Court Explains Due Process To The RIAA
from the good-news dept
Here's another step forward in blocking attempts by the RIAA to turn the US Justice system into their own personal protection racket. Following the Supreme Court's decision to not hear the case concerning ISPs and the RIAA -- effectively saying (for the time being, at least) that ISPs do not have to cough up names to the RIAA without a lawsuit being filed, ISPs have won another battle. A District Court in Pennsylvania has ruled that the RIAA needs to better protect the privacy and due process rights of those they're accusing of sharing files. ISPs who are subpoenaed have been told to first alert the customers in question and to provide them with detailed information explaining what's happened with an explanation of how to contest the charges. This helps to protect the individual's rights, while allowing them to effectively counter the RIAA's claim, if they believe they are innocent. Update: Just in time, too. The RIAA has filed their latest batch of lawsuits.
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
