By Andy Sullivan

The U.S. government sided with the recording industry in its dispute with Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) on Friday, saying a digital-copyright law invoked by record labels to track down Internet song-swappers did not violate the U.S. Constitution.

The move, while expected, came as a blow to the Internet provider as it struggles to shield its customers.

"We would have expected they would have recognized there are important privacy and safety issues beyond the narrow copyright claims here," Verizon Vice President Sarah Deutsch, who is also associate general counsel, told Reuters.

Verizon (VOD), and a recording-industry trade group have been in court since September, arguing over whether Verizon should be forced to help crack down on the online song-swapping that record labels blame for a decline in CD sales.

The Recording Industry Association of America says Verizon is required under law to help its members protect their copyrights. Verizon says it is willing to help, but that the law only applies to Web pages stored on its computers, not the "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa that merely travel across its wires.

A district court sided with the recording industry in January. Verizon appealed the decision, and is arguing that the names of suspected copyright violators should not be revealed in the meantime.

Verizon argues that the law in question, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, known as the DMCA, violates free-speech and due-process rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court in Washington, the Department of Justice said the law is not unconstitutional. The Justice Department is required to weigh in on cases where constitutional issues are raised.

Deutsch said she was disappointed that the Justice Department would take such a stand, as stalkers and other criminals could conceivably use the law to track down victims.

RIAA WELCOMES RULING

"The government's filing today supports the proposition that we have long advocated: copyright owners have a clear and unambiguous entitlement to determine who is infringing their copyrights online and that entitlement is constitutional," said Matt Oppenheimer, Senior Vice President for Business and Legal Affairs at the RIAA.

"Verizon's persistent efforts to protect copy thieves on pirate peer-to-peer networks will not succeed," he told Reuters.

Justice said the law did not violate the free-speech rights of everyday users because it is only targeted at those who violate copyrights.

"It is manifest that the DMCA's subpoena provision targets the identity of alleged copyright infringers, not spoken words or conduct commonly associated with expression," Justice said.

Justice also said that the law did not violate due-process protections because nothing in the Constitution specifically barred the investigative process set up by the DMCA, which requires record labels to get approval from a court clerk before asking Verizon or other Internet providers to surrender customer names.

Verizon argues that record labels should be required to get permission from a judge, rather than a clerk, a move that would add another legal hurdle to any copyright investigation.

Verizon says such a move is necessary to protect user privacy because otherwise any copyright holder -- or anybody claiming to be a copyright holder -- could easily obtain the name and address of any Internet user.

Is anyone suprised by this?

www.clearstatic.org

Oof. This is bad. Record bad. I am not happy. They are attacking my privacy with a chainsaw and a wood chipper.

"Justice said the law did not violate the free-speech rights of everyday users because it is only targeted at those who violate copyrights."

1) The everday users are the ones who "Violate Copyrights".

2)Just because you are ALLEGED TO HAVE violated a copywrite dose not mean that your consitutional right to privacy. In this country your INNOCENT UNTILL _PROVEN_ GUILTY, not Innocent untill the RIAA susspects that you may be violating copywrite laws.

Why don't the terrorists do the world a favor and bomb the RIAA head-quarters? I'm sure no one will miss those self righteous anal retentive jousters.

Well, The end of P2P is near along with our rights to privacy. tell you what when that happens i might as well go back to Dial-Up.The reason i can see that it has to go thru a court clerk and not a judge is because the court system will be flooded with this nonsense and bullshit. if anybody is the ifadel it's the RIAA,SESAC,ASCAP,BMI. These federal judges only protect are rights so long as their decsicion keeps them in office. i also think people will go back to local BBS type dial-up for their file sharing. hey "NUKE THE RIAA" do us all a favor.

I will go on. If they want to stop us all, they'll have to fucking kill me. And I bet they would. "Death penalty for copyright infringers!! Give them what they deserve!! They forced hard-working artists onto the streets starving themselves to death, the criminals should get what's coming!!"

