Music Industry Spurned by Court
WIRED NEWS -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a lower court decision holding that the recording industry can't force internet service providers to turn over the names of users trading music files online, effectively stopping one of the legal tactics of the music business as it tries to stamp out piracy.
The case pitted the Recording Industry Association of America against Verizon Internet Services, which earlier had challenged a 2002 copyright subpoena stemming from a provision in the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
In December, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned an earlier lower-court ruling that had sided with the RIAA. The Verizon case is considered one of the first tests of the DMCA, which gives copyright holders broad powers over the use of their works.
Tuesday's loss came as a blow to the entertainment industry, which has tried to use litigation as a way to deter alleged copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks. Last Friday, record labels and movie studios asked the Supreme Court to review the Grokster decision, which held that peer-to-peer networks aren't responsible for the copyright infringement of their users.
Verizon hailed the court's action Tuesday as a victory for personal privacy, free-expression rights and "safety" for internet users across the United States.
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