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RIAA Sues Another 750 File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 2, 2006 - 7:25am.
Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced on Thursday that it has filed "John Doe" lawsuits against another 750 alleged music file-swappers, looking to obtain their identities from Internet service providers for use in copyright infringement claims. The group said it also filed lawsuits against 112 individuals identified through John Doe actions in early January. "The illegal downloading of music is just as wrong as shoplifting from a local store. It's against the law, and breaking the law must carry consequences," said RIAA president Cary Sherman. "Prosecuting songlifting is integral to helping protect the ability of record companies to invest in the up-and-coming bands of tomorrow and level the playing field for legal online services." The RIAA has now filed over 14,000 lawsuits against music file-swappers.
tags: RIAA | File-Swapper | Sues |

Appeals Court Rejects File-Swapper's "Fair Use" Claim in Copyright Suit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2005 - 4:09am.
Chicago - A federal appeals court has ruled against a Chicago woman who said she was merely "sampling" songs she downloaded from the Kazaa file-sharing network as a "fair use" of the copyrighted works in determining whether or not to buy them, CNET News.com reported. Cecilia Gonzalez rejected a $3,000-$4,000 settlement offer from with the Recording Industry Association of America, choosing to plead the copyright infringement case against her in court. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Gonzalez' "fair use" claim, ordering her to pay $22,500 to the record labels for copyright infringement; the ruling also includes an injunction to prevent her from future infringement. "As file sharing has increased over the last four years, the sales of recorded music have dropped by approximately 30 percent," the 7th Circuit wrote in its ruling. "Perhaps other economic factors contributed, but the events likely are related." The 7th Circuit's ruling -- which sets precedent only in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin -- also referred to the Supreme Court decision earlier this year that found file-swappers could be held liable for copyright infringement.
tags: Law | Fair Use | File-Swapper | Appeals Court |

Canadian Appeals Court Ruling Stymies File-Swapper Lawsuits

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 20, 2005 - 7:22am.
Toronto -- In a blow to the music industry's anti-piracy efforts in the country, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal this week upheld a lower court's decision that ISPs in the country cannot be compelled to turn over the identities of suspected music file-swappers to record labels. While the ruling provides a respite for the "John Doe" defendants sued by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), it also served to clarify that Canada is not a "piracy haven," and laid out the legal grounds by which labels can sue individual song-swappers for copyright infringement. "Although privacy concerns must also be considered... they must yield to public concerns for the protection of intellectual property rights in situations where infringement threatens to erode these rights," the court said in its ruling. The CRIA said it was pleased the court provided clarity, and hinted that new lawsuits will follow. "The court has clearly articulated the evidentiary standards that we need to meet and we are satisfied that we can meet those standards in future applications," the group said, in a statement.
tags: Law | File-Swapper | Canadian | Stymies |

Judge Rules MPAA Can't Lump Movie File-Swapper Lawsuits Together

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 29, 2004 - 4:20am.
San Francisco -- A federal judge in California has slowed Hollywood's recently-launched legal campaign against Internet movie file-swappers, ruling last week that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) may not lump its "John Doe" defendants into groups and sue them collectively. The MPAA is seeking to have its "John Doe" defendants identified by their Internet service providers, via the IP address registered when they allegedly used file-sharing networks. In a tactic first used by the record industry before being ruled illegal in court, the MPAA joined defendants into groups of 12 or more. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup wrote in his order, released last week, that "such joinder may be an attempt to circumvent the filing fees by grouping defendants into arbitrarily-joined actions but it could nonetheless appear improper." Wendy Seltzer, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed a friend of the court brief objecting to the grouped lawsuits, said the decision "helps to give due process rights to the Internet users accused of infringement. Lumping them together makes it more difficult for everyone to defend against these claims."
tags: Movies | MPAA | File-Swapper | Judge |

RIAA Drops "Clean Slate" File-Swapper Amnesty Program

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 20, 2004 - 4:24am.
Washington, D.C. -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has ended its amnesty program, which offered admitted online music swappers the chance to avoid being sued by record companies, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. The RIAA launched its "Clean Slate" program in September, and has since filed copyright infringement lawsuits against thousands of individual suspected file swappers. Under the amnesty program, the RIAA vowed not to sue individuals who admitted in writing that they had shared music filed online and pledged to delete the files from their computers. A Calif. man then filed suit against the RIAA for fraudulent business practices for promoting the program, arguing that the program did not constitute a legal promise not to sue participants. In recent court papers, the RIAA asked for the suit to be dismissed, as it had recently ended the Clean Slate program, deeming it "no longer necessary or appropriate." The RIAA said a total of 1,108 admitted file-swappers had signed up for the program, the terms of which will still be honored for those participants.
tags: RIAA | File-Swapper | Sues | Clean Slate | Amnesty |