PLEASE! You fucking idiots. How much more stupid will this get? And I don't mean stupid as in "oh I'm all upset," I mean actually NONSENSE STUPID. Can anyone actually believe how fucking STUPID this has gotten? I can't yet at the same time I am adapting to realize how pathetically fascist and blind the majority of America is. Or perhaps just the minority, the leaders.

P2P will live on, once someone realizes that murdering their own customers to improve sales is.... Well, you know. Just STUPID.

How long? Not long. Cuz what you reap, is what you sow!

Geez. I tried to stay away but then I heard about this.

This really pisses me off. But that's okay. They may get to drag one person through court. Maybe two.

But it's already too late. Trust me. I haven't asked you to do that yet, have I?

Yeah, I know, I can't spell silicon without talking about breasts. So shoot me. My wife doesn't mind.

May 14. UCLA Law School. Moot Court.
DMCA hearings.

The DMCA does not apply to music.

ugh. ouch. eek. the slippery slope sure do hurt.

My friend just told me that there are currently 3,794,860 users on KaZaA (the Devil), sharing 836,560,290 files (6,291,328gb). So at $150,000 per file (RIAA Math)... Thats $125,484,043,500,000, and $33,066,843.97 per customer... which results in 3,794,860 bankrupt potential customers who will now hate the RIAA/Music Industry, and will tell atleast 5 people of there ordeal, and negative feelings twards the RIAA, and they will lose another 18,974,300 customers who have cash to spend. The RIAA should realize that sueing your customers is not good buisness practace.

I wonder what the judges new houses look like and I wonder how many cars they have now. Did any of them get a new wardrobe? Do they suddenly have lots of new, expensive watches and rings and the like to wear?

Well we all know what happens next:

- The RIAA begins flooding every ISP (except maybe AOL Time Warner) with thousands of subpoenas.

- ISPs will be forced to become full-time RIAA cops. Afterlosing the majority of their customer base to lawsuits and dial-up (who needs broadband if you're afraid to go near any content,) the ISPs will begin to abandon broadband.

- Technology will suffer (greatly) and many more companies will go under.

- (Here's the important one!) Consumers will become so afraid of lawsuits that they won't even go near major label music -- not even to purchase it legitimately.

- All of the RIAA's and major label's funds will eventually dry up as sales drop an astounding 98%!

- The RIAA goes under and the multinational companies that own the major labels will either sell or close their music divisions.

- Finally, the music returns to those who really care about it. Without heavy lobbying and huge campaign donations from the RIAA, the government begins to doubt the need for such strict copyright laws and modifies and/or rescinds the DMCA. File-sharing begins to resurface as a welcome means to get people to hear music and indie music sales flourish.

Let's just hope the process doesn't take too long.

Lets get real here. It is all big brother. They want to monitor us so the DCMA was written. They are in contract with the RIAA and all the other watchdog groups to keep an eye on us. BB wants to make sure we are being good little boys and girls. Well to hell with BB and all the watchdog groups out there. The common parson AKA us will win out in the end. P2P is here to stay and when they finally realize it then they will fall to the wayside.

In this context, the "guvmint's" condemnation of Cuba's kangaroo-court show trials of 80 dissidents who we know will be condemned to long prison terms (and its complaining about Cuba's sentencing three hijackers to death only one day or so after they were caught), smacks of outright hypocrisy, especially if they encourage the same kind of behavior for the recording wing of the multinational entertainment-media complex.

It also confirms my suspicions that the RIAA is so enamoured of the same kind of methodology employed most infamously in the Stalinist regimes of China and Cuba (i.e. constant monitoring of computer activities, encouragement of ratting, decisions and strategy based on outright paranoia and distrust of the unwashed masses) that they would adopt such tactics to further their own selfish aims, however different they are from those of the governments in question.

