REDx
February 6th, 2003, 04:03 PM
this was posted by MARINE1 at DSSfaimly
MARINE1
Group: Elite Moderators
Posts: 749
Joined: April 2002 Posted: Feb. 06 2003,2:31 pm
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Feb 6, 2003-Thursday
Courts grant right to sue file-sharing network despite overseas location Kazaa, Verizon plan to fight against district judges' ruling.
By Robert W. Rebele
Staff writer
The war over digital piracy heated up in January with a flurry of legal activity that could have long-lasting implications for the future of online entertainment.
In the past two weeks, U.S. district judges have granted representatives of the entertainment industry the right to sue the owners of the Kazaa file-sharing network, despite the company's multi-national roots, and access to the identity of a Verizon Internet subscriber accused of downloading as many as 600 songs per day with the Kazaa software.
Verizon has since filed an appeal, while Sharman Networks, Ltd., the company that owns Kazaa, filed a countersuit against the recording and movie industries, alleging copyright misuse, monopolization and deceptive acts and practices, according to The Washington Post ("Counterclaim made in file swapping case," Jan. 28) All this comes as the music industry prepares to announce that compact disc sales have fallen nearly 10 percent for the second consecutive year, much of which can be attributed to Internet piracy, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America said.
When the digital piracy debate first hit the mainstream, the entertainment industry jumped to an early lead by shutting down Napster Inc., the company whose software first made mass file-sharing possible.
Sharman hoped to avoid the bankruptcy fate of its technological predecessor, however, by organizing under the laws of the island nation Vanuatu and working primarily out of Australia.
So when the major labels filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the company last year, Sharman asked that the case be dismissed because it was not subject to U.S. copyright laws.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied that claim, ruling that Sharman is subject to U.S. law because of Kazaa's substantial usage within the country and its alleged contribution to commercial piracy.
Two weeks later, Sharman filed a countersuit, saying the entertainment companies are behind the times, The Washington Post reported.
At the same time, the RIAA began targeting individual users, rather than companies, for alleged copyright infringement.
By tracking publicly accessible information, the RIAA found a Verizon Internet subscriber who was downloading as many as 600 songs a day, but they could only identify him or her by a numeric address on Verizon's network, court documents said.
Under a provision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the RIAA subpoenaed Verizon for the user's identity and requested his or her service be shut down.
Verizon refused, citing the user's privacy rights and stating that the subpoena process, which requires no judicial approval, circumvented due process rights.
On Jan. 21, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, ruling in favor of the RIAA, described the case as "of great importance to the application of copyright law to the Internet."
If the decision survives appeal, the RIAA, as well as any other copyright holder, would have access to the identities of any Internet user it accuses of copyright infringement without attaining a judge's approval.
Verizon argued in its appeal that RIAA has other options, such as an anonymous John Doe lawsuit, that do not violate the user's due process or privacy rights.
"We are going to fight to protect the user's privacy because there is no proof that the allegations are true," said Susan Butta, a Verizon spokeswoman.
The immediate impact of these decisions is unclear, said Jonathan Band, a Washington lawyer with a specialty in Internet law.
Rodney Petersen, director of policy and planning for the Office of Information Technology, said he does not expect to receive any subpoenas for students' names in the near future.
He said the university maintains extensive contact with the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America, and, as long as OIT continues to comply with their requests, further action is unlikely.
Petersen said, however, that "students need to recognize their responsibility and potential liability with infringing on copyrights."
Organizations such as the RIAA, the MPAA and the Business Software Alliance register complaints with OIT when they suspect a large amount of infringement is occurring.
In 2002, OIT received 269 complaints, primarily about the movies Spider-man, Lord of the Rings, Minority Report and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Student reaction to the recent activity was mostly defiant.
Michael Neimeyer, a freshman letters and sciences major, said RIAA's increased power probably will not deter students from logging on to Kazaa.
"As long as there is access, people will download," he said. "The pirating of music online is too widespread."
