subscribe to our feed.Dog gone Ars Technica. They did it again. I’m being forced to post on ANOTHER of their stories, if only because it involves the RIAA getting it’s behind handed to it by a federal judge in New Mexico. Here’s a quick update: The RIAA has been on a hunt for all kinds of file sharers across the Internet, especially those on college campuses. One of the RIAA’s favorite tactics in searching for targets to bring legal action against involves filing lawsuits against unknown persons (aka John Does) and, basically, subpoenaing the information involving file-sharers and others. This forces the college’s ISP to give up sensitive information about people and their usage habits, which allows the RIAA to “find” what they’re looking for. Once the RIAA has the information it needs, it reveals that there is a lawsuit against the person in question, leaving no room to challenge the subpoena or come to his own defense. This usually comes in the form of a moneytary settlement letter, letting the defendant know that charges have been filed, and that he could avoid the whole thing by settling for an amount of money or something else.
The judge in New Mexico wants each individual whose information is being subpoenaed to be involved in the process, and ordered the RIAA to work with university counsels to retrieve a limited amount of information about suspected file sharers. If the universities and the RIAA cannot come to an agreement, the courts will have to get involved again.
This period of retrieval and transparency while the RIAA works with universities will also allow potential defendants in the lawsuits to make sure that their interests are taken care of and that sensitive information does not make itself known. There’s one more thing, if Universities decide to stick with their students and not heed the cries of the RIAA and their full disclosure demands, the RIAA will find itself in a major pickle.
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