p2pnet - rss feed: Comcast sued by RIAA victim
p2pnet.net News:- The mother of two teenagers is suing US cable TV network operator Comcast for disclosing her name and contact information to Big Music’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America)
Dawnell Leadbetter from the Seattle area says in January, she was contacted by debt collection agency Settlement Support Center and told to pay $4,500 for downloading copyright-protected music, or face a lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of dollars, says CNET News.
Leadbetter was a customer of Comcast’s high-speed Internet access service and Settlement Support Center, based in Washington state, used information obtained by the RIAA, CNET quotes Lory Lybeck, Leadbetter’s lawyer, as saying.
But, “no court authorized Comcast to release names and addresses of its customers, or notified his client that her information had been given to an outside party," Lybeck said.
Stay tuned.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
CNET News - Comcast sued for disclosing customer info, April 14, 2005
April 15th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
That’s very cool to see people standing up for themselves.
April 15th, 2005 at 8:03 pm
Key words right here: “But, “no court authorized Comcast to release names and addresses of its customers, or notified his client that her information had been given to an outside party,” Lybeck said.”
I’m sure EULA’s will start to insert this in the future from ISP’s. At the least. But good for her. Good argument.
April 15th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
Ive not even thought about this angle before.
Companies are so paranoid about breaking the Data Protection Act in the UK!
Under the data protection act companies cannot disclose any information to 3rd parties. Everyone Sue!!
The RIAA and MPAA have so much money SUE ‘EM ALL
April 15th, 2005 at 10:50 pm
Well I use Comcast. I could care less about how they think they offer privacy to consumers. They are in the wrong for disclosing any information without a court order which probably can be thrown away as it were. That is such a sad story. Hope the woman gets it cleared away.
April 15th, 2005 at 10:53 pm
outfuckingstanding!
Apparently Comcast has no problem selling out its customers and doesn’t care about their privacy.
April 16th, 2005 at 8:33 am
It will be even better when users sue their isp’s, after being sued, because the isp delivered the infringements and bears at least some of the responsibility for their customer being sued.
There should be a call to all users to get a lawyer and cross sue their isp when RIAA come a knockin’
April 17th, 2005 at 1:18 am
It’s about friggin’ time!
April 18th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
This is stupid, if she’s downloading her IP address is out there, IP addresses can be easily traced. Epecially through any type of P2P or Direct connection.
I like how the article calls her a victim. Oh no, she has to pay for what she got. Everyone should be aware of the ramifications of file sharing, and accept the responsibiltys that come with it. If you don’t understand this, or how something your using works, chances are you shouldn’t be using it.
I hope she goes to jail for stupidiy
April 18th, 2005 at 8:23 pm
Not if her lawyer has information that Comcast gave the information to the RIAA without a court order and if so she is not the one is is stupid, they are.
However, if she was simply traced by IP address then you are correct. However, I do not think a lawsuit would have been raised by her if she did not have evidence of some type.
April 18th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
No, the courts have made it clear that the RIAA must obtain a warrant to obtain the information they require, there is no way to insert this into the EULA and bypass high court decisions
April 19th, 2005 at 3:23 pm
There is no way that someone like the RIAA can match an IP address to a name. Only the ISP can do that. What the IP address does show is who the ISP is. So, with that in mind, the only way that they could have found out who she was is by the ISP disclosing the information. Open and shut case, IMHO, but IANAL.
April 19th, 2005 at 4:02 pm
OP;
You are wrong, it is VERY easy to trace an IP to a home. Things like direct connect (through AIM) are a bit harder to trace as they first go to a server - but with p2p appilications it is very easy to follow.
You may not be able to match it to a name, but you can match it to a physical address, and then match that adress to a name.
While a warrent or other court injunction is required to get information from comcast, its is errant to belive that comcast must notifey it’s customers that it’s giving out such information. I’m sure that comcast has some sort of contingancy plan, or form of ‘terms of service’ that you agree to by using their services.
If you still don’t belive that you can trace individual ip addresses to a home PHYSICAL address, I advise you to check out a program called neotrace and try it yourself. I belive - that you can even get satilite photo’s of the house or place you’ve traced to.
April 8th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
I think that she is doing many of the people who download music everyday a service. She might be the one to pave the wasy to let all of this P2P mess to sleep. The RIAA knows that they can try to scare people and this is what they do…go after people to collect money in my opinion just to pay their bills! Well the peole who are donloading have bills to and that is mostly why people do it becuase they don’t have a trillion dollars to survive on. That is evident from the economy today…Who in their right mind would say they could actually buy every album they ever wanted???? No one but probably the artists that record these albums. They still make money reguardless. The RIAA needs to get real or get another way to bring in income besides suing for a petty song. Even if file sharing was cut out yous till have people with cd burners….are they going to ban cd burners next…because with a cd burner all you have to do is borrow a cd and copy it for your own use and forget the anti-piracy logo..they have propgrams now that copy those too….. HAPPY Sharing people!!!!!!!