US cableco seeks to quash RIAA subpoenas
PrintCustomer care
Posted in Music and Media, 6th October 2003 12:22 GMT
Free whitepaper – Dell/EMC CX4 and Dell PowerEdge blades
Charter Communications, the US cableco, is challenging the RIAA's attempt to hand over the names of 150 customers who allegedly swapped music files illegally over the net.
The company filed suit on Friday in its home town of St Louis, Missouri seeking to block subpoenas obtained by the RIAA.
Tom Hearity, associate general counsel for Charter, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "We are the only major cable company that has not as yet provided the RIAA a single datum of information," AP reports.
In September, the RIAA filed suit against 261 American file traders, armed with information obtained from their ISPs. Among the haul included a 12 year-old girl and a 66 year-old female pensioner. The latter's case was quickly dropped by the RIAA, when it realised that the woman was entirely innocent.
The recording industry blames unauthorised downloading and CD bootlegging for an 11 per cent fall in music sales in the first half of 2003. ®
Related stories
Music industry blames Net for falling sales
Music biz slams Oz Net piracy plea bargain
RIAA withdraws $300m suit against innocent pensioner
What Exchange can't do - and Dell can
Enabling the Agile Data Center
Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter