Oregon 'Ground Zero' in RIAA Battle Against File-Sharing
Updated: Oregon’s attorney general is going to bat, yet again, for university students being targeted by the U.S. recording industry.
In filings this week, Attorney General Hardy Myers’ office said the Recording Industry Association of America’s litigation tactics may violate his state’s data-mining laws, Bloomberg News reports. And his office called for an investigation of the recording industry’s tactics.
ComputerWorld dubbed Oregon “Ground Zero” in the battle between the RIAA and music pirates.
The RIAA has issued subpoenas to the University of Oregon to reveal the identities of 17 students who are alleged to have violated copyright laws. They are among more than 20,000 individuals, mainly in academic circles, who have been targeted by the RIAA for copyright infringement since 2003.
“The larger issue may not be whether students are sharing copyrighted music, but whether plaintiffs’ investigative techniques and litigation techniques are appropriate,” the AG’s filing in federal court in Eugene, Ore., said.
The University of Oregon is the first school to file a motion to block the RIAA’s subpoena, according to Bloomberg. And this is the second time in a month that Myers has fought RIAA attempts to turn over the names of students.
Bloomberg reports that the IP addresses of the Oregon students were obtained by investigators from MediaSentry, which is not licensed to engage in data-mining activities under Oregon law.
The RIAA characterized the AG’s attempts to block the subpoena as “misguided,” the Associated Press reports.
But Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who has defended individuals in RIAA lawsuits, says the Oregon AG’s move to question the RIAA’s tactics is long overdue. “The RIAA has been bringing fake copyright infringement lawsuits, the sole purpose of which is to get the names and addresses of John Does,” ComputerWorld quotes Beckerman saying. The strategy is then to drop the case and pressure individuals to settle, he added.
Updated at 5:17 p.m., CST, with more details.
