RIAA Discloses Some Methods of Tracking

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 21:19:01 -0400 (EDT)
> From: dave () farber net
> \----------------------------------------------------------/
>
> RIAA Discloses Some Methods of Tracking
>
> August 28, 2003
>  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Filed at 3:09 a.m. ET
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recording industry is providing its
> most detailed glimpse into some of the detective-style
> techniques it has employed as part of its secretive
> campaign against online music swappers.
>
> The disclosures were included in court papers filed against
> a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for
> allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. The
> recording industry disputed her defense that songs on her
> family's computer were from compact discs she had legally
> purchased.
>
> According to the documents, the Recording Industry
> Association of America examined song files on the woman's
> computer and traced their digital fingerprints back to the
> former Napster file-sharing service, which shut down in
> 2001 after a court ruled it violated copyright laws.
>
> The RIAA, the trade group for the largest record labels,
> said it also found other evidence inside the woman's music
> files suggesting the songs were recorded by other people
> and distributed across the Internet.
>
> Comparing the Brooklyn woman to a shoplifter, the RIAA told
> U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola that she was ``not an
> innocent or accidental infringer'' and described her
> lawyer's claims otherwise as ``shockingly misleading.''
>
> The RIAA papers were filed Tuesday night in Washington and
> made available by the court Wednesday.
>
> The woman's lawyer, Daniel N. Ballard, of Sacramento,
> Calif., said the music industry's latest argument was
> ``merely a smokescreen to divert attention'' from the
> related issue of whether her Internet provider, Verizon
> Internet Services Inc., must turn over her identity under a
> copyright subpoena.
>
> ``You cannot bypass people's constitutional rights to
> privacy, due process and anonymous association to identify
> an alleged infringer,'' Ballard said.
>
> Ballard has asked the court to delay any ruling for two
> weeks while he prepares his arguments, and he noted that
> his client -- identified only as ``nycfashiongirl'' -- has
> already removed the file-sharing software from her family's
> computer.
>
> The RIAA accused ``nycfashiongirl'' of offering more than
> 900 songs by the Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson and
> others for illegal download, along with 200 other computer
> files that included at least one full-length movie,
> ``Pretty Woman.''
>
> The RIAA's latest court papers describe in unprecedented
> detail some sophisticated forensic techniques used by its
> investigators.
>
> For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of
> digital fingerprints, called ``hashes,'' that it said can
> uniquely identify MP3 music files that had been traded on
> the Napster service as far back as May 2000. Examining
> hashes is commonly used by the FBI and other computer
> investigators in hacker cases.
>
> By comparing the fingerprints of music files on a person's
> computer against its library, the RIAA believes it can
> determine in some cases whether someone recorded a song
> from a legally purchased CD or downloaded it from someone
> else over the Internet.
>
> Copyright lawyers said it remains unresolved whether
> consumers can legally download copies of songs on a CD they
> purchased rather than making digital copies themselves. But
> finding MP3 music files that precisely match copies that
> have been traded online could be evidence a person
> participated in file-sharing services.
>
> ``The source for nycfashiongirl's sound recordings was not
> her own personal CDs,'' the RIAA's lawyers wrote.
>
> The recording industry also disclosed that it is examining
> so-called ``metadata'' tags, hidden snippets of information
> embedded within many MP3 music files. In this case, lawyers
> wrote, they found evidence that others had recorded the
> music files and that some songs had been downloaded from
> known pirate Web sites.
>
> The industry has won approval for more than 1,300 subpoenas
> compelling Internet providers to identify computer users
> suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet.
>
>
> Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate
> Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on
> Investigations, has promised hearings on the industry's use
> of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders.
>
> The RIAA has said it expects to file at least several
> hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages as early as next
> month. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to
> $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's
> computer, but the RIAA has said it would be open to
> settlement proposals from defendants.
>
> The campaign comes just weeks after U.S. appeals court
> rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify
> subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie
> files.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Downloading-Music.html?ex=1063119941&ei=1&en=9cd7a4d2a2dffd99
>
>
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