby. This "expedited subpeona process" granted to copyright holders is just one of many abuses written into the law. God forbid copyright holders should be forced to go through the NORMAL and LEGITIMATE subpeona process, just like EVERYONE ELSE.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.