RIAA Campaign Against Students Hits Stormier Seas

Posted by Zonk on Thursday August 9, 2007 @08:31AM from the get-out-of-the-pool dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "It's been astutely observed that the RIAA's "ex parte" campaign against "John Doe" college students seems to have run into much stormier waters than its campaign against regular folks. Discovery motions were thrown out by the judges in cases involving the University of New Mexico and the College of William and Mary, and motions to quash have been made by students at Boston University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of South Florida. The RIAA might find it particularly troubling that the students are coming in armed with substantial expert witness declarations attacking the entire underpinning of the RIAA's case, that the students are finding each other and banding together, and that the Chairman of Boston University's Computer Science Department went to bat — as an expert witness — for the BU students."

1 of 296 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Does this have broader implications? by Shambly · 2007-08-09 08:49 · Score: 5, Interesting

They are arguing that an IP is not a unique identifier especially on university networks. Also that the discovery process can only occur after the people have been identified and not before so that looking at the IP traces cannot be done before they are notified. The first part may be of some help if you are using a router or sharing your connections but the second part could be very interresting as it would imply that the RIAA has no right to check your IP until you are notified so they would lose their enforcement power and have to rely on the police to do the work.