RIAA's Boston University Subpoena Quashed

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "As first reported by p2pnet, the motion to quash the RIAA's subpoena seeking identities of Boston University students has been granted, at least for the moment. In a 52-page opinion (pdf) the Judge concluded that she could not decide whether or not to quash until she had seen the college's 'Terms of Service Agreement' for internet service. It was only then she could decide what 'expectation of privacy' the students had. She quashed the subpoena calling for the student identities, and told them they could go ahead with a subpoena just for the terms of service agreement. Interestingly the decision was issued on the very same day as the judge in Elektra v. Barker came to some of the same conclusions."

Comments

Won't hold forever

[Todd Knarr]

I'd note that I don't expect these roadblocks to the RIAA getting student's identities to hold forever. It simply isn't permissible in the US legal system to prevent a plaintiff with a legitimate claim from discovering the identity of the person they have that claim against. The best the students can hope for in the long run is to require the RIAA to prove that the IP address and client they have a record of did in fact commit copyright infringement. That's probably a significant hurdle, but if the RIAA clears it then the students will not be able to block discovery of their identities.

Re:Won't hold forever

[TheRealMindChild]

It simply isn't permissible in the US legal system to prevent a plaintiff with a legitimate claim from discovering the identity of the person they have that claim against.

That's just it! Prove to me you HAVE a legitimate claim, THEN you can have the name. Else, bringing up any bogus lawsuit would be easy means of finding anyone's identity.

Re:Won't hold forever

[evanbd]

I'd note that I don't expect these roadblocks to the RIAA getting student's identities to hold forever. It simply isn't permissible in the US legal system to prevent a plaintiff with a legitimate claim from discovering the identity of the person they have that claim against. The best the students can hope for in the long run is to require the RIAA to prove that the IP address and client they have a record of did in fact commit copyright infringement. That's probably a significant hurdle, but if the RIAA clears it then the students will not be able to block discovery of their identities.

So perhaps the courts should be requiring them to demonstrate the legitimateness of the claim first. Especially the highly-questionable joinder of unrelated cases solely for purposes of discovery, followed by dropping of the suit and re-filing individual suits.

Re:Won't hold forever

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

That was an unusual situation; you shouldn't generalize from one trial. I believe that the RIAA is mostly going to get killed in the jury trials, and so does the RIAA believe that, or else there would have been more than just one jury trial in 30,000 cases over 4 1/2 years.

Re:Getting Closer

[Dada Vinci]

The only court that can eliminate RIAA suits across the country is the Supreme Court. This case is in a trial court. The powers of a trial court are MUCH more limited.

A trial-level court can only make decisions that are binding in the case that it is hearing. Right now the case is in the federal court for the District of Massachusetts. The RIAA could just as easily file a suit against different college students in a different federal court and get a different outcome.

The next stop for this case would be an apellate court. The federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is the appellate court that would hear the appeal. If the appellate court rules in favor of the students, then all of the trial courts in a limited geographic area (Maine, Mass, New Hampshire, Rhode Island) are bound. If the RIAA filed outside that area then a different court could come up with a different outcome.

The next stop from the First Circuit would be the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's interpretation of the laws is binding nationwide. But, the Supreme Court hears less than 1% of the cases that people appeal. The odds of this case setting a national precedent are VERY low.

Of course, other judges can be pursuaded by the reasoning in this case, but there's nothing binding about it.

terms of use policy

[pikine]

Do they really need to subpoena it? It's right here.

Re:Here's the thing

[corsec67]

And at the school I went to (CU), once you signed up a MAC address as being valid, any device could use that MAC to authenticate against the wifi service.

I actually used that to get my PSP online when it first came out, Wipeout was the only game that could get online, but the simple web browser (something like Links with graphics in terms of capability) couldn't figure out the login page that CU put up.
So, I had a friend change the MAC address on his laptop to that of my PSP, I signed it up as being "mine", and then my PSP worked on the wifi.

So, the the device I used to register the MAC address had absolutely nothing to do with the device that I was using most of the time that actually had that MAC address built in.

A MAC address is about as identifying as a nametag.