I likewise predict a "domino" effect here: not only the trend towards quasi-socialist control of the tech industry and the manufacture of computers etc., but also the subversion, sabotage and destruction of new technology, the driving down of our society towards Third World slave state status (notice the trend of exporting once-high-paying manufacturing jobs overseas, thus consigning the rest of the populace towards low-paying service jobs such as Wal-Mart clerk and further adversely affecting consumer spending), and probably, down the road, the recommendation of the death penalty for those the RIAA deems "serial copyright infringers" (as someone else above had also noted).

It is also very revealing that anybody who stepped up to the plate to present proposals to reasonably settle this issue were all rejected out of hand by the "my-way-or-the-highway" ideologues of the RIAA, which shows that total domination and absolute power are among their aims.

This is also a referendum of where we are headed overall as a society. The U.S., after all, was founded on the ideal of freedom and openness and enterpreneurialism. But the RIAA's closed, exclusivist agenda, as applied, threatens to bring down the curtain on these traditions and reduce us to the level of the most repressive, closed societies, which have no tradition of entrepreneurialism whatsoever, where everything is skewed and tilted towards a privileged few and every effort in the world is made to keep the bottom end of the population (a.k.a. the "unwashed masses"), AT the bottom.

In short . . . yet one more step towards the end of freedom and the beginning of serfdom and bondage.

Here is my 2 cents:
I called the RIAA a couple months ago, and confronted them on this.
They already have permission to go after Users, they told me they can go after AOL customers. (They used different language of course)
The RIAA has shown nothing in regards to suing or going after users, or there hiding all the activity to sue people, which i highly doubt.
This is my opinion, the government is obviously corrupt, but now that the RIAA can obtain names, should you really be afraid? I would say No, why you ask, because what do they have so show for when so far i havn't seen AOL sue one P2P users who is swapping files. Please tell me if you have heard any.
Thanks,
directive

Also, i am not advocating anyone from breaking the law, but if you logically thing about it, if the RIAA has had the power to contact customers, what do they have to show for? Absolutly nothing.

Which just goes to show: The RIAA's agenda is pretty much all about disenfranchisement, usurpation, subjugation and enslavement -- and very maliciously at that.

Don't want to get busted?

Disable file sharing. Just be a leech...certainly better than being sued.

M1,
You should refrase your statement to say, "Don't want to get busted? Enable Filesharing"
Though i do not advocate sharing unauthorized file sharing, file sharing is unpolicable.

W-B,
Well said.

If it werent for the RIAA P2P would be looked at as the biggest revolution in information distribution and storage since the Printing Press, and worshiped like a god! But because of the RIAA using P2P as there scape goat for falling sales, its looked at as the devil. One should try arguing that this is a 1st amendment case, that this has to do with the FREEDOM of the press, of information. I dont see the RIAA going after public libraries which distribute hundreds of CDs to unpaying customers in an UNAUTHORIZED manner. Fuck the RIAA!

And how is file sharing unpolicable? Cant they get your IP that way?

FadedInTheLight,
Unpolicable because of the amount of people using it, and because of the way the RIAA hasn't done much of anything if it already had the power to go after atleast AOL users.

The RIAA has already had the power to go after people, Verizon is one of the only ISP'S that actually questioned the RIAA.
Thanks

The thing is regardless of the administration position, the Justice Department has to weigh in in cases that have consititional questions raised. It is always the governments position that the laws that congress has passed are legal. I'm not saying that the goernment is on either side, they just have to defend the law...

I sent a copy of this article along with a copy of the previous article to Dateline@nbc.com I think you all should email them your concerns as american citizens as to what this may do to our privacy rights and freedoms. I urge anyone who reads this to write to them it's time to in the immortal words of the late bob marley "get up stand up ,stand up for your rights and don't give up the fight" please email them if we don't all band to together to get something done then we all deserve to get doggy love made to us by the RIAA and our Government

I wonder how long before the RIAA goes bankrupt doing this? They say their profits are down but they seem to love wasting their money going after teenagers and suing them. I haven't bought a CD in over a year and have no plans to do so untill the RIAA ceases to exist.

