Subpoenas take aim at music downloads

WASHINGTON - Move over, college kids. Grandparents and roommates may be the first ones to pay for downloading songs on the Internet.

The music industry's earliest subpoenas, issued as part of a high-stakes campaign to cripple online piracy by suing some of music's biggest fans, are aimed at an eclectic group: a grandfather, an unsuspecting dad and an apartment roommate.

"Within five minutes, if I can get hold of her, this will come to an end," said Gordon Pate of Dana Point, Calif., when told by the Associated Press that a federal subpoena had been issued over his daughter's music downloads.

The legal papers required an Internet provider, Comcast Cable Communications Inc., to hand over Pate's name and address.

Pate, 67, confirmed that his 23-year-old daughter, Leah Pate, had installed file-sharing software using an account cited on the subpoena. But he said his daughter would stop immediately and the family did not know using such software could result in a stern warning, expensive lawsuit or even criminal prosecution.

The president of the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest music labels, said lawyers will pursue downloaders regardless of personal circumstances because it would deter other Internet users.

"The idea really is not to be selective, to let people know that if they're offering a substantial number of files for others to copy, they are at risk," Cary Sherman said. Over the coming months, Internet users may find it stunning that copyright lawyers can pierce the presumed anonymity of file-sharing. In Charleston, W.Va., college student Amy Boggs said she quickly deleted more than 1,400 music files on her computer after the AP told her she was the target of a subpoena. Boggs said she sometimes downloaded dozens of songs on any given day, including ones by Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, Incubus and Busta Rhymes.

Since Boggs used her roommates' Internet account, the roommates' name and address