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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.'"
One of the nice things about capitalism is that despite the fact that some companies in our country can "buy" legislature, when it starts hurting other's bottom lines, as in this case (bad for the cable company), things start to change.
Perhaps those lawyers are good for something after all.
Its good to see another company steeping up and trying to protect people from the RIAA. The more companies that do this the better, this issue is getting a lot of attention and with more companies fighting back the attention will continue to grow. No matter what, when this is in the news the RIAA continues to look terrible and creates more and more enemies. Many of the people that they are suiing are parents of children who have done the downloading and this really upsets and hits home for many American households. When this started off it was just mainly people interested in legal matters and people that are interested in computers that were following the story. As it continues it has really started to affect the average person as the lawsuits are so prevelant and directed at anyone. There are also many political groups now who are trying to step in and fight the RIAA. In my opinion all the companies fighting the RIAA and all the negative press against them is another step forward. I think that the current buisness model that they are using is going to have to change or those that can change it will step up and do so. Many people around the world have been brought up in an era of downloading music and will never purchase there cds at there current prices again. What happens to the RIAA if they stop the downloaders(which they never will) and no one goes back to purchasing there cds.
Making this many enemies is never a good thing for an association that relies on purchases from the people that they have upset.
AOL is this huge turd of an ISP and they get only 2 subpoenas, when the other ISPs get 100s?
...
Either all AOL users are very nice honest people (not bloody likely), or they are all (minus 2) so inane they only know the "you've got mail!" part of the internet, or somebody at the RIAA is on AOL's payroll
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
None of Netzero or MSN users have been sued by RIAA according to the link provided in the article. (1100 subpoenas) I wonder why?
New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
The struggle within technology and entertainment conglomerates (the newly rechristened Time Warner, Sony, Viacom, even Apple) is an interesting one. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of those board rooms.
But I'd like to disagree with part of and seek clarification on part of your second comment.
How does Apple promote piracy on their Mac platform? Do they do so anymore than, as you mention, Dell, or other technology companies? And Michael Eisner did, actually, attack other companies, including hp, which is a considerably larger company than Dell.
(Admittedly, I think Mr. Eisner was a little off his rocker on that day in particular. But I bet that Mike, off his rocker, is probably more sane than some of the folks at Time Warner and Sony.)
justen
They stole source code from KaZaa to make the lite version, they violated the license agreement to abuse network resources. They should be subject to the DMCA sword they weild as they have abused and stole intellectual property.
I hope Charter keeps them tied up in litigation while other Software distributors who have had THEIR networks hacked and violated by them levy lawsuits down upon RIAA. The only thing RIAA needs to know is how much love is NOT there for them and chances are the majority will fall in line with any who oppose them.
Think the "Music" industry is hurting how? Boycott all CD/DVD/Tape purchases for a full year and listen to the good ol radio...see how much money they have to harass people when they break the laws they weild themselves. (Just go to the concerts, thats where muscians make their money anyway.)
All i can say is that while their tech support/service (general customer care) is more then lacking, the fact that they lifted the cap of all cable subscribers for a year and half (up here in MI, btw, were getting 2mbit dl's for basic price), and are now taking this stance against totalitarism , has made me a loyal customer for (hopefully) years to come. Keep it up guys!
The RIAA suing parents and accounthoulders could kill isp business. Nobodys going to want always on broadband in their home if it makes them a target of financialy devastating lawsuit. So for Charter, Verizon, Etc, they can either fight now or watch the RIAA's scare campaign cause their customers to pull internet access.
Imagine parents hear that one of their neighbors got sued by the RIAA because their kid was misusing the internet. They most likely have a vague idea of what the net really is and even less idea what their kid does with it. The likely response pull the plug. The net is just not that big a deal in their lives.
This is a very insightful comment because it reflects that Charter top-brass probably understands that the legal system is an essentially incomplete system.
If they are smart enough, and can raise the higher-level-than-legal-level issue of social good using the statutes provided by the legal system, they might be able to create an assertion in the legal system that talks about its own unprovability in court, in which case the court might - not fully comprehending the incompleteness of formal systems - look for the validity of the assertion in the social system, wherein they will discover that it is ridiculous for the RIAA to claim no legitimate uses of the P2P.
And Equally ridiculous for the RIAA to claim that by supressing all economic activity not under its control it has somehow raised the total level of economic activity. Reflecting upon how patently untrue the RIAA has been so far, may cause the courts to self-reflect upon their own behavior, in which case there may be a spark of intelligence ... upon which my sig will come alive. As my current sig is Die Die Metallica, Die Die RIAA, Die Die My Darling , its coming alive will cause the death of the RIAA, and Charter may never have to prove the assertions it made fully understanding the unprovability of its assertions ....
Sorry, if have been caught up in some strange loops. I was just rereading Hofstadter's GEB and could not help but ...
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
I feel bad for both of you. I have Charter and I have impecible service. I've had 1 network outage in a year and a half (that I was awake for). Possibly overpriced, but the day I moved to my new appartment, they were able to be there that morning and set everything up for me without a hitch.
Of course, my geographical location isn't exactly a metropolitan area. I might just be lucky because there aren't nearly as many customers here than there is for the rest of you
As much as we may question the RIAA's motives, law is law, and if you deny the RIAA the information of those who violate THE LAW then you may as well deny other, more "legitimate" businesses and corporations rights to what they own. Again, I disagree with the RIAA and the motives they use, but this isn't a chance for vigilante ISP's to deny the RIAA what it is entitled to under law.
A blog like any other.
Didn't people here want the RIAA to leave the P2P apps alone a couple years ago, instead saying they should go after the people violating copyrights? Now that they're doing that you very same people are suggesting that the RIAA be denied the right to protect its IP? Which way do you want it? Would you rather they go after the P2P apps again and possibly get even more restrictive internet legislation passed or they go after the people responsible for violating current copyright laws?
...who have so many spammers that they're now in the SpamHaus database, and whose spammers have been joe-jobbing my domain (from numerous charter.com and charter.net connections) for the last month, and whose sysadmins competely ignore my complaints? Just checking...