Court clears way for IDENTITY OF DOWNLOADERS to be revealed...
 

Privacy Ruling Goes Against Verizon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Apr24.html

Verizon Corp. must reveal the identities of two high-speed Internet subscribers accused of illegally trading music online, a federal judge ruled today.

U.S. District Court Judge John Bates denied Verizon's request for a stay of his January ruling ordering the company to turn over the name of one of the subscribers to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Bates said that Verizon has 14 days to convince a federal appeals court to grant a stay of his ruling.

If Bates's ruling ultimately stands, it would give the recording industry and copyright owners a powerful weapon to stop the illegal trading of copyrighted files that they say eats away at their revenues. The RIAA, many musicians and other copyright holders have argued that the increase in file-sharing during the past several years has seriously eroded music sales.

Verizon had argued that turning over subscribers' names would violate their constitutional right to privacy.

The RIAA cited the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- or DMCA -- in its legal effort to force Verizon to reveal the names. The DMCA gives movie studios, record companies, software makers and other copyright owners the right to subpoena Internet service providers without getting a judge's approval.

Verizon originally argued that it is unfair for the music industry to be allowed to obtain subpoenas without judicial approval, but Bates threw out that argument in a January ruling. Verizon then turned to its argument that the DMCA is unconstitutional.

RIAA President Cary Sherman praised the ruling today in a written statement.

"If users of pirate peer-to-peer sites don't want to be identified, they should not break the law by illegally distributing music," Sherman said. "Today's decision makes clear that these individuals cannot rely on their ISPs to shield them from accountability."

Verizon will appeal the ruling, said Associate General Counsel Sara Deutsch.

"The case is not over and we intend to immediately appeal the decision and seek a stay in the U.S. Court of Appeals," she said. "It's virtually unprecedented in U.S. law that someone can use a form to find out your identity without any judicial process."

damn, maybe I should turn off my massive network of Kazaa connected computers storing 2 terabytes of pirated songs, movies, and microsoft progz.

doesnt everybody illegally trade music online?

Such a futile attempt. They will never stop it.

God bless broadband.

and thus a lot more lawyers gonna make a lot more money.

just means that internet providers will now be more vigilant against file trading.

wrong...gonna stop as soon as soon as the first judgement against providers

funny.

:1orglaugh





Seriously dude. :1orglaugh

FROM http://anti-dmca.org/faq_local.html

Ask yourself: does the United States Consitution consider the rights of corporations to be more important than rights of individuals?

If you said "no!", we agree with you whole-heartedly. Now what is the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) doing passing laws in the US? Read on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why did Congress pass the DMCA?

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) drafted an international treaty that requires signatory nations to enforce particular rights in their own National laws. Some believed further U.S. legislation was necessary to implement U.S. adherence to the treaty. The result was the DMCA. It is sometimes referred to as the WIPO Treaty Implementing Legislation.


Why is the DMCA so bad?
The DMCA makes is a crime to "circumvent" copyright protection systems. Here is the language:

`Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems
`(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--

Computer Scientists can no longer research software to ensure it provides adequate protection.

Here is an analogy: The NTSB conducts crash tests to ensure vechicles protect passengers in the event of an accident. Computer Scientists and Security experts conduct similar testing with software. This testing ensures adequate protection from crackers, failure, weak security, etc. Often, a researcher will write a paper describing an attack. This paper must then be translated into computer code often referred to as "Proof of Concept" code. Without code, the researcher has no proof his theory works. The law provides certain exemptions for research, however they are unclear and must be approved by the Corporation who created the software. If this corporation knows their software is weak or knows it can be cracked, why should they allow someone to actually test it!? This is what happened to Princeton Professor Felten and his research team when they were threatened by the RIAA.

Don't think this law is limited to the US. Similar laws along with outrageous Search and Seizure laws are also being enacted around the globe. Why are all these countries suddenly taking oddly similar approaches? WTO + WIPO = DMCA.

Futhermore, Source code hahahaha Speech. Mathematicians use symbols. The Deaf speak with their hands. Programmers speak in code.

To relate E equals the product of M times the square of C, I could write it out or just use symbols.
e = mc^2.
e = mc2

The same is true for computer code. It is sometimes the best way to relate something. Besides, how can I prove a flaw exists without code to back it up? Furthermore, Professor Felten could not publish a paper critizing and showing flaws in a protection system for fear of arrest. This was just a paper!

There are many other issues with this law, but you should find the information and parts of the law you are most interested in.


How is the DMCA related to the WTO?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) meets once a year to discuss policy and law. These policies and laws must be enacted by the signatory Nations. People all over the world meet during WTO meetings to protest Globalization. Why? Well, there are many reasons. But know this - they are making laws and signing treaties without your input. Is the WTO democratically controlled? The DMCA is a result of one of these treaties. Here in the US the arrests and cases on this site are just the first effects of these meetings. Take a look at this.



So how does this affect me?

Look to history for your answer. Quite some time ago, our leaders met to discuss policy and create laws. These laws became The Constitution of the United States of America. If you have reviewed our Cases section you will see that our laws are being changed to accomodate the laws passed by the (WTO). Why is this important? The WTO looks at member Nations as representing raw materials. It is cheaper to produce certain goods in certain countries depending on labor, environmental and other factors. Here in the US we produce a large amount of Intellectual Property. This export must be controlled and regulated, just as any other raw material is controlled and regulated. However, the copy control corporations would like to make sure they charge you every time you use this product. This charge could be extended to Books, Journals, Libraries, etc. Hence the fight for eBooks and the severe prosecution for copy control violations. (10 Years in Prison in the US).



