As if suing thousands of music fans isn't bad enough, now the RIAA wants to conscript ISPs into helping them streamline the shakedowns. The major record labels sent a letter
to ISPs across the country asking them to trade away customers' rights
and make the overzealous file sharing lawsuits more profitable -- and
the RIAA even has the audacity to suggest that this is all for your own
good.
ISPs currently have no obligation to maintain IP log files, and
that's a good thing when it comes to protecting your privacy. Those log
files can serve as Internet breadcrumbs -- your ISP and any third party
that has access to them can retrace your online activities.
But the RIAA wants ISPs to maintain (and disclose) a customer's IP
logs for six months whenever the RIAA says the user may have infringed
copyright. In exchange, the record companies will reduce its initial
lawsuit settlement demands. Of course, the actual customer would have
no say in the matter. The RIAA letter says it wants the information
kept because it could "exculpate" the customer, but of course those
same records can also implicate the user. Funny, the labels don't
mention that.
EFF and others
have long warned that copyright claims could become an altar on which
personal privacy is sacrificed. Now the RIAA wants your ISP to
voluntarily wield the knife, and there's no telling what else the RIAA
might ask for once this cut has been made.
The RIAA also wants ISPs to keep customers in the dark about their
legal options. Before the RIAA has even verified that the user is
correctly identified, it wants ISPs to send along a note saying the
user might be sued and can already settle potential claims. At the same
time, the RIAA scolds ISPs for giving information to their customers
that could help provide sound legal counsel. Instead, the RIAA wants
ISPs to direct subscribers solely to the RIAA.
6:53:10 PM 
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