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Verizon Must Reveal Internet Song Swapper
Yahoo! News ^ | January 22, 2K3 | Andy Sullivan

Posted on 01/22/2003 6:59:21 AM PST by rdb3

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Verizon Must Reveal Internet Song Swapper
Tue Jan 21, 6:05 PM ET
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By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recording companies won a victory in their fight against online piracy on Tuesday when a U.S. court ordered Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) to turn over the name of a customer suspected of downloading more than 600 songs in one day over the Internet.

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U.S. District Judge John Bates said Verizon must cooperate with recording industry efforts to track down online song swappers, rejecting the telecommunications giant's assertion that such a move would violate customer privacy and turn it into an online copyright cop.

Verizon said it would appeal the decision.

The case could set an important precedent as the recording industry asks schools, businesses and Internet providers to help them track down individuals who they believe are cutting into CD sales by trading digital songs through "peer to peer" services like Kazaa.

While the industry managed to shut down pioneer service Napster (news - web sites) two years ago, others have sprung up in its place and have attracted millions of users.

Under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites), Internet providers have voluntarily shut down Web sites that contain infringing material, but they have balked at requests to disconnect users who trade songs with each other directly over peer-to-peer networks.

Recording-industry investigators, using automated software, have been able to track down the numerical Internet addresses of file traders, but have not been able to match those addresses with individual names.

Investigators asked Verizon last summer for the name of one customer believed to have downloaded more than 600 songs in one day, but Verizon said they would have to jump through a few more legal hoops because the alleged infringer did not store the songs on Verizon servers but only used its wires to transfer the material.

Bates rejected Verizon's argument, saying that "Verizon has provided no sound reason why Congress would enable a copyright owner to obtain identifying information from a service provider storing the infringing material on its system, but would not enable a copyright owner to obtain identifying information from a service provider transmitting the material over its system."

JUDGE DOESN'T BUY IT

"It is unlikely, the Court concludes, that Congress would seek to protect copyright owners in only some of the settings addressed in the DMCA, but not others," Bates wrote.

Verizon Associate General Counsel Sarah Deutsch said the decision could allow any copyright holder, not just major recording companies, to pry into private communications if they believe their copyrights are being infringed.

"We're obviously disappointed in the decision, and we believe that this has very troubling ramifications for consumers," Deutsch said.

A recording industry spokesman said the decision validated its efforts to contact copyright pirates directly.

"Now that the court has ordered Verizon to live up to its obligation under the law, we look forward to contacting the account holder whose identity we were seeking so we can let them know that what they are doing is illegal," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites).

Over the past several months the RIAA has sent out thousands of letters to schools and businesses asking them to monitor their networks for peer-to-peer use and implying that they could be held liable for infringing activity.

The U.S. Naval Academy seized the computers of 100 students in November and is investigating them for possible court martial after it determined they downloaded copyrighted material.

The industry has also accused Internet providers of profiting from illegal downloading. On Saturday, RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen suggested that Internet providers should pay a fee to offset losses from file trading.

The RIAA represents the five largest recording companies: AOL Time Warner (NYSE:AOL - news)'s Warner Music; Sony Corp (news - web sites).(6758.T)'s Sony Music; Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites) (BERT.UL)'s BMG; Vivendi Universal (NYSE:V - news)'s Universal Music Group; and EMI Group Plc (news - web sites) (EMI.L).


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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: fileswapping; mp3; riaa

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

1 posted on 01/22/2003 6:59:21 AM PST by rdb3
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To: All
There's no need to be mean spirited !

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2 posted on 01/22/2003 7:01:44 AM PST by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: rdb3
First, the RIAA makes the assumption that they're losing money when someone downloads music from a file sharing program on the internet. I know I certainly wouldn't spend a dime on any music. If I can't d/l it, I'll listen to the radio.
Second, 600 songs? That's one hell of a hook.
3 posted on 01/22/2003 7:13:46 AM PST by WSGilcrest
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To: rdb3
The RIAA represents the five largest recording companies: AOL Time Warner

Does this mean that we'll see a case of AOL Time Warner vs. AOL Time Warner?

4 posted on 01/22/2003 7:16:36 AM PST by Koblenz
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To: rdb3
it would seem to me that the only way that riaa could have this information about this one information, is if they hooked themselves into kazaa (for example) with files to be shared, and then reviewed their router logs. hmmm.
5 posted on 01/22/2003 7:16:44 AM PST by johnboy
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To: rdb3
DAY of SUPPORT....FLY your flags (US, a British one, Hungarian, Australian and Japanese one, too if you have them)....and put up your BUSH/CHENEY signs, (and the BIG W's on your SUV's) for the STATE of the UNION next Tuesday, Jan 28th, if you support the President, our MILITARY and the United States of America. PSST....pass it on.
6 posted on 01/22/2003 7:51:37 AM PST by goodnesswins ((I'm supposed to be working on my book and business, but THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT!))
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To: Koblenz
I don't like music piracy, but I like RIAA even less...
7 posted on 01/22/2003 7:54:43 AM PST by DAnconia55
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To: rdb3
The RIAA is getting out of control.
8 posted on 01/22/2003 7:57:36 AM PST by hchutch ("Last suckers crossed, Syndicate shot'em up" - Ice-T, "I'm Your Pusher")
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To: Koblenz
Does this mean that we'll see a case of AOL Time Warner vs. AOL Time Warner?

Wouldn't put it passed the lawyers to engineer such a thing. The real problem is AOL is too slow and its users too stupid to download an MP3.

9 posted on 01/22/2003 8:23:07 AM PST by weikel
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To: weikel
oooooh, that was mean.

True, but mean.

Real case: my boss uses AOL, while the company has broadband access. So, we says, says we, just go on the net via Explorer or Netscape, and log on to AOL's website. You can still download your e-mail, and that's all you need from 'em.

Nope. So, we need a phone line, and she waits as it does the whole dialup bit, and she waits as it loads the web pages (thru AOL's proxy server; slow as molasses).

Meanwhile, twenty feet away, is a box hooked up to a cable modem. Go figger.
10 posted on 01/22/2003 9:03:34 AM PST by Mr. Thorne
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To: Mr. Thorne
True, but mean.

Yeah I do that a lot.

11 posted on 01/22/2003 9:11:34 AM PST by weikel
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To: Mr. Thorne
You can access AOL over TCP/IP as well... (not that you would want to).

Stupid people will always be stupid.

12 posted on 01/22/2003 11:07:59 AM PST by TexRef
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To: weikel
Yeah I do that a lot.

Please report for PC sensitivity training. That is all.

13 posted on 01/22/2003 11:23:59 AM PST by Britton J Wingfield
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To: Britton J Wingfield
Yeah my catcalls and ethnic jokes went over real well there last time.
14 posted on 01/22/2003 11:48:42 AM PST by weikel (Go Go Johnny Go)
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To: TexRef
Yeah, that's how we're hooked into the cable modem (TCP/IP).

But, all she knows or wants to know is AOL. She has like half a dozen favorite sites, but it would be too much trouble to copy these web addresses and paste 'em into IE.

I get this a lot. My part time job is as a DJ, and the head of the team runs things from his home office. He wanted me to put our songlist online as a PDF. I told him to save the text as Rich Text Format (RTF) or Plain Text (TXT), so I could put it all together in InDesign or Quark.

His eyes glazed over...

Ah well. That's why I get paid the mediocre bucks.

= )
15 posted on 01/22/2003 1:05:38 PM PST by Mr. Thorne
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