The RIAA's subpoena tsunami hit a snag today as District Court Judge Joseph Tauro quashed two requests for student information. EFF writes:
A Massachusetts district court blocked the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from using a single court in Washington, D.C., to issue subpoenas for Massachusetts students' identities. "The court rejected the RIAA's bald-faced attempt to use a single D.C. court ruling to steamroller Internet users' privacy nationwide," said EFF staff attorney Wendy Seltzer. "This ruling confirms that Due Process continues to apply, even on the Internet, and we hope other colleges and ISPs will take similar steps."A recent news story pegged the RIAA's legal tab for 2002 at $16 million (not including legal expenses of member labels) over $9.5 million in profits from prosecuting pirates. That calculus is likely to shift even further into the red if they're unable to file all of their thousands of end-user lawsuits suits in a single court. Orders to quash available here and here.
.:link:.
I am not leaving my name because I don't want to openly violate a confidence. But I was involved in litigation brought by the owners of the trademarked character Barney the Dinosaur. They sued all of the mom & pop costume stores that had bought Barney costumes from some stores (previously sued by Lyons Partnership); they brought these suits in over 20 states. Then they tried to consolidate the various suits using the federal Multi-District Litigation process. They weren't successful because the court could see that the consolidation was not beneficial to anyone except the plaintiff, who had initiated the litigation with the view that it would be bringing suit against many individuals in many different states.
The same result is sure to follow in the RIAA suits.
Posted by: Anon on August 12, 2003 05:01 PM
Right on. It's about time ISP's and Universities received confirmation that they can stand up to RIAA subpoenas with the knowledge that due process is above private interests. Lets hope more subpoena recipients take note of this ruling.
Posted by: Justin on August 8, 2003 10:45 PM