Verizon Communications will hand the Recording Industry Association of America the names of four previously unnamed subscribers the RIAA accused of illegal peer-to-peer file swapping, the company's Internet service division said June 4. This followed a federal appeals court's refusal of Verizon's request for a delay.
This doesn't mean final victory, according to CNET.com, since there is another appeal hearing in September which might vindicate Verizon after all. But it does mean the four anonymous Verizon Online subscribers are now prone to direct legal action, and it could open a path to copyright holders looking for easier ways to identify P2Pers trading in pirate files, CNET added.
Predictably, the RIAA was pleased and Verizon was dismayed. "The Court of Appeals decision confirms our long-held position that music pirates must be held accountable for their actions and not be allowed to hide behind the company that provides their Internet service," said RIAA president Cary Sherman. "We intend to comply, but we remain concerned about the RIAA and other copyright and non-copyright holders' potential uses and abuses of these subpoenas," said a Verizon vice president, Sarah Deutsch.
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act lets copyright holders subpoena information without a judge's approval first, which CNET said makes it easier and cheaper to hunt down copyright pirates. Civil libertarians fear those subpoenas violate privacy rights and give copyright holders too much power, while Internet activists fear it might shift the burden of copyright enforcement to Internet service providers, CNET added.
