Countersuit against RIAA subpoena frenzy
Following the RIAA's unprecedented legal attack on the users of file sharing networks, Pacific Bell has launched a countersuit arging that the RIAA's tactics of issuing subpoenas to ISPs is illegal.
In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Internet service provider PBIS, operated by San Antonio-based SBC, alleges that many of the subpoenas served against it by the Recording Industry Association of America were done so improperly. The suit also called to question some sections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the federal law the RIAA contends supports its latest legal actions. A spokesman for SBC said the RIAA's use of the DMCA in its legal quest for online song-sharers butts up against the privacy rights of SBC's customers. "The action taken by SBC Internet Services is intended to protect the privacy of our customers," said SBC spokesman Larry Meyer. "Misapplication of DMCA subpoena power raises serious constitutional questions that need to be decided by the courts, not by private companies which operate without duty of due diligence or judicial oversight." [...] PBIS claims that more than 200 subpoenas seeking file-sharers' e-mail addresses were issued from the wrong court of jurisdiction. Moreover, PBIS said the recording industry's demand for information on multiple file-sharers cannot be grouped under one subpoena, and that the demands themselves are overly broad. In the complaint, PBIS maintains it only acts as a "passive conduit" for the activity of its subscribers and "does not initiate or direct the transmission of those files and has no control over their content or destination." [...] The recording industry has won at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users suspected of illegal sharing music files on the Internet. The RIAA is trying to compel some of the largest Internet providers, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Cable Communications Inc., to identify names and mailing addresses for users on their networks. - AP, Pac Bell's Internet arm sues music industry over file-sharer IDs.