RIAA File-Sharing Crusade Hits Major Stumbling Block

[drfemoe]

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1483837/20031219/index.jhtml?headlines=true

The recording industry's crusade against illegal file-sharing suffered a major setback Friday when a three-judge panel determined the method used to identify online pirates could no longer be used.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned a previous federal decision that upheld the Recording Industry Association of America's practice of obtaining the identity of suspected illegal file-sharers through their Internet service providers.

Through such subpoenas, the RIAA was able to file more than 340 copyright-infringement lawsuits, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, since September. Many defendants have settled, fearing costly court proceedings (see "Sixty-Four Alleged File-Sharers Back Down In Face of RIAA Lawsuits").

The ruling doesn't bar the RIAA from ever again suing users of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks who trade copyrighted works, though doing so will be more expensive and time consuming. No longer will ISPs, such as Verizon, AOL and Earthlink, be required to surrender the names and addresses of customers just because the RIAA provides a list of the Internet protocol addresses of suspected pirates. An IP address is like a digital fingerprint used to identify each computer connected to the Internet.
.... con't

Yeeee Hewwwww .. let freedom RING :party:

[Jack_Dawson]

1. I think it only applies to Verizon, no?

[drfemoe]

2. Nooooooo ...

The controversy over the ISP subpoenas stemmed from a clause in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which stated that a copyright holder may "request the clerk of any United States district court to issue a subpoena to for identification of an alleged infringer."

[Sterling]

3. Good the end is that much closer

One day music will again be
A. affordable
B. good

But not until the monopoly is broken and that won't happen until the corporate music industry as we know it has been destroyed.

I wish people could make the connection that this does matter to our culture and has political ramifications which allows people like the BFEE to run the show.

[Voltaire99]

4. Not really

Come on. Music is affordable: 99 cents a song through iTunes.

And music is already good, in fact, very, very good: you just need to avoid the corporate garbage and seek out the rich and vibrant indy scene. Or look beyond pop and rock to the many other genres in the burgeoning, uncontainable music world.

But if what you really want is popular taste to swing in line with yours -- heh, my friend, good luck!

[Selwynn]

5. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Not because I file-share, but because the RIAA are a bunch of fucking asshole bastard morons who should spend more time capitalizing on new technology and signing GOOD MUSIC than crying like babys and suing 14 year olds.

[theoceansnerves]

6. woohoo

a hell yes! kick