[DMCA-Activists] NYTimes: Music Industry Targets Net Swappers

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from DMCA Discussion list)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 15:10:06 +0100
From: iriXx <address@hidden>
To: DMCA_discuss <address@hidden>


> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Swapping.html?todaysheadlines=&pagewanted=print&position=bottom

Music Industry Targets Net Swappers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:35 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Music companies tried to persuade a judge
Friday to  let them obtain the names of people suspected of
trading music files  online without going to court first, a
move that could dictate how  copyright holders deal with
Internet piracy in the future.

Internet service provider Verizon is resisting the music
industry's  subpoena, saying that it could turn Internet
providers into a turnstile  for piracy suits and put
innocent customers at risk.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, who heard the case,
lamented  ambiguities in the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, which was enacted  to uphold copyright laws on the
Internet while shielding technology  companies from direct
liability.

Congress ``could have made this statute clearer,'' Bates
said. ``This  statute is not organized as being consistent
with the argument for  either side.''

Bates said he would try to rule quickly, but lawyers for
both sides had  no guess of when a decision might arrive.

The subpoena hearing, which is normally a tame affair, was
contentious  because the music industry sees it as a test
case. If it succeeds, it  plans to send reams of
cease-and-desist letters to scare file-swappers  into taking
their collections offline.

Until now, copyright holders have relied on requests sent to
Internet  providers to take action on their own against
suspected pirates. Almost  all Internet providers forbid
sharing copyrighted material without  permission.

But that can take a lot of time, and makes copyright holders
reliant on  Internet providers to enforce the law. Internet
providers do not always  respond as well or as quickly as
music and movie publishers would  prefer. They think
individual letters from the maker itself might work  better.

``Wouldn't that be a lot easier way to let people know that
they are in  fact not anonymous and there could be
consequences?'' asked Cary  Sherman, RIAA's general counsel.

Verizon said that since the hundreds of songs up for trade
by the  anonymous Verizon customer at the center of the case
sit on the person's  computer rather than Verizon's network,
it is not required to  automatically give up the
subscriber's name.

``Verizon was a passive conduit at most,'' said Eric Holder,
a former  Justice Department prosecutor who represented
Verizon. Holder said the  music industry's strategy could
create a contentious relationship  between Verizon and its
customers and put the Internet provider in the  position of
handing over names to the music companies without a
judicial  determination of piracy.

``We also don't want to be the policeman in this process,''
Holder said.

Lawyers for the recording industry rejected Verizon's
arguments that it  had little obligations in the process.
Industry lawyer Donald Verrilli  said no type of service
provider is exempt from having to identify a  potential
music pirate, no matter where the songs sit.

Verrilli also dismissed Verizon's position that the Internet
provider's  customers have a right to privacy.

``You don't have a first amendment right to steal copyright
works,''  Verrilli said.

The judge disagreed with Verrilli's assumption that the
works were stolen.

``Here, there's only an allegation of infringement,'' Bates
said.

Bates gave few hints as to how he might rule. He asked many,
detailed  questions of both sides. He called some Verizon
positions vague, but  showed little patience with other
arguments advanced by the music  industry and movie studios,
which also argued on behalf of music publishers.

Through programs like Kazaa, Morpheus and Gnutella, a person
can find  virtually any song or movie -- sometimes even
before it's released in  stores -- and download it for free.
On a typical afternoon, about 3  million people were
connected on the Kazaa network and sharing more than  500
million files.
-- 
iriXx
www.iriXx.org

copyleft: creativity, technology and freedom?
address@hidden
www.copyleftmedia.org.uk

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