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.'"

Comments

Even if the RIAA looses the fast-track subpoena

[turnstyle]

Even if the RIAA looses the fast-track subpoena, they'll keep suing -- they'll just switch to John Doe lawsuits...

Re:Even if the RIAA looses the fast-track subpoena

[Chester K]

Even if the RIAA looses the fast-track subpoena, they'll keep suing -- they'll just switch to John Doe lawsuits...

But that will cost them money.. and the more it costs them to keep up this campaign of lawsuits, the less likely they'll collect enough in settlements to draw a profit from it; and if it's not profitable, they won't do it.

Re:Even if the RIAA looses the fast-track subpoena

[ScrewMaster]

Hardly. They are losing money hand over fist on these subpoenas and pseudo-lawsuits. Sure, they made a couple grand off of that 12 year old but that hardly pays for a few hours of attorney time. This is about intimidation, no more and no less. Yes, it is about money, but there is no intent to profit from these "lawsuits". They want people to stop sharing music via peer-to-peer in the mistaken belief that it will return their member companies to profitability. They're misguided to the point of being dangerously irrational, but there's not a lot we can do about that.

Re:Even if the RIAA looses the fast-track subpoena

[Obyron]

That never stopped the xbox. :)

At the risk of being Offtopic... I know it's fashionable to bash MS and their products, but this statement is simply silly. What you're referring to MS doing with the X-Box is called a "loss leader." They make the platform at a loss with the hopes of making up the dividends on the individual games. All the major consoles do the exact same thing as do manufacturers of printers (ever wonder why you can get a printer for 80 bucks, but the carts are 15-30 bucks each, not to mention paper?), and several other industries.

Comparing this to the RIAA subpoenas and lawsuits is just silly, and is pretty much karma-whoring via MS bashing.

The good fight.

[Justen]

As Martha would say, this is a damned Good Thing(C).

It is interesting to note that Paul Allen is the chairman of Charter, and has been since he bought the company in 1998. Perhaps this will give fuel to the entertainment industry to say that technology, technology companies, and anybody tainted by either, are evil? (See here.)

Nonetheless, it is important that formidable companies stand up to the entertainment industry and its henchmen. Charter and Verizon (see story) are two folks who you'd want on your side.

justen

Re:Frivolous McDonald's Lawsuits

[kaltkalt]

please don't compare the coffee suit to the 'it made me fat' suit. If you have ever read more than a headline in your entire life, you'd know there's a difference between the two suits.

Re:Subpoenas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to Slashdot, where the moderation system rewards idiocy.

Re:Bog them down with litigation

[TheShadow]

Boycott all CD/DVD/Tape purchases for a full year and listen to the good ol radio

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.

Re:Bog them down with litigation

[HexRei]

AFAIK this is UNTRUE. Legally radio stations can play any track they want without paying the RIAA a dime because the exposure that the artist and their music receives is considered to be fair compensation for the cost of the song.

In fact, in many cases it's just the opposite, record companies spend a great deal of money trying to convince radio DJ's to play their music.

Re:Only 2 subpoenaes to AOL ??

[ScrewMaster]

I personally know several AOL users (really!!!) and not one of them would capable if installing, configuring and using a P2P application. So, if the balance if AOL users are equally challenged from a computer literacy perspective, it is entirely possible the AOL just doesn't have a large number of copyright infringers.

Conversely, it could just be possible that the average AOL subscriber is so computer-savvy that he actually knows how to disable uploading in his P2P software, or at least knows to point his upload folder to an empty directory.

Well ... maybe not.

Who's Better?

[Anonymous Coward]

The RIAA or cable monopolies? It's the battle of the state-supported corporate mind controllers!

Matt

Something else that's bothering me

[El]

One of my neighbors has been fooling enough to set up a wireless router with no encryption. If I now run P2P software through his cable connection, can he be sued by the RIAA? Is "gee, I'm stupid enough to leave my cable connection wide open so anybody can use it" and affirmative defense?

Re:Only 2 subpoenaes to AOL ??

[Our Man In Redmond]

Everything I've read so far leads me to believe that the RIAA is tracking people by IP address. This is more or less impossible if the person you're tracking is coming in from AOL, because everyone accesses the Internet proper through an AOL firewall/proxy, so the person you're tracking has the same IP address as all 3,743 other AOL users in Des Moines, Iowa.

What I'm wondering is, how they managed to find two people to subpoena from AOL.

Re:statistics of riaa

[MaxiCat_42]

>the sale of DVD video and DVD audio has risen far more

Yep they ignore a few blinding facts. You get a lot more for your cash with a DVD and the prices match the age of the thing they are selling. Why can I buy a DVD of a 30-year old feature film like 'Bullet' (and enjoy it) for 5 GBP but I still have to pay around 20 GBP for a CD of 'Dark Side of the Moon'. I would like a CD copy of that album but not at that price!

Re:I'm confused...

[shark72]

"I will not knowingly contribute to the RIAA if possible (CD-R TAX unavoidable. god the tax is bullshit when they are suing those fucks.)"

Those fucks? In the US, the music CD-R tariff largely goes to musicians, composers and performers, not the RIAA. RTFL. Musicians, composers and performers are the good guys. Not "those fucks."