Verizon Asks Appeals Court to Block RIAA Subpoenas for File-Swapper IDs

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 16, 2003 - 6:53am.

Washington -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday heard arguments from Internet service provider Verizon, which is appealing a lower court's ruling forcing it to comply with subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), seeking the identities of Verizon subscribers the RIAA believes are music copyright infringers. Verizon argued that the subpoenas, authorized by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, are too easily obtained without a judge's approval, unnecessarily endangering the privacy and free speech rights of its subscribers, and should also be confined to website servers offering copyrighted music and not end-users' PCs. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not make any ruling Tuesday. The Associated Press reports that Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) may soon introduce legislation called the "Digital Consumer Internet Privacy Protection Act," which would ban such subpoenas except in pending civil cases or instances where believed copyrighted files resided on website servers. http://makeashorterlink.com/?F32925BE5
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