Major record labels have asked a US federal court to order
Verizon to reveal the details of one of its ISP customers who is
suspected of offering hundreds of MP3 music files for download. The
filing was made on Tuesday in the Federal District Court of
Columbia by the RIAA, which acts on behalf of the labels.
The filing came after Verizon refused to comply with an order
issued by the same court last June. The order sought limited
information about a “suspicious” computer connected to the Verizon
network.
The company refused to reveal the name of its subscriber because
the order did not involve material stored on the Verizon servers by
users. It involved material residing on a P2P node, i.e. the user’s
own hard drive.
Verizon said that it is concerned about both the privacy of its
subscribers and the “copyrights of the music industry”, but it has
also a “legitimate concern” that the RIAA complies with the “proper
legal process”, according to media reports.
At the same time, a US government official has revealed that the
Department of Justice is prepared to begin prosecuting individual
file-swappers.
