Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Verizon duels with RIAA: DMCA subpoena
The story so far: the Recoding Industry Association of America (RIAA) asked Verizon, an internet service provider (ISP), to reveal the name and contact information of a Verizon subscriber, whom the RIAA considers to be a major peer-to-peer file-trading copyright pirate, citing an extraordinary provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Citing the "safe harbor" provisions of the same law, Verizon refused. The RIAA asked a federal judge to make Verizon comply. The ISP filed a brief, explaining its position, and was joined by numerous groups in a collective, supporting amicus brief.
There are several consequences of this RIAA-Verizon battle:
- Verizon may emerge as a leading opponent of "thick" copyright IP regime.
- Since the US Department of Justice is ready to prosecute copyright violators, look for renewed attention to the DMCA's ISP safe harbor provisions.
- Since the US Congress is considering legislation targeting p2p, look for more such lawmaking and policy tweaking.
(Thanks to Politech, CNet) ::
posted by Bryan, 10:21 AM
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