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Comcast Sued For Giving Customer Info to RIAA
maczealot writes "The first legal missile has been fired at ISP collaboration. Comcast, the top U.S. cable TV network operator, is being sued by a Seattle-area woman for disclosing her name and contact information, court records showed Thursday." From the article: "...no court authorized Comcast to release names and addresses of its customers, or notified his client that her information had been given to an outside party..."
Of downloading music....
I mean, seems like she likely got caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and she's pissed at the people who helped her get caught.
Technically, they could have done the same thing without using her name. It's their cable line. They can trace the IP to which box on which house it's at, which is their equipment,and say "the equipment the person you asked about, connected to this box at this address, at these times" and given that info, just opened up a John Doe subpeona for the resident living there to show up in court, and the name would be revealed there.
Quite frankly, I don't understand why general /. population is so pro-copyright infringement when it comes to media, but god-forbid someone infringes on GPL and all hell breaks loose.
Fucking hypocrites.
Did legal speak get to that attorney?
From the article:
"Comcast should respect the rights of privacy who pay them monthly bills," Lybeck said.
When did privacy start paying bills? If thats an accurate quote, this suit has no chance. If the lawyer doesn't make press statements well, what will happen in court?
Nice points - I'm adding them to my list of "Cunning legal defences to f**k the system" - including, but not limited to "MP3 is lossy compression - my copies are not copies but derivative works" - I can't be held responsible until the person who *ripped* the movie/mp3 is found and prosecuted (otherwise, how are we to know that he wasn't licenced to produce a derivative?)
Programming is an Art. I am an Artist. Does that mean I get to wear a daft hat?
"Too bad I can't just go around and asking debt collection agencies to gather up money for me. I'm sure someone would disagree with me if I randomly decided some poor bastard off the street owed me $3000 or face a very long trial attempting to prove that I don't."
When has anyone been distributing anything you created without your permission?
Vote for Pedro
I hate this sh**t, someone else controlling every aspect of your life.
Said like a true teenager. You're a little green to be posting in the Big Boy forums.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.