"Record industry case threatens everyone's anonymity online: lawyer

ANGELA PACIENZA
Canadian Press

Tuesday, March 16, 2004


TORONTO (CP) - The record industry's attempts to sue people who share music online threaten to change the widely held expectation that everyone's anonymous when surfing the Internet, lawyers representing the public interest argued Monday.

A ruling in favour of the Canadian Recording Industry Association would mean the loss of anonymity of anything shared using peer-to-peer software, including photos and text, for the 29 people named in the civil action, said Alex Cameron.

Cameron is representing the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic in the Federal Court case pitting the recording-industry association against high-speed Internet service providers.

"(The) effect of the order would be to strip away anonymity," said Cameron. "Those documents were shared on the assumption the sharing was done anonymously . . . (if order is granted) people will perceive that online activities are no longer anonymous."

The recording industry took its first step towards lawsuits against so-called uploaders in early February. It filed a statement of claim against 29 unnamed people who allegedly shared songs with others using programs like KaZaA and iMesh.

But before it can recoup cash from the alleged copyright infringers, the association has to figure out the identities of the 29 people, currently known only by pseudonyms used online such as barracuda-ben, geekboy and sweetydee11.

It's hoped the courts will force Internet service providers Bell Canada, Shaw Communications, Rogers Communications, Videotron and Telus Corp. to translate those nicknames into real names and addresses.

Lawyers for the association have argued that contract agreements between individuals and their Internet service providers spell out instances where personal information may be disclosed. "


Read more at canada.com

Ha they can't get me for sharing DMusic content on my HD, and if they find my unshared RIAA crap, then they will have hacked into my box, and then they'll have hell to pay. besides that, having a 33.6 modem helps deture hackers, it sofa king slow that they will have a 'fun' time getting in.

If they target me, it's because of my comments towards them. I have none of their shit on my HD unless you count a few mp3s from the artists' sites. And I don't share lossy files. I only deal in demos and live recordings...

Good luck hacking through firewalls designed to protect brand new patent pending biotech secrets here at this university, and then into a continuously updated osX with its own firewalls and filevault.

ohmygodtheriaatriedtohackmycomputerandtheirmotherboardsmeltedtryingtohackmyencryption--wheee!

Old people. Nobody under 30 wants to take the Internet away from the public, control it, limit it, poison it, etc. Just ignorant old people. I have no doubt that every baby boomer hates me because I'm young. If they don't, then that feeling I have should still point to a big problem. The Internet belongs to my generation. Just because you can take it away temporarily doesn't mean we won't take it back. When you're all dead liberty will again rear it's "ugly" head.

How come Canada seems to be fighting this more actively than we did?

I don't know about anybody else, but my firewall has been detecting a hell of a lot of scans lately.

Shmoo

Shmoo,

That reminds me.. I have been experiencing something odd with Peer Guardian. When visiting certain sites it used to simply log the scans while I surfed the site. And now, for numerous sites (sunmicrosystems, espn, and a few more), I have actually been completely unable to view the site unless Peer Guardian is closed. I use Mozilla Firefox, but the problem is directly connected to allowing/disallowing scans.

As far as number of scans, got 2400 in 13 minutes from 3 different sources yesterday.

"How come Canada seems to be fighting this more actively than we did?"

Probably because music and movies are big money for the US. Our biggest and the Gov wants to make sure all that keeps happening.

The internet could really become a dangerous place if we all have to sign in with our "real" names..

TheSherminator, just think, us baby boomers could hunt you down for real just for stating that everybody under 30 is "old people" :0)

LOL my friend, you'e given me a good laugh! pepe

grr! =)

seriously though, this is all to blame on technologically illiterate old people (congress).

Sherm, old? When you are 60 I will be 70, ever seen a pair of elderly men fight, now that's a hoot!

Unless one of them is George foreman, OUCH!

>Date: March 17, 2004 @ 12:12 AM
>Shmoo,

>That reminds me.. I have been >experiencing something odd with Peer >Guardian. When visiting certain sites it >used to simply log the scans while I surfed >the site. And now, for numerous sites >(sunmicrosystems, espn, and a few more), >I have actually been completely unable to >view the site unless Peer Guardian is >closed. I use Mozilla Firefox, but the >problem is directly connected to >allowing/disallowing scans.

>As far as number of scans, got 2400 in 13 >minutes from 3 different sources >yesterday.

This is the thing: A lot of the corporations that were neutral to other stuff that was not theirs, have joined effort or become informers, and thus become a risk.

For example, the RIAA could pass the tip to the MPAA that ip X is sharing movies. Sometimes "neutral" companies also inform companies actively suing ppl, and thus they have become banned in Peerguardian and Protowall IPDB.

Old people wanting to take away the 'net? Belongs to your generation?

BS.

I've been going online since there was nothing but BBS and used a 1200 baud modem. No one's gonna take my 'net from me...especially the "younger generation" who will become the politicians in a few years from now (aging is an unavoidable evil)...and who will become the recording executives who'll be suing your kids.

That came outright ugly... never mind the ">", i intended to copy Shmoos post before mine so you could see where it came from...