Song swapper to be named
2003-01-22 12:16
Washington - Recording companies have won a victory in their fight against online piracy, after a US court ordered Verizon Communications to turn over the name of a customer suspected of downloading more than 600 songs in one day over the internet.
The decision on Tuesday could set an important precedent as the recording industry asks schools, businesses and internet providers to help them track down the online song swappers that they believe are cutting into their sales.
Under a 1998 digital-copyright law, internet providers have voluntarily shut down websites that contain infringing material, but they have balked at requests to disconnect users who trade songs with each other directly using "peer to peer" networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus.
The recording industry sued Verizon last summer after it refused to reveal the name of a customer believed to have downloaded more than 600 songs in one day. Verizon said such a move would violate customer privacy and force internet service providers to serve as online copyright cops.
Verizon said the law should not require it to block customer use of Kazaa and other networks, but in his opinion US District Court Judge John Bates said the law "applies to all internet service providers ... not just to those service providers storing information on a system or network at the discretion of a user."
A recording-industry spokesperson said the decision validated their position and said illegal song swapping was a serious problem.
"Now that the court has ordered Verizon to live up to its obligation under the law, we look forward to contacting the account holder whose identity we were seeking so we can let them know that what they are doing is illegal," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Verizon officials were not immediately available for comment.
The RIAA represents the five largest recording companies: AOL Time Warner's Warner Music; Sony Music; Bertelsmann's BMG; Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group; and EMI Group.