Appeals Court Rules Against RIAA in DMCA Subpoena Case

JohnTheFisherman writes "My Way News is reporting that a Federal appeals court ruled that the RIAA can't compel the ISP to provide the name of the downloaders in their case against Verizon. In fact, the court said that one of the arguments the RIAA used 'borders upon the silly.' I believe most here will agree that this is great news." We've been following this case for a while.

hee hee

[grub]

[...] rejecting the trade group's claims that Verizon was responsible for downloaded music because such data files traverse its network.

Well, it appears the RIAA will have to focus on a different network layer: they'll start suing the cat-5 and fiber optic manufacturers..

YAY!

[RedA$$edMonkey]

Let the frenzied orgy of music downloads begin!

Try "Legislative" Layer.

[Anonymous Coward]

The top of the OSI model.

The question will be who will buy more congressmen, the RIAA + MPA, or telecommunications providers.

Phew!

[asdfasdfasdfasdf]

RIAA can't compel the ISP to provide the name of the downloaders

Excellent! Now I can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing my obsession with Clay Aiken will remain a secret.

Oops.

Phew

[SillySnake]

I was getting tired of driving back home to "see the family" to use their high speed in their name instead of mine. What? Their old.. Less time to serve in prison..

You're thinking in 1975 terms.

[Exmet Paff Daxx]

We have the Internet now, which is owned by AOL, which exists in Virginia. Which is under the D.C. Circuit Court. Which means that whatever they decide applies to an overwhelming majority of the Internet's core infrastructure.

You must have been thinking of the real world... which is weird, because this is Slashdot.

Re:It's about time

[Samrobb]

I can just see being in the "bighouse" with a bunch of murderers and rapists and then they ask me what I did.

This just screams out for a reference to Alice's DMCA [sethf.com]...

...there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Viagra spammers. Credit-card crackers. Relay-rapers! Relay-rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me!

Re:hee hee

[Kenja]

Well since I use CAT-6 copper I should be OK.

If anyone wants an MP3 of the ruling...

[Snarfangel]

let me know.

I Nominate Cary Sherman...

[GTRacer]

...for the "Best Spin" of 2003 Award!!!

Cary Sherman, president of the recording industry group, said the ruling "unfortunately means we can no longer notify illegal file sharers before we file lawsuits against them to offer the opportunity to settle outside of litigation."

"Offer the opportunity to settle"...Kinda like offering an olive branch made of pointy steel leaves and covered with anthrax. Now that's a classic worth framing!

GTRacer
127.0.0.1

Re:If anyone wants an MP3 of the ruling...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure thing!! What's your KaZaa user name?

Re:hee hee

[allism]

And then they can sue Al Gore, since he took the initiative in creating the Internet.

Hey, maybe this IS a good idea...

Re:Go Judiciary! Wooooo!

[be-fan]

w00t.

Outside the cort room

[niall2]

When asked what the company thought of freedom on the internet a Verizon spokseperson responded:

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

Won't someone think of the clams?

[AndroidCat]

What on Teegeeak is $cientology going to do when they can't just send out an Avagram with fraudulent claims of copyright ownership to shut down sites and get personal information?

Is this going to put some staffer out of a $15/week "job"?

Re:There's a CNN story about this too

[rjelks]

In other news:

The A.P. is reporting a record number of users on all p2p networks. Kazaa's userbase shoots up to over 5 million.

.

Re:What's going on?

[Tsali]

George Clinton had nothing to do with the DMCA.

Move along... nothing to see here.

Divine Litigation

[handy_vandal]

Well, it appears the RIAA will have to focus on a different network layer: they'll start suing the cat-5 and fiber optic manufacturers.

Suing fiber optic manufacturers misses the point.

What does fiber optic cable transmit? Light. And who is responsible for light?

"And God said, Let there be light; and there was light (Genesis 1:3)."

-kgj

Re:You're thinking in 1975 terms.

[the_mad_poster]

No a/s/l check? No, this is no AOLer. Besides... if you think a hardcore AOLer could figure out how to get to "h t t p colon slash slash slash dot dot org " without a big funny button to push, you're kidding yourself.

(I would like to apologize to all the AOLers out there who may have been offended by my insensitive comment: I truly am sorry that you choose to use AOL.)

Re:Divine Litigation

[milo_Gwalthny]

Having just watched Angels Across America on HBO, I can assure you there is prior art.

Re:Divine Litigation

[Rysc]

Well since god is a bit hard to reach (and it's questionable whether or not he'd resist arrest) I say their best move would be to sue the pope.

That would create a nice international incident.

Re:Divine Litigation

[Gzip Christ]

And what part does the angel Lucifer, the light-bringer, play in all this?

He doesn't have time to get involved at the moment - he's too busy with his new job out in Linden, Utah.

Re:Have a reality check

[Skyshadow]

(hello, *Jesus Christ*'s parents were married)

Actually, according to Christian mythology, Jesus was a bastard (given that Mary and God weren't married at the time).

Begun, this flamewar has

[notcreative]

...according to Yoda

Forces of Light and Darkness

[handy_vandal]

... a "laser" is used to steal the original bits, and what is a "laser"? Why, it's light! I think the RIAA has a pretty good case here and it wouldn't be too shocking for them to announce an attack against the forces of light.

It's worse that that. This so-called "laser" is also used to burn stolen data onto CD-R discs ... but the nature of binary data ("good vs. evil") requires that the "laser" to momentarily turns itself off, then back on again ... in other words, data piracy requires a coordinated conspiracy between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.

-kgj

Re:You're thinking in 1975 terms.

[coyotedata]

Aol Gore invented the internet and his cousin Aol Warner runs the internet-now what is the part you don't understand?

Thank you Santa!

[StarWreck]

This is the BEST Christmas EVER!!!

Re:Well

[Lifewolf]

I happen to know for a fact that at some point in your life, you bought an album and only liked a song or two on it.

So you listen to the audio snippits before hand on PriceGrabber.com or Amazon.com or Buy.com or dozens of other places, and you decide whether the whole album is worth buying. It's like, it's like that NERDS cereal that came with two flavours in one box. You might have thought the one flavour was really, really good and the other was just okay. So, you had to decide if the box as a whole was worth the money.

See, today CDs are just like that! Sugary, to appeal to the youth while providing none of the substance and nutrition adults want.

Oh.

And they stopped making NERDS cereal a long time ago, didn't they? I guess people didn't want two cereals in one box.

Nevermind. Bad example! CDs are nothing like NERDS cereal.

Re:Well

[CmdrTHAC0]

(I happen to know for a fact that at some point in your life, you bought an album and only liked a song or two on it.)

I can beat that. I once bought a single I didn't like.

Re:Divine Litigation

[k12linux]

Actually, there's a film based on a true story of a man suing god

Oh really? And just what lawyer is going to agree to die in order to serve papers in the right jurisdiction? Oh wait... how would a lawyer even get to the right jurisdiction if they did die? ;-)