All I can say is "FUCK"

Currently 4,333,868 users on Kazaa, sharing close to seven million gigs of files. I have been watching this number for a few weeks, and it has gone from three and a half million users peak to what it is now. I may be jumping to a conclusion, but it seems that the RIAA is driving away more and more dissatified customers. If only there were a way get the word out to all four million people on Kazaa. I mean, that's four million people that need to have a tight firewall set up before its too late. I'm safe for now, since my cable modem is provided through AOLTW; I just wish that my IP were'nt set in stone.

Why don't all the music lovers of the country band together and form our own political party and get some people elected to Congress. If we get enough people up there, then we can repeal the DMCA and put an end to this nonsense.

Americans need to re-discover the ways of Violent Protest.

It pisses me off to see how so many people are scared of getting caught, like little pussies. The RIAA nly has power because of fear and abstract concepts which they themselves invented.

THE RIAA DOES NOT PRODUCE ENOUGH REAL GOOD AND SERVICES TO PAY FOR THEIR CRUSADE AGAINST US.

What the fuck are they thinking?

Since when does some retarded company tell people where, when and how they get their music???!!!

To 'Spica': You tell me how some self-appointed do-gooders in "guvmint" get off telling us what vehicles to drive (G-d forbid it be an SUV), whether or not to defend ourselves (no guns, mind you), what to eat or drink (think of the similarly-motivated lawsuits going 'round against the fast-food industry, never mind I'm not necessarily defending them here), and of course telling smokers where they could or could not puff (think the recent anti-smoking ban imposed by Mayor Bloomberg in New York), and we can maybe find a common answer. It's all interlocking, even if the aims differ among certain parties.

I think we need to be clear that the RIAA is right for busting people that are infringing their copyrights. If we dont do that...it looks like we're just a bunch of disgruntled pirates.

The point that needs to be made is the subversion of due process that the DMCA creates by allowing them to get anyone's personal info just by dropping a form off at a clerk's office.

The DMCA has gone so far beyond its original intentions that it should be scrapped just because of that. I think it's been successfully used in cases involving lawnmower parts and printer cartridges. Oh well...Congressmen understanding technology is about as likely as Saddam being the next president of the USA.

Here's an idea.. I'd love to see what would happen if someone were to threaten any of these fine men and women of the RIAA with a subpoena, claiming they have copyrighted material... I'm all about giving someone a taste of their own medicine.... Let's see, first we'll file a form requiring their presence in court, WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE. Then (or maybe before then) we'll hack their computer, searching for anything copyrighted and delete it because it was copyrighted, so it MUST be illegal material. We'll make them prove it wasn't illegal, which would be kind of hard since the only evidence they had was likely erased... Then we'll punish them at the maximum rate, what is it, $150,000 a song? The 7 people in the rogues gallery should provide a great chance for the courts to prove what they can do...

M1,
I see what of what you are saying, but the RIAA should spend its time doing someone more profitable, they are fighting a battle in which they cannot win. They should push there efforts elsewhere, going after people is the wrong step to take.
I guess that is where i disagree. They should spend there time elsewhere, filesharing will get bigger, no matter who they sue.
Thanks

Probably The best thing for them to do is compete with Kazaa, which they choose not to even consider. This may be impossible, but it may be worth it.
Thanks

America: I hardly knew ya.

America: a grand idea – never realized.

America: sic transit gloria mundi. (So the glory of this world passes away.)

Peace is War.

Get used to it, because it's going to stay this way until the end of the world. Rebel, protest, fight, question, no matter what you do it will all end up back here again. Sure, throw a revolution if you want to, but just be warned that it will only last for a little while.

I don't believe in unnecessary violence, but it looks like the "violent protest" phase should come if we want at least a temporary change. We need to let the world know what is going on, because the people that have not opened their eyes to issues lke this stay on the government's side. TRUTH = LIES meaning, what most people have learned to be the truth all their life, is actually lies fabricated by those in authority. So work on spreading the word most of all.

