Out-Law News 2 min. read
06 Oct 2010, 5:08 pm
Lawyers acting for record label Ministry of Sound had sought a court order ordering the handing over of the details, but internet service provider PlusNet said that it needed further assurance of better data protection before doing so. It has been granted an adjournment by the High Court, which will now look at its objections to the requests.
The move follows the accidental online publishing by law firm ACS:Law of the details of thousands of people accused of infringing the copyright on pornographic material. Those details were provided to the law firm by ISPs, including PlusNet.
Copyright holders can use technology that attempts to track the internet protocol (IP) addresses of people unlawfully sharing copyrighted material. To identify that person the copyright holder must ask an ISP to match the IP address with one of its account holders.
ISPs generally only provide that information on the orders of a court. It was information provided in these circumstances that was revealed in the ACS:Law incident.
PlusNet has, though, objected to a request on behalf of record label Ministry of Sound for information on alleged file sharers and has suspended co-operation with such requests.
"The incident involving the ACS Law data leak has further damaged people's confidence in the current process," said a PlusNet spokeswoman. "We're pleased that the court has agreed to an adjournment so that our concerns can be examined by the court, this will then act as a precedent/test case for the future."
"We want to ensure broadband subscribers are adequately protected so that rights holders can pursue their claims for copyright infringement without causing unnecessary worry to innocent people," said the spokeswoman.
The company said that it had asked the court for a suspension of all orders to produce subscriber data.
PlusNet's chief operating officer, Richard Fletcher, said last week that the company would no longer comply with requests for subscriber data.
"We are no longer co-operating with ACS Law over the provision of information and can confirm that we are reviewing our position in relation to these requests in general," he said. "Due to serious concerns about the integrity of the process that is being used by rights holders, we will resist efforts to share more customer details with them and those acting on their behalf until we can be sure that alleged copyright infringements have some basis and customers are treated fairly."
Other ISPs had always refused to hand over subscriber details. TalkTalk, which has always opposed the process, said at the time of the ACS:Law leak that none of its customers could be affected.
"TalkTalk has never given any customer details to ACS Law or any other law firm ... so our customers will not be affected by this breach," said TalkTalk's head of strategy and regulation Andrew Heaney in a blog post at the time. "While we do not condone illegal filesharing, we have consistently argued for better ways of combating copyright theft. Handing over customer details to law firms to seek ‘compensation’, based on accusations from rightsholders, is not the answer."
"We have not simply consented to these orders in the past, we have asked for stricter terms as public concern has risen," said the PlusNet spokeswoman. "The data leak with ACS Law prompted us to take further action today."