Head of French Record Industry Says File-Swapper Lawsuits Looming

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2004 - 3:51am.
Paris -- The head of France's record label trade group said that lawsuits against individual music file-swappers would be filed shortly in the country, on the same day that an international record label trade group filed 247 suits against alleged pirates in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada, Reuters reported. "We will do the same thing in France in the coming weeks or months. Whatever happens, lawsuits against Internet users are inevitable," Herve Rony, head of France's SNEP (Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique), told Reuters. In addition to prosecuting file-swappers, France will also go after Internet service providers, utilizing a law that will go into effect shortly that asks them to filter copyrighted content on their networks. "We have a two lines of fire: taking action against individual Internet users does not imply we will not act against service providers to oblige them to filter," Rony added.
tags: Lawsuits | French | File-Swapper | Record Industry |

Calif. State Bill Would Require File-Swapper Name/Address on Shared Files

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2004 - 5:16am.
Los Angeles -- The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday reported on a new bill from Calif. State Sen. Kevin Murray (Culver City) that would require Californians who use file-sharing networks like Kazaa and BitTorrent to attach their real names and addresses to the files they place in their "shared" folder for upload by other users. Penalties for not labeling files would include fines of up to $2,500 and up to a year in jail. "Because the bills require Internet users to post personally identifying information, they fly directly in the face of policy goals and laws that prevent identity theft and spam and protect children and domestic violence victims," said Cindy Cohn, of digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "There's one way to maintain your privacy in my bill," Murray told The Times. "That is not to engage in illegal activity."
tags: File-Swapper | Calif. State Bill | Shared Files |

AD.C. Appeals Court Says RIAA Subpoenas for File-Swapper Identities Illegal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 19, 2003 - 4:40am.
Washington -- In a major setback for the recording industry's legal campaign against music file-swappers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that the streamlined subpoena process currently being used to compel alleged file-swappers' Internet service providers to reveal their identities is illegal. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed thousands of such subpoenas with a number of ISPs -- including Verizon -- which sued the RIAA saying the subpoenas violated their users' privacy. A lower court agreed with the RIAA's argument that the subpoena process, which doesn't require a judge's approval, was justified under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The appeals court ruling will mean that the RIAA now must file a more cumbersome "John Doe" lawsuit against alleged file-swappers to get their identity from an ISP. "We are not unsympathetic either to the RIAA's concern regarding the widespread infringement of its members' copyrights, or to the need for legal tools to protect those rights," the court wrote in its ruling. "It is not the province of the courts, however, to rewrite [copyright law] in order to make it fit a new and unforeseen Internet architecture, no matter how damaging that development has been to the music industry." At this point, it is unclear what effect if any the ruling will have on the hundreds of lawsuits that the RIAA has already filed -- and in some cases reached settlement agreements -- against individual file-swappers using the now illegal subpoena process. "Today's ruling is an important victory for Internet users and all consumers," said Verizon vice president and associate general counsel Sarah Deutsch. "Copyright holders seeking personal information about Internet subscribers will now have to file a traditional lawsuit. These requests will undergo scrutiny by a judge, thus preserving the privacy, safety and legal rights of every Internet subscriber."
tags: Law | RIAA | File-Swapper | Illegal | AD.C |

SBC, RIAA in Court Friday Over Subpoenas for File-Swapper Identities

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 21, 2003 - 7:13am.
San Francisco -- Internet service provider SBC Communications and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will be in court on Friday, battling over whether SBC should be compelled to turn over the identities of certain of its Internet subscribers the RIAA believes infringed copyrights on music file-sharing services. The RIAA filed subpoenas for the users' identities, and SBC sued, arguing that the process by which the RIAA obtained the subpoenas was unconstitutional. Fellow ISP Verizon also sued over similar subpoenas, but a federal judge agreed with the RIAA and ordered subscriber identities turned over to the RIAA, which promptly sued many of the individuals for copyright infringement. CNET News.com reported that on Friday Judge Susan Illston will hear arguments for both the RIAA's motion to dismiss the suit, as well as SBC's motion for summary judgment. Lawyers told News.com a ruling is not immediately expected.
tags: Law | RIAA | Subpoenas | File-Swapper | SBC |

RIAA Fights Charter's Motion to Quash Subpoena for File-Swapper IDs

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2003 - 4:17am.
Washington -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed court papers asking a judge to ignore cable TV giant Charter Communications' opposition to subpoenas seeking the identities of Charter subscribers it believes committed copyright infringement. Charter sued the RIAA last week in federal court, asking a judge to quash a subpoena for the identities of 150 Charter subscribers because the RIAA did not make individual subpoenas for each alleged infringer. "Charter's goal is transparent -- to increase the paperwork burden on copyright holders," the RIAA said in its filing. The RIAA has to date sued 261 individuals for infringing copyrights by offering music on file-sharing networks like Kazaa; the group has settled out of court with a number of these defendants, but also says it plans to file hundreds of additional lawsuits.
tags: RIAA | Subpoena | File-Swapper | IDs |

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
tags: Verizon | RIAA | Subpoenas | File-Swapper | IDs |