Attempt to I.D. Verizon User Stirs Backlash

A dozen consumer advocacy and civil liberties groups urged a federal judge Friday to reject the major record companies’ attempt to force Verizon Internet Services to identify a customer accused of extensive music piracy.

The groups--including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Consumers League and Utility Consumers’ Action Network--argued that anonymous speech should receive strong protection even in claims of copyright infringement.

Cindy Cohn, legal director for Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the record labels “asked the court to throw a long history of protection of anonymous speech out the window as soon as someone suspects copyright infringement on a peer-to-peer system.”

The Recording Industry Assn. of America asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week to enforce a subpoena the court issued to Verizon on July 24. The subpoena sought the name, address and phone number of the customer whose account was being used to offer hundreds of copyrighted songs for download.

In its motion, the RIAA said a 1998 law compels Internet providers to “expeditiously disclose to the copyright owner ... the information required by the subpoena.”

In a separate case, a federal judge in New York ruled Thursday that MP3Board Inc. was not protected by the 1st Amendment when it posted links to Web sites offering unauthorized downloads of copyrighted songs. But U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected the record companies’ request for a pretrial judgment against MP3Board, as well as MP3Board’s request for a pretrial judgment against the record companies and the RIAA.