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View Full Version : more heat over subpoenas


View Full Version : more heat over subpoenas


crackerjacker
September 20th, 2003, 03:00 PM
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=musicNews&storyID=3477394



"Whether they take it up yet is another matter," he adds. "Verizon is the first challenge. SBC Communications has refused to honor the subpoenas, so you can expect litigation there. The court traditionally likes to wait for an issue to bubble up in several different lawsuits in several appellate decisions.

"But," Hayes continues, "if the court thinks there are legitimate constitutional issues -- privacy, whether there is sufficient due process or the fact that there are no judges involved in granting the subpoenas -- they may decide to do so."

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even if they take it to the courts, sbc will not reveal peoples names or identities. however, due to the recent precedent taking place its a good thing to see how this plays out specifically because of this fact from the article*

Whether the Supreme Court will take it up depends on whether the conflict is about statutory construction or constitutional issues.

and even if this comes into play, there is even more to decide basically whether, this new bill is enacted.
*just basic information*
James D. Ellis, executive VP/general counsel of SBC -- which supports Brownback's bill -- said it would require the alleged copyright owner to "reasonably investigate his claim and expose his claims to the light of day, pursuant to the protections of Federal Rules of Procedure

this means that if this bill is passed, this is what i will occur.

It would provide Internet users basic notice and an opportunity to be heard," he added.

Brownback said he supports "strong protections of intellectual property" and said his bill, S.1621, would restore a balance of rights. Instead of using informational subpoenas to gain the identities of alleged infringers, the RIAA would have to file "John Doe" lawsuits and present evidence of infringement to a judge. The bill has no co-sponsors.

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yeah i posted excerpts but what the hell.
i just thought that the whole basis for this thread is to point out what really matters, i mean people can still read it.
hmm
anyways this is good news.
peace

Malicious Intent
September 20th, 2003, 04:04 PM
It makes you realise how many on going cases there are and the number of points of law that still need to be ironed out. Getting a judges signature on subpoenas just makes sense. I'm surprised the RIAA are fighting it. Getting a signature can't be much more difficult, but would add alot of validility to their cases. Perhaps even help public opinion on the matter. Most anti-riaa reports bring up that they only need a clerks signature.
As ever I will be routing for the teams against the RIAA.

shawners
September 20th, 2003, 04:11 PM
To get judges signature on it, the judge could decide not to sign or to sign, especially if it sees 12 year olds being sued and crap. I also think their trying to make it a HIGHWAY thing, to go fast, and to get to point b without costing as much money getting judges to sign and more paperwork to file.

Malicious Intent
September 20th, 2003, 04:40 PM
Is this really the highway method?
I mean this case may put a hold on their whole proceedings and cost them even more money. They will also have extra public opinion to fight. I can't seriously see them winning this case. I may just be in the wrong circles, but I havn't seen any justification of a clerks signature. Surely a better plan would to have conceeded this one to keep things moving in the long term.

shawners
September 20th, 2003, 04:54 PM
They have went to court about it with verizon and its to do the same thing, let the subpoena go ahead without any judge signing. They want it that way, and these ISP are slowing them down but their still filing them cause not all ISP will fight or would hold the information their requesting. The appeal slowed them down, but their still filing lawsuits while its being taken to court. AND i heard verizon is in world of hurt and needs money. They were talking about massive lay offs or moving their jobs and business south to cut cost. Im sure they wanting to do this so they wont lose internet users.