Music Industry Wins Copyright Ruling — User's ID Revealed

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has granted The Recording Industry Association of America's (the "RIAA") motion to enforce its subpoena served on Verizon Internet Services ("Verizon") under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 ("DMCA"). The RIAA sought the identity of a Verizon user who allegedly infringed copyrights of RIAA members by downloading over 600 songs from the Internet over the course of a single day. The user allegedly utilized the peer-to-peer software provided by KaZaA. Verizon argued that the subpoena fell outside the scope of the DMCA since the subpoena related to material transmitted over the network as opposed to material stored on it. The court held that the subpoena power applies to all ISPs within the scope of the DMCA and is not limited to those ISPs storing information on a system. Citing that the language of the DMCA is clear on this point, the court ordered that Verizon disclose the identity of the user. Verizon has stated that it intends to appeal the decision. For a copy of the decision, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2C152043