U.S. court nixes Net music subpoenas

I guess it really is Christmas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- In a surprise setback for the recording industry, a U.S. appeals court said Friday its methods for tracking down those who copy its music over the Internet are not authorized by law.

The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group, has sought to force Verizon Communications & other Internet service providers to reveal the names of customers it suspects may be copying music without permission.


Would you like to know more? Thanks Masque.

That could open a whole new can of worms, possible countersuits from those who've now had their privacy violated by the RIAA(I kind of doubt it, but its a possibility) Since they violated laws in order to gather information about the suspected copyright violators, should this not make all those cases null and void?

This throws a wrench into the works of RIAA's little plan at any rate, though I would imagine they are already devising a way around this law, or having their lapdogs in Washington push their latest scheme.

Wow... didn't see that one coming. Heh.

Nice to see that the RIAA is getting some of their own now.

I always thought they were overstepping their bounds... this is kinda crazy though. I don't understand government or society anymore for that matter.

We should have an old fashioned hangin' Cletus!

Another thing this could do, which I didn't think about till reading the article a second time, is cause RIAA to file formal lawsuits against all the ISPs that it suspects users are downloading copyrighted music. This would likely cause ISPs to monitor customer activity and close accounts of anyone doing anything "shady"in order to avoid such legal suites. If that happens, then this ruling would actually come back to bite consumers in the a** rather than RIAA.

Ah but whats to say they would win these formal lawsuits?



What I dont get is that the last 50 years have been the ONLY time in history where musicians have been making serious cash and then all this s*it happens when they loose VERY little money.

About time this was done, i am in complete opposition to what the RIAA is doing, there are always other methods of stoping the redistribution of illegal copyrighted software, what do you think?

Storm, I would think that all those users who have been violated an tried, and had to pay a fine should have the right to countersue the RIAA for personal violation of rights. Since it is now aparent that the RIAA had no right to get the information to charge these people, I'm sure this is going to lead to a HUGE mess. I would also assume that the RIAA is going to appeal this ruling.

What you said about the RIAA cracking down on the ISP's instead of the individuals might get the ISP's to crack down on this sort of thing. This will be very interesting to see what it developes into.

I specifically remember one of the first people who got sued was a 12 year old girl. The parents paid the RIAA $2,000USD to drop the lawsuit.....what do they get in return. I'm sure they are following this closely and will be back in court soon to get their money back.

As far as I know, no one has yet been to court, they have settled most of the cases out of court and the others were still awaiting trial. But I agree that they should have the right to countersue, but would it be worth it for them to do so?

If ISPs started cracking down and monitoring usage, they might also start blocking sites and using other tactics to censor our net usage.

Item #1. I'm glad you guys brought this up because I was about to. The RIAA will probably start scrambling to plug the dike because ANYBODY that settled and that includes a certain University student out West that I remember reading about (I believe he was the first) is probably already contacting their lawyers....there's legal fees, possible defamation of character et al to worry about defending against. This will be interesting to say the least.

Item #2. Storm, I don't think you'll see the usage monitoring because we're currently in a competitive trend amongst ISP's and that includes the big competition between cable and the telcos. Nobody is going to want to take a chance at ticking off current and prospective customers.

Just my $.02

I had expected it sooner or later. The IP groups have been giving in wihtout a fight, and just handing over the info. I figured when enough people got ticked off, or the IP got fed up with the requests, they would be taken to court.

It's about time. the RIAA has been waving the DMCA around like a loaded gun, and judges who likely don't understand what exactly they're dealing with grant whatever the RIAA wants. A few ISPs luckily had been standing up to them, and now this great motion. what a wonderful step in the right direction. now they really will need at least some kind of proof... the other way was just absurd.

it is about time riaa gets a little back.

No one can stop em! HAHAHA!!:haha:

It's nice to hear this news. The power they were excercising through the DMCA was beginning to reach frightening proportions. How long until corporations buy a law that allows them their own justice system. How do RIAA cops sound to you all???

I don't think the issue in the matter is whether or not downloading music is "morally wrong" but whether or not downloading music is illegal because the person in question could be stealing it.

However, it's unfair to have someone's privacy invaded by the RIAA if they aren't doing anything wrong. For example, what if someone were to buy a CD from a store somewhere and download a song that's on the CD? Is it right for the RIAA to invade that person's privacy even though he or she has done nothing wrong? In my opinion, no.

i agree, however most of their issue is people who make mp3s available for upload to others. its not the person downloading that is clearly breaking the law, but the person sharing the files is.

Is it legal for someone to download a song off Kazaa just because he owns the CD? I don't think buying the CD actually grants you permission to download an illegally shared music file.

Yes it does. When you buy a song (on a CD) you are allowed to have many personal copies of it. Noone is limiting how exactly you make/obtain those copies.

It is similar to purchasing (some) software. The thing you buy from the software company is the license key that allows you to use an instance of the program. How exactly you obtain the software itself is up to you, you can even copy the CD from your friend.