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General discussion

One File Swapper, One Lawsuit

Mar 9, 2004 1:27PM PST

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may not sue 203 file-sharers in a single suit, but must sue each of them individually. A previous ruling found that the RIAA could not subpoena customer data from Internet service providers (ISPs) under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), forcing the trade group to resort to "John Doe" lawsuits, identifying alleged pirates only by their Internet addresses. The court allowed a suit against John Doe #1, since the RIAA had sufficient evidence against that individual, but still requires individual lawsuits against the 202 remaining John Does. Jason Schultz, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, praised the judge's decision saying that individuals have the right to their own trial. The RIAA would not comment on its next move.

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62576,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7

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