It's Subpoena Day At The RIAA - Plus, New Laws To Criminalize File Sharing
from the here-come-the-lawsuits dept
Apparently, today was "subpoena day" at the RIAA. Complete with legal threats in hand, and a judge's ruling saying that ISPs need to simply cough up the private info of their subscribers, the RIAA contacted ISPs with subpoenas for more info on people they think are the worst of the worst file sharers. The Reuters article quotes an Earthlink representative saying that they'll comply with the subpoena, but that they "urge" the RIAA to "find a less intrusive method for protecting their intellectual property." It appears that they really are going to shoot themselves in the foot. This is no surprise, of course, but there was still hope for last minute enlightenment that maybe there are other reasons why they're having so much trouble and maybe (just maybe) there were opportunities in embracing file sharing, rather than criminalizing it. Update: Also, to make things even more fun, Representative Berman, one of our many representatives from Disney, has introduced a new bill that would make it even easier to send file sharers to prison. You may remember Rep. Berman for wanting to let Disney and other copyright holders hack into your machine and destroy anything they found objectionable. Specifically, this bill would raise the "assumed" damages from anyone sharing a file to the level that it becomes a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Huh?
Must be some good music, if it's worth $250 per copy.
A copyright violation is a copyright violation. Why should this particular violation be punished more harshly? If I buy a CD, copy it, and give the copy to a friend it's a misdemeanor, but if my friend downloads the same songs from my computer it's a felony??
And according to this story you can go to jail if you just make the song available, even if no one downloads it from you. Where is the copyright violation there?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Let's not forget the real consequences of music sw
They missed a few contemporary evils, but I helpfully list some of the other consequences of file swapping on my blog.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Let's not forget the real consequences of musi
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Boycott the RIAA
[ link to this | view in thread ]