If you read KaZaA's EULA [End User License Agreement] it says not to:
2.14 Collect or store personal data about other users.
Which is how their so called "net detectives" get the users IP.
So basically they are breaking KaZaA license agreements and should be sued.

It seems like what the RIAA is doing, is wiretapping one's internet connection without a court order. Also, the RIAA is NOT a law enforcement agency, so they are breaking one's privacy.

Next, the RIAA thinks they are the government, and they are NOT.

Also, I think if this "kicking people off the net", or "suing file traders" becomes widespread, people will call congress and pressure them to do something, and stop the RIAA.

As Fred Von Lohmann from EFF said, "More People use KaZaa than voted for President Bush"

Are you nuts!? Violent protest? Do you want every single file swapper to be treated as a terrorist or revolutionary?Its bad enough that the RIAA and the rest of the scared shitless government is looking to hack our computers, don't give them any half-assed reason to get more aggressive.

Results can be achieved only through civil disobedience, in this type of situation. So let's file-swap whenever and wherever we can, because we can't do anything form within a cell.

@ eightBit

“Are you nuts!?
Violent protest?
Do you want every single file swapper to be treated as a terrorist or revolutionary?”

Google search “an agent provocateur is” (include quotes).

Ask yourselves: If the DoJ is obligated to defend (weigh in on) any law – no matter how unjust, would they not also monitor websites that might be construed as advocating law-breaking?

America: I hardly knew ya.

America: a grand idea – never realized.

America: sic transit gloria mundi. (So the glory of this world passes away.)

Its no different then the DoJ supporting Microshit with stopping the sell of Xbox modchips and shoving rocci behind bars for 5 months and stealing his isonews.com domain name.

They made an example of him, face it, unless something changes soon, were all bait waiting to be screwed.

It has to stop, or where is our future?

In the toilet perhaps.

You had it right with your last sentence Spikester. In The toilet. Rocci is yet another example of the damage the dmca laws can do. It didn't used to be illegal to create mod chips; At worst, it would void your warranty.

Now adays, You void your warranty and spend some time in jail. This security by obsecurity method is very bad. No serious cryptologist would recommend such manuvering.

Take most forms of copy protection; Most of it is quiet weak, But the consumer isn't allowed to know this information anymore. If your a developer looking to ensure your product is a difficult thing to pir8; By law you can't really be sure the program is going to do as it's author claims, because it's illegal for you to reverse engineer it; and you could be sued if you did publish your findings.

Adobe pulled a similiar stunt; had the FBI arrest a russian citizen who was visiting giving a discussion about a program he wrote which showed an embarrasing flaw in the ebook encryption adobe was offering.

(It was nothing more then a glorified xor loop; but adobe was claiming this product would securly "encrypt" your precious book, so that only authorized persons could read it). In the old days before dmca, adobe would have been nicely sued for this bullshit. Ala DMCA; they had the author of this work arrested at a conference. Adobe quickly condemned their own actions; but by then the wheels of justice (tm) were already moving. Albit slowly and in the wrong direction, moving they were.

For myself; the terrible actions of the RIAA employing low attacks towards P2P networks (hiring companies to load these networks with garbage files); well, they've created their own enemy. Since they attacked verizon for the name of a fellow sharing a measily 600 tunes; I've ripped over 8,000 myself.

I wasn't even really interested in ripping or downloading music until the RIAA pulled this latest crap. It's very underhanded; and the companies who are producing these bogus files, and no doubt charging a small fortune for the lame "service" you do offer, You should be ashamed of yourselfs. Cashing in on the RIAA's ignorance of technology like this.

I personally think you should rip any audio cd you come across; and release it in mp3/ogg form someplace on the net. Screw the riaa, they've been screwing you for years. And they're going to screw you with a larger dick this time.

