RIAA orders ISPs to reveal IDs of hundreds of music fans

"This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Filing information subpoenas is exactly what we said we'd do a couple of weeks ago when we announced that we were gathering evidence to file lawsuits," a spokeswoman for the RIAA told Reuters.

The RIAA confirmed in June that it would be using software that scans the public directories available to any user of a peer-to-peer network. These directories, which allow users to find the material they are looking for, list all the files that other users of the network are currently offering to distribute. When the software finds a user who is offering to distribute copyrighted music files, it downloads some of the infringing files, along with the date and time it accessed the files.

Additional information that is publicly available from these systems allows the RIAA to then identify the user's ISP. The RIAA can then serve a subpoena on the ISP requesting the name and address of the individual whose account was being used to distribute copyrighted music.

Under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), ISPs must provide copyright holders with such information when there is reason to believe copyrights are being infringed. The RIAA can then sue the individual. The RIAA says that almost all ISPs disclose their DMCA obligation in the users' terms of service.

The ISP division of US telecoms giant Verizon tried to argue against this requirement, ultimately without success. In early June, the company gave in to a court order to reveal the identities of two of its customers, accused by the RIAA of infringing copyright.

The British music industry's approach to peer-to-peer problems is addressed in the current OUT-LAW Magazine.