RIAA Asks for ISP Help Streamlining P2P Settlements
“ISP confusion” is a reason RIAA is offering more carrot and less stick in efforts to settle with those it accuses of file sharing, the trade group said in a leaked, blacked-out letter to ISPs from Exec. Vp Steve Marks. Proposed changes - - which require ISP cooperation -- came from discussions with infringement suit targets, the group said. But the promise of a reward to forsake legal counsel and a data-retention provision in the letter have some RIAA critics calling foul. RIAA declined comment or to confirm the letter’s authenticity, which bears a 2007 date but the day and month are blacked out.
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The equivalent of lower prices for early reservations is part of RIAA’s pitch to those it believes have shared files. The letter asked ISPs to forward settlement offers to suspects, offering discounts of $1,000 or more in settlement amounts before a John Doe suit is filed. Settlements typically are $3,000-5,000, but they vary widely. RIAA said its “early preservation notices” e-mailed to ISPs, which have dropped recently, will increase soon. It provided a template letter for ISPs to send subscribers fingered by RIAA.
The early settlement option requires ISPs to maintain IP address log files for 180 days, which isn’t unusual but is far from standard among ISPs. The period is necessary to pursue the Doe lawsuit and subpoena “if settlement discussions are not fruitful,” the letter said.
ISPs are to blame for some of the cases that end in higher settlement amounts, RIAA said. Settling litigants have told the group that their ISPs told them to cut off talks with RIAA, gave the wrong number to contact RIAA, called the warning letters a “hoax,” told customers that RIAA may have botched the IP address, or directed them to “certain websites.” The examples are not “uncommon,” the letter said. RIAA is starting P2Plawsuits.com, with information about early settlements.
Frequently assailed for suing the wrong people, RIAA told ISPs they're at fault for misidentifications and holes in contact information for settlement targets. Some ISPs have identified as infringers people who weren’t subscribers at the time of the supposed activity; others have dumped IP address log files and “could not exculpate” targets who claimed innocence; and some ISPs didn’t have contact information for subscribers, the letter said. RIAA wants the actual log files used to identify subscribers, not just their identities. The group will be “happy to discuss” letting ISPs simply maintain log files without turning them over in full upon subpoena.
ISPs should warn those who work for them not to discuss “the validity of the copyright claims” in RIAA notices when talking to settlement targets, the letter said. It asked ISPs to quickly contact RIAA’s national counsel if they question the accuracy of subscriber data given the RIAA. RIAA has been criticized itself for comments ascribed to workers at its “settlement support center,” which include telling targets they should settle even if they think they're innocent of file-sharing.
RIAA’s data-retention proposal is a slippery slope, said Cindy Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation legal dir. Keeping and disclosing logs may implicate, not exculpate, subscribers, she said: “Now the RIAA wants your ISP to voluntarily wield the knife, and there’s no telling what else the RIAA might ask for once this cut has been made.”
RIAA is fighting to keep accused subscribers from knowing their legal options, by giving out discounted settlement offers to possibly innocent targets and pressing ISPs to direct customers to RIAA -- not give information on “sound legal counsel” like what EFF provides, Cohn said. “Does the RIAA readily tell customers that parents are generally not liable for infringements committed by their kids, or that bankruptcy might be a last ditch option for some, or that the record labels have occasionally sued the wrong people? Doubtful.”