Holding to its argument that there are grave privacy issues at stake, Verizon Online lost again in federal court, when a judge gave them two weeks from April 24 to name the KaZaa-using music file swapper the Recording Industry Association of America wants to prosecute for copyright infringement. Verizon vowed to take it to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has already agreed to hear the case.
"Verizon is unable to show irreparable harm or that it is likely to succeed on an appeal of its constitutional or statutory challenges," U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates wrote in a 55-page ruling denying both Verizon's appeal of a similar January ruling and a motion to quash a February subpoena to reveal the anonymous file swapper to the RIAA. But Bates also granted a temporary stay to give the Court of Appeals time to consider the issue of a stay, Verizon noted in responding to Bates's latest ruling.
Verizon suffered a setback a few days before Bates's April 24 ruling, when the U.S. Department of Justice sided with the RIAA in arguing Verizon had no Constitutional grounds to refuse giving the RIAA the name of the anonymous file swapper. "A federal district court has again affirmed that the law which provides copyright holders with a process to identify infringers is both Constitutional and appropriate," said RIAA president Cary Sherman in a statement after the new ruling.
Verizon vice president and general counsel John Thorn denounced the ruling for going "far beyond the interests of large copyright monopolists" in upholding copyright enforcement. "This decision exposes anyone who uses the Internet to potential predators, scam artists and crooks, including identity thieves and stalker," Thorn said after the ruling. "We will continue to use every legal means available to protect our subscribers' privacy and will immediately seek a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals has already agreed to hear this important Internet privacy case on an expedited schedule."
In January, Bates had ruled that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act required Verizon to give up the identity of the anonymous file swapper despite Verizon's "strained reading" of the DMCA as not allowing enough recourse to protect such a user's personal privacy.
Thorn said Verizon won't budge from its position that the privacy, safety, and due process rights of "perhaps millions" of Netizens "hang in the balance" after the April 24 ruling. But the RIAA won't budge, either. "If users of pirate peer-to-peer sites don't want to be identified," Sherman said, "they should not break the law by illegally distributing music. Today's decision makes clear that these individuals cannot rely on their ISPs to shield them from accountability."
