RIAA Sues Grande Communications For Not Solving Piracy The recording industry has launched another lawsuit in its ongoing attempt to force broadband providers into the role of content police. The RIAA has sued Grande Communications in Austin court, claiming the ISP refused "to take meaningful action against repeat infringers." The case is part of an over-arching recording industry attempt to use a highly controversial interpretation of Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to force ISPs to not only police user online behavior, but kick repeat offenders off of the network.

supposed to be provided by the DMCA. Terminating broadband user accounts for piracy has long been considered a draconian over-reach by many, but an early victory over Cox has many ISPs nervous about the safe harbor protections that wereto be provided by the DMCA. "Defendants have been notified that their internet customers have engaged in more than one million infringements of copyrighted works over BitTorrent systems, including tens of thousands of blatant infringements by repeat infringers of Plaintiffs’copyrighted works,” the lawsuit reads. "Despite their knowledge of repeat infringements, Defendants have permitted repeat infringers to use the Grande service to continue to infringe Plaintiffs’ copyrights without consequence.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) however is quick to note that the record label justification for its attempt to turn ISPs into content nannies is based on falsehoods they've been trying to sell the courts on for years. Falsehoods that were only successful in the Cox case because the company shot itself in the foot via internal e-mails admitting its pirate-disconnection program (which we talked with them about in 2008 was a farce. "[Record labels] claim that because Grande runs a service that transmits information, and because some people transmit infringing copies of music recordings, Grande should have a legal responsibility 'to minimize the infringing capabilities of its service,'" The EFF notes. "This is like saying that an electric utility needs to prevent people from using electricity when they commit crimes." "One of the main purposes of DMCA Section 512 is to make clear that Internet service providers aren’t required to be copyright police," notes the group. "And that legal protection is the reason we have the multitude of Internet services we have as we know it today. The courts have generally rejected this perennial argument of the music and film industries, but the suit against Grande shows that they haven’t abandoned it yet." If the music industry wins, that could spell trouble for users and ISPs big and small, alike. ISPs would be forced to eat the costs of engaging in heavy-handed efforts to try and boot users off of their networks for piracy, raising questions about using IP address as proof of guilt, and who would track users between ISPs to ensure these users aren't just floating between providers. And, since most pirates now hide their online traffic via VPN or proxy anyway, the entire effort likely wouldn't do much to hamstring piracy rates anyway. If the music industry wins, that could spell trouble for users and ISPs big and small, alike. ISPs would be forced to eat the costs of engaging in heavy-handed efforts to try and boot users off of their networks for piracy, raising questions about using IP address as proof of guilt, and who would track users between ISPs to ensure these users aren't just floating between providers. And, since most pirates now hide their online traffic via VPN or proxy anyway, the entire effort likely wouldn't do much to hamstring piracy rates anyway.







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Most recommended from 26 comments

kinda pissed

join:2012-06-06

Newsoms, VA 28 recommendations kinda pissed Member Solve your own problems The recording and movie industries are the only ones I know of that expect other industries to take care of their security.

camper

just visiting this planet

Premium Member

join:2010-03-21

Bethel, CT 14 recommendations camper Premium Member Legal strategy...

Go after the small ISP that cannot mount a full-court defense, establish a precedent that makes it more difficult for the larger ISPs to do a proper battle.



It is quite telling that the RIAA appears to be preying upon the relatively weak to prove their case. The case becomes more about the financial ability to mount an appropriate defense, rather than the leagl aspects of the defense.



It seems to show just how weak the RIAA believes their case to be.

maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 6 recommendations maartena Premium Member Piracy is not new, and it won't go away..... In the 1930s, bootlegging sheet music was extremely popular. Yes, you still had to sit behind a piano and play it yourself, but why go to a store and pay good money for the music books, if there was a shady guy around the corner printing them for 5 cents a sheet.



Starting in the 1950s, but going on to as far as the 1980s, a number of actual music pirate SHIPS existed. This was in a time the government still controlled the radio stations (such as BBC in the UK, but also in The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and others) so people went and actually setup up broadcasting SHIPS in international waters with an antenna strong enough to reach the coast, and started broadcasting the music (rock and roll) the people wanted to hear. Of course this was done without paying any royalties. By the 1980s laws had changed to allow countries to raid those ships, but they had also changed so they could more easily become legit radio stations on land.



In the 1960s, people bought 8-track reel to reel recorder and recorded from records. My mom had a "portable" one (read: it came in a case but it was still heavy) and when she was young she used it to copy Beatles music from others that had reel to reel recorders. I believe we still have it in my parents attic.



In the 1970s, people bought two 8-track tape machines, and copied 8-track tapes between each other.



In the 1980s, people bought 2 VHS machines and copied films and television. And/or copied that film from the local rental store.



In the 1990s, people bought CD-R drives and copied music CD's. At first, only at the same speed of a CD player, but soon enough you could copy music CD's at 4x, 8x, 16x speed and you could copy 5 CD's an hour.



In the 2000s, people converted music to digital MP3 formats and traded them on the internet using peer to peer networking or other internet technologies. Also, DVD-R drives had become cheap, and full DVD's were both copied and traded on the internet.



And now, you can get virtually every piece of music and video released somewhere on the internet.



Piracy has gotten EASIER. But it has always existed, and it will always continue to exist.

rchandra

Stargate Universe fan

Premium Member

join:2000-11-09

14225-2105 4 recommendations rchandra Premium Member EFF Frontier, not Freedom

why60loss

Premium Member

join:2012-09-20 4 recommendations why60loss Premium Member This is like suing ford just becuase a F-150 truck was used in a crime If your going to complain about copyright's take it up with the person that broke the copyright law not the ISP. mist668

join:2011-02-15

Middleburg, PA 2 recommendations mist668 Member And again Who the hell cares. The RIAA is so 1999

Anon7e04d

@coasttelephone.com 2 recommendations Anon7e04d Anon Reason why I don't buy music I am so sick of this BS with RIAA and their continued gouging, suing and taking everything for themselves. I have a friend who is a music artist and with the money that is collected on his behalf by these ass rags, he gets maybe 2% and he did all the work. So the RIAA deserves NOTHING!



And is also the reason why I ended my business in broadcasting. There is no money after these thieves take it from you.



So they can have it and I will continue to steal my music. F U RIAA! Trace my ass, you'll never find me. VPN is a sweet thing!