Mike Sandler, a freshman mathematics major, agreed, and said people rationalize their downloading habits because they do not see the correlation between declining CD sales and the loss of profit to artists.
http://www.inform.umd.edu/News....s7.html
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MARINE1
Group: Elite Moderators
Posts: 749
Joined: April 2002 Posted: Feb. 06 2003,2:31 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feb 6, 2003-Thursday
Courts grant right to sue file-sharing network despite overseas location Kazaa, Verizon plan to fight against district judges' ruling.
By Robert W. Rebele
Staff writer
The war over digital piracy heated up in January with a flurry of legal activity that could have long-lasting implications for the future of online entertainment.
In the past two weeks, U.S. district judges have granted representatives of the entertainment industry the right to sue the owners of the Kazaa file-sharing network, despite the company's multi-national roots, and access to the identity of a Verizon Internet subscriber accused of downloading as many as 600 songs per day with the Kazaa software.
Verizon has since filed an appeal, while Sharman Networks, Ltd., the company that owns Kazaa, filed a countersuit against the recording and movie industries, alleging copyright misuse, monopolization and deceptive acts and practices, according to The Washington Post ("Counterclaim made in file swapping case," Jan. 28) All this comes as the music industry prepares to announce that compact disc sales have fallen nearly 10 percent for the second consecutive year, much of which can be attributed to Internet piracy, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America said.
When the digital piracy debate first hit the mainstream, the entertainment industry jumped to an early lead by shutting down Napster Inc., the company whose software first made mass file-sharing possible.
Sharman hoped to avoid the bankruptcy fate of its technological predecessor, however, by organizing under the laws of the island nation Vanuatu and working primarily out of Australia.
So when the major labels filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the company last year, Sharman asked that the case be dismissed because it was not subject to U.S. copyright laws.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied that claim, ruling that Sharman is subject to U.S. law because of Kazaa's substantial usage within the country and its alleged contribution to commercial piracy.
Two weeks later, Sharman filed a countersuit, saying the entertainment companies are behind the times, The Washington Post reported.
At the same time, the RIAA began targeting individual users, rather than companies, for alleged copyright infringement.
By tracking publicly accessible information, the RIAA found a Verizon Internet subscriber who was downloading as many as 600 songs a day, but they could only identify him or her by a numeric address on Verizon's network, court documents said.
Under a provision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the RIAA subpoenaed Verizon for the user's identity and requested his or her service be shut down.
Verizon refused, citing the user's privacy rights and stating that the subpoena process, which requires no judicial approval, circumvented due process rights.
On Jan. 21, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, ruling in favor of the RIAA, described the case as "of great importance to the application of copyright law to the Internet."
If the decision survives appeal, the RIAA, as well as any other copyright holder, would have access to the identities of any Internet user it accuses of copyright infringement without attaining a judge's approval.
Verizon argued in its appeal that RIAA has other options, such as an anonymous John Doe lawsuit, that do not violate the user's due process or privacy rights.
"We are going to fight to protect the user's privacy because there is no proof that the allegations are true," said Susan Butta, a Verizon spokeswoman.
The immediate impact of these decisions is unclear, said Jonathan Band, a Washington lawyer with a specialty in Internet law.
Rodney Petersen, director of policy and planning for the Office of Information Technology, said he does not expect to receive any subpoenas for students' names in the near future.
He said the university maintains extensive contact with the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America, and, as long as OIT continues to comply with their requests, further action is unlikely.
Petersen said, however, that "students need to recognize their responsibility and potential liability with infringing on copyrights."
Organizations such as the RIAA, the MPAA and the Business Software Alliance register complaints with OIT when they suspect a large amount of infringement is occurring.
In 2002, OIT received 269 complaints, primarily about the movies Spider-man, Lord of the Rings, Minority Report and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Student reaction to the recent activity was mostly defiant.
Michael Neimeyer, a freshman letters and sciences major, said RIAA's increased power probably will not deter students from logging on to Kazaa.
"As long as there is access, people will download," he said. "The pirating of music online is too widespread."
Mike Sandler, a freshman mathematics major, agreed, and said people rationalize their downloading habits because they do not see the correlation between declining CD sales and the loss of profit to artists.
http://www.inform.umd.edu/News....s7.html
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