Judge John D. Bates, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, has ruled in favor of RIAA in their high profile case against Verizon to compel the ISP to provide personal data on customers’ use and online distribution of music obtained using P2P downloading applications. See Recording Industry of America v. Verizon Internet Services, Misc. No. 02-323 Memorandum Opinion & Order, issued January 21, 2003.
RIAA’s press release is here, and states in part that Verizon must now provide the name of a subscriber “who has illegally made available more than 600 copyrighted music files over the Internet.”
Verizon’s response is here, and states “This case will have a chilling effect on private communications, such as e-mail, surfing the Internet or the sending of files between private parties.” Verizon will appeal the decision.
See also my post from October 19, 2002 for background on this case.