RIAA Plans New Lawsuits Soon
David Gardner, TechWeb


5:35 PM EST Mon., Dec. 22, 2003
Undaunted by a court decision making it more difficult to file lawsuits against Internet users suspected of illegally downloading songs, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is vowing to file more lawsuits "in the near future."

Although the RIAA will have to go to greater and more expensive lengths to target suspected violators, an association spokesman said Monday that the RIAA will go ahead with new lawsuits. What it can't do in the wake of a decision by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is force internet service providers -- like Verizon -- to reveal the identity of any of its subscribers the RIAA is suspicious of.

While the Court was sympathetic to the RIAA's attempts to protect its members -- recording artists and companies primarily -- it ruled that attempts by the RIAA to subpoena records from Verizon was an unlawful invasion of privacy.

In its ruling, the Court seemed to invite RIAA to go back to Congress and seek a revision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which the RIAA used to hit more than 300 consumers with subpoenas to investigate alleged file swapping. The DMCA was approved by Congress before online file-swapping of music was contemplated.

The RIAA spokesman said the association had made no decision on whether to appeal the Court of Appeals decision or to revisit Congress for more protective legislation.

In its decision, the Court of Appeals said: "It is not the province of the courts, however, to rewrite the DMCA in order to make it fit a new and unforeseen Internet architecture, no matter how damaging that development has been to the music industry or threatens being to the motion picture and software industries. The plight of copyright holders must be addressed in the first instance by the Congress."

The judges reversed an earlier decision by a federal court judge, who said Verizon must turn over the identities of its customers the RIAA suspected of engaging in illegal music-swapping. The Appeals Court said: "had the Congress been aware of P2P technology, or anticipated its development," then it might have drafted the DMCA more generally to cover P2P.

Cary Sherman, RIAA president, said the court's decision was "disappointing... but it only changes the process by which we will file lawsuits." The new procedure means the RIAA will have to file against Internet users whose identity will be revealed after laborious legal procedures.

The decision was hailed by Verizon and by Kazaa, leading P2P provider. Verizon's vice president and associate general counsel said: "This decision removes the threat of a radical, new subpoena process that empowers copyright holders or anyone merely claiming to be a copyright holder to obtain personal information about Internet users by simply filing a one-page form with a court clerk...Copyright holders seeking personal information about Internet subscribers will now have to file a traditional lawsuit."

And, Sharman Networks, which represents file-swapping Kazaa, hailed the decision saying the entertainment industry "has lost its way, choosing a path of endless litigation against its own customers." In a statement, Sharman urged the entertainment industry to adopt peer-to-peer technology to distribute content.

This story courtesy of TechWeb.

oh god i can see it now: The DMCA II will go hand in hand with the Patriot Act III & these two documents will forever rob us of our rights and freedoms. at least now itll cost them a bit more money to sue us.

Yep Socio, I agree, hope we are wrong though.

The RIAA will just recalculate their bullsh!t $ loss per mp3 numbers to offset the additional cost of suing people. No wonder it's still full steam ahead.

The only good news is that they might end up suing some politician's kid, since they can't pick & choose anymore.

amen, alteredbeast

Gee....you would think that they would get a real clue and start changing their ways of doing business instead of spending their money needlessly? Stupid is as stupid does!

hmm. Isn't this a re-peat of the previous news article? anayways, let's just make DMCA Illegal all together, since it obviously infringes on our rights.

mtekk and everyone, perhaps (hopefully) we CAN get DMCA repealed because so many folks are becomming aware of what happend with the back room deals that got it into law.

OUR ONLY HOPE: do more than cross your fingers... EDUCATE THOSE UNEDUCATED about it!

Of the People, By the People, For the People is not something that was given that we can take for granted... we will ALWAYS and FOREVER fight those with greed to keep society thus!

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

And I see again that the RIAA is interested in "protecting the artist," when just a sideways glance at their MO would convince anyone that nothing is further from the truth.

The reason that they wanted to try to use the fast, easy subpoena method in the first place was because of the cost and time involved for them. Now they're back to square one. 400 lawsuits down, and 59,600,000 to go. Didn't someone once work it out that it would take something like 200 years or better to sue everyone? Again I say, good luck riaa. But I think their luck is running out. ~~pepe~~

THE RIAA WILL BE SUEING PPL AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN EXISTENCE, THEY CAN'T THINK OUTSIDE THE SUE EM ALL BOX, SO DON'T EXPECT THEM TO STOP SUEING PPL!!

Correct, directive. It will never end. Not as long as Cary "Sue 'em all" Sherman has a job.

I doubt, however, that the DMCA will get revised anytime soon. 2004 is an election year- no one will think of revising the DMCA, except lawmakers (basically, Bushite Republicans) who are wedded to the record companies, and they're a minority. Also, a lot of congressmen and congresswomen know that anyone who associates themselves with the RIAA or its lawsuit campaign can get bad publicity back home. I've already read how that's happening to Orrin Hatch and other RIAA supporters.

So, just watch the news and hope more good tidings churn out of CNN and the New York Times.

:-:~ Phantom