What is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act?

Copyright, in the United States, is an attempt to maximize the intellectual resources available to all. People who create works - literature, art, software programs, music, and others - are given a limited right to keep people from making unauthorized copies of their work. This allows them to sell copies for a profit and provides a financial incentive to create more works.

In exchange for this, the public demands a number of concessions, primarily the following three:

1. Fair use is the right to make unauthorized copies of works for certain protected purposes - mainly for academics, reporting, or criticism. When a student quotes a book in a high school paper, she is making a fair use, and can't be stopped by the copyright owner.

2. First sale is the right to sell a copy over and over again, once it is made, as long as you don't make any new copies. When you read a book, then sell it to a used book store to be bought and read by someone else, you're exercising your rights under first sale.

3. Limited time - copyrights are granted for a limited time. After that time expires, the work goes into the public domain - it can be copied and used by anyone, for any reason.



How does the DMCA relate to Copyright and therefore affect me?

The DMCA is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998, supposedly to update copyright law for electronic commerce and electronic content providers. Unfortunately, this law is very poorly written, and is now regularly used by corporations to restrain the three primary concessions of copyright and otherwise prevent free speech activity.

The DMCA has one particularly bad section, called the anti-circumvention provision. That section makes it a crime to break encryption used to prevent someone from getting access to electronic content, or to "traffic" in a tool used to do so. This section is written so broadly, that, in theory, decoding the sentence E-thay mca-day eally-ray ucks-say from the Pig Latin could be a crime. It doesn't matter why, either. If it's not for financial gain, it might not be a crime, but you'll get sued for astronomical amounts of money. Suppose you're a professor who wants to publish a paper criticizing, with excerpts, an e-book. Under normal copyright law, you would be free to do so under the fair use doctrine. Under the DMCA, the corporation could prevent you from doing so by building techchnological access controls to prevent anyone from selling the book to you, and you would be barred by law from breaking those controls.

Needless to say, the DMCA also raises huge concerns about free speech.

riiiiight

They gonna monitor everyones up and downstream to make sure they are not sharing the new Dixie Chicks cd?

not likely.

Not all of us use Kazaa to get our fix. Newbs do.

yup and that's why the big entertainment companies are spending hundreds of millions through the courts and lobbying
Congress to get some laws to fight back.

I'm interested in seeing what kind of monetary damages are awarded in these cases against individual file swappers.

If it's like $500 it ain't gonna stop anybody, $10,000 plus possible jail time/criminal record might tho.

Heh. My cable company sent me a letter a few months ago telling me I had been caught pirating music on WINMX. The letter said I was trading Celine Dion music. Ughhh never in a millions years would I listen to such shit. When I called they said it didn't matter if it was Celine Dion it was some kind of Sony music. He said we've all downloaded mp3s and he didn't know what Sony was trying to pull and that I could just clear all sony music out of my shared folder. The bastards. I don't share music anymore.

Actually, YES they are, well they will begin to start by spot checking abnormaly high and/or spiking data transfers. It's not going to be easy, nor will it happen overnight, but that is the ultimate goal they are seeking.

Scan the letter and post it.

I don't have it anymore.

And by establishing multiple legal precedents, downloaders will find themself on the information technology terrorist short lists very soon.

Is 50 cent and Red Dragon really worth it?

Make your own fucking movie. Theres a button right there on XP that does it right?

The movie industry is in there too. When broadband penetration really reaches the masses, who will need to buy DVD's? You'll just TV out the signal into your HDTV, grab some popcorn and enjoy free entertainment.

Downloading 3 to 5 meg mp3 files will be abnormally high?

With the amount of spankers out there downloading porn all day, your average mp3 transfer isnt shit.

They will only be able to target p2p.

They will never know what I am downloading, and as broadband expands, the volume will only increase.

They are not gonna stop jack shit.

They will never be able to know if the 45 meg zip I just downloaded off some ftp or xdcc bot is a cartoon, or the pre release of the new Madonna.

The entertainment industry has changed and the megalocorporations cant deliver an entertainment product that people want to consume anymore.

I remember it said net detective or some similar name had been hired by Sony to find people pirating Sony music then sent a letter to Charter (my cable company) who then sent a letter to me.

Bill Gates: "640K software is all the memory anybody would ever need on a computer."

Refreshing to see common sense in a sea of ignorance.

File sharing isn't going anywhere. I just sent my bro an MP3 of 50 cent through aim but I named it blowme.mp3. Think anybody knows?

:1orglaugh

Did you have some cybersex with a HOT15YOCUTIE too?

You got problems bro.

Guess I need to change my sig back. Yes, file sharing will simply disappear. :thumbsup

Did I ever say that buddy?

Keep your head in the sand.

"stocktrader" :1orglaugh

Thanks god I didnt pick verizon has my broadband provider..


:Graucho

P2P Over an SSL connection will come out soon enough, then what are those fuckers going to do when they cant sniff the p2p packets anymore?

Game over.

you got it?

Let's hope this opens the door for webmasters who want the find out the identity of credit card fraudsters.

I can dream, can't I?

B