File-trading pressure mounts on ISPs

[Eugene Leitl]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/cn/20010725/tc/file-trading_pressure_mounts_on_isps_1.html

Wednesday July 25 05:00 PM EDT

File-trading pressure mounts on ISPs

By John Borland CNET News.com

Record companies have joined the movie industry in trying to root out
post-Napster file trading, putting new pressure on ISPs to clamp down on
subscribers' actions.   ISPs say the last few weeks have seen a sharp
uptick in the number of requests they're getting to pull the plug on
subscribers who are using file-trading software such as Gnutella or iMesh.
Driven by a combination of high-profile summer movie releases and a growth
in the business of independent piracy hunters, these requests are putting
service providers in an awkward position. Even as they avoid facing
media-industry lawyers, these ISPs risk losing their customers to
competing Internet access companies that may be less aggressive about
curtailing the use of file-trading software. High-speed Internet provider
Adelphia, a cable company based in Pennsylvania, is one of the latest to
join the list of ISPs cracking down on file swapping in the post-Napster
world. Like many other ISPs, it has started suspending accounts of people
who have been identified by record companies or movie studios as file
swappers. "Over the past several weeks the Adelphia Internet Abuse
Investigation Team has seen a dramatic increase in the number of reports
of copyright infringement," Michael Healy, the company's senior Internet
abuse investigator, wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "While Adelphia
values its relationship with our customers, we must also take appropriate
action when necessary to safeguard our interests in the global Internet
community."

Adelphia, like other ISPs offering high-speed Net service, is increasingly
caught in a bind between protecting their customers and responding to the
growing demands of copyright holders. Privately, ISP executives say that
Napster and its rivals have been one of the biggest drivers of high-speed
Internet use, a part of their business that most big ISPs are desperately
trying to improve. But as decentralized swapping services like Gnutella,
Music City's Morpheus and Kazaa emerge, copyright holders are leaning on
ISPs to cut off file swapping at the source. Rise of the bounty hunters
ISPs have long received letters from record companies or movie studios
about pirated works on their networks. But until the rise of Napster and
similar services, the way to handle these was clearer. Under federal
copyright law, an ISP is not liable for any copyright content posted on
its network as long as it removes the content as soon as the owner points
it out. Traditionally, movies, songs and software have been posted on the
ISP's servers in the forms of pirate FTP sites or Web sites, and the ISP
could simply pull these down. In the file-swapping world, the law has
become murkier. People using Napster, Gnutella or the others keep all
content on their hard drives, and the only way to block their actions is
to turn off their connections. Some ISPs, such as Verizon Communications
(NYSE:VZ - news), have refused to go this far, calling it a "drastic
remedy that infringes on people's rights and speech."

The Motion Picture Association of America has been one of the biggest
forces using these tactics. But individual studios are also boosting their
efforts with ISPs. Twentieth Century Fox, for example, recently sent a
notice telling service providers that distribution of any "Planet of the
Apes" movie clips would be unauthorized, and that ISPs should pull them
down. ISPs say this kind of announcement before the release of a movie is
unusual, indicating just how seriously Hollywood is beginning to take
online piracy.

But the recent growth in threatening letters from the media industry is
also coming from independent piracy hunters, such as MediaForce and
Copyright.net, which contract with individual artists, labels or studios
to hunt down versions of copyrighted works online. "We've sent out
substantially more letters over the last several weeks, as more customers
are interested in protecting their copyrights online," said MediaForce
Chief Executive Aaron Fessler. He declined to give his customers' names,
saying that most wanted to keep their involvement "hush-hush," leery of
the backlash that met rock band Metallica after it publicly took a stand
against Napster. But he said that one of the five largest major record
labels has recently begun using his company's services. These independent
companies operate automated systems that can troll file-swapping networks
looking for their clients' work. Once they find it, it is a simple task to
figure out the Internet address of the computer that is offering the
content to the world. The companies then cross-reference this information
with the ISP that owns that Internet address and send a letter showing
exactly which files are being shared, demanding that the subscriber be
stopped.

Using this information, ISPs can figure out who was using that address at
that time. Some, like Verizon, are resisting the demands, saying that
copyright law does not force them to monitor or respond directly to
content that is on their subscribers' hard drives. Others, like Adelphia,
quickly cut off their subscribers' connections. Many, including DirecTV
Broadband and Excite at Home, issue warning letters to their subscribers. If
there is a second violation, the subscribers' accounts may be terminated
for violating the ISPs' terms-of-service agreements, which generally bar
using the networks for copyright violations.

Excite at Home says most cases have stopped short of pulling the plug, and
that only one person has been terminated.

"It turns into an education opportunity," said Harris Schwartz, director
of network policy and standards for Excite at Home. "In many cases
subscribers had no idea that they were doing anything wrong." Adelphia's
Healy said the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group
that has pursued Napster and its rivals most vigorously in court, has not
been as visible as the independent piracy hunters. But subscribers are
nevertheless being targeted for trading songs. Former Adelphia customer
Tyrone Martin was one of those targets. He had used Bearshare, a popular
program that taps into the Gnutella network, to trade audio files online.
Two weeks ago he found his connection turned off and got a letter from his
ISP saying the service had been suspended. Like many other customers
receiving similar notices, Martin simply went elsewhere.

"I told them where they could stick their modem and cable equipment and
proceeded to cancel my cable TV and modem accounts," Martin wrote in an
e-mail to CNET News.com. "They are a communications provider. They are not
censors or a government agency! Adelphia will never get another penny from
me and I hope others follow suit."