Verizon Must Reveal Internet Song-Swapper

from the there-goes-that-protection dept

Another bad legal decision for those of you who believe in privacy protection and the question of whether or not ISPs have any liability for the traffic that runs over their network. Back in October we had the story of how the music industry was suing Verizon to get the name of one of their customers who they said was downloading plenty of music. Verizon refused, saying that it wasn't their responsibility to do the work for the music industry, and it was a violation of privacy for the user. Today, the judge has ruled that Verizon needs to give up the name or face the legal consequences. This is bad news, as it means that the music industry is likely to start swamping ISPs with requests for names of their customers. It also makes it more likely that the RIAA will follow through on their ridiculous threat to sue their own customers. I'm actually wondering if this will become a negotiating point for the recently announced plans to get ISPs to pay for file trading. I can just see the agreement now... "RIAA says they'll stop pestering ISPs for names, in exchange for $5/user/month fee..." Update: Declan McCullough, over at News.com has a good analysis of what this means.