..I am serious, I want to see Cary Sherman on the 6 o'clock news. With his face cut in half.
I want to see them scared for their fucking lives.

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58558,00.html
This article by wired.com is just way off. These articles are reasons why the record companies are winning, the media is SO slanted!
Plus allowing the RIAA to do whatever it wants without a judges order is just another reason to show that the Bush Admin, or most if not all politicians threw out the constitution when they entered office.
Hopefully things will change.

I think that people will subscribe to the legal networks to download their music, this way they are not going to end up in jail for "stealing", i don't like it, but that is why the record companies are making the U.S. government comply, the end result will be that the record companies will be able to set up their on-line music networks and charge money to subscribers, now that we are all scared to go to jail for "grand theft"!

"now that we are all scared to go to jail for "grand theft"!

This statement is totally off.
Not sure if you consulted all the P2P users about this statment.
The RIAA has had the power and it has shown no data for sometime now that it can go after people. P2P will only get bigger.
In regards to there pay services, they are a joke, besides, by signing up for them, they get more money to control music the way they want.

To all an d George to(Though he doesn't use kazaa),
Just got off the phone with the RIAA.
Had a nice talk with a gentlemen, though i do not have his name.
I was nice but firm, and found out some new Information. Feel free to call the riaa and ask them the questions i asked.
I asked them, how many they have sepeaned since 1998, they said 100.
Then i asked if there inforcement will rise, and the guy was pretty general and said they will continue to do what they can to help the music industry from unauthorized file sharing.
This is what i got, this in no way advocates illegal filesharing, but in my opinion, the RIAA is all about smoke and mirrors in regards to subeanas. 100 in 4 1/2 years, quite honestly is absurd and is nothing.
Your chances of being subeaned(S?) is like one in 50-100 million.
Just want to let all know here that though they say they have the power, nothing is actually going on. The guy was really nice, but i could tell that they guy did not want to answer my question when it came to asking why only 100 subeanas(S?) had gone out when there are 20 million people sharing files.
Hope this helps the cause (Though i suggest people will use it as an excuse to share more), i do encourage all the share indie files!!
Thanks

i do encourage all to share indie files!!

indie = independent and authorized music files.

The real question is...

How much money does it take to buy out the Justice department these days. I am suprised that those RIAA folks would rather pass money out to Washington, rather then to pocket it all. You think that they have too much even for them??

Umm....buying out the justice dept? I can understand them giving campaign contributions to congressmen as a buy out....but how exactly is the DOJ wrong for enforcing US law?

Laws the contradict the constitution or throw it out the back door.

“...but how exactly is the DOJ wrong for enforcing US law?”

Because the DoJ is so politicized that it doesn’t / won’t stand up to political pressure and instead caves in to self-evidently bad law without a murmur of protest at the willful abuse of process.

When it (DoJ) serves the legislators, not the people.

And, it’s not just the DoJ.

And when the courts adhere to principles - you know, simple things - like constitutionality, they’re accused of making legislation.

(This when they haven’t otherwise succumbed to the pressures to be politic in their judgments.)

And the Media – ever anxious to prolong the fractious insanity – validates the whole process by otherwise not calling it to question.

Well unless it's a supreme court justice...it doesn't matter what the law says or if it's fair or not, the DOJ must enforce it.

It's up to Congress and maybe the supreme court (doubtful after the copyright gifts to disney) to fix the DMCA, not the DOJ.

“...it doesn't matter what the law says or if it's fair or not, the DOJ must enforce it.”

Ahh… yes… the famous (sic) Nuremberg “defense” … “We were just following orders!”

Just curious if anyone else has called the RIAA latly and had a fun experience like me.

This decision stinks and I hope it gets overturned.

In the meantime, I intend to switch my ISP to Verizon. They are the only ones standing up for the privacy of Internet users.

Where is AOL? Where is AT&T? Where is Cox (my current ISP)?

Only Verizon has been brave enough to take a stand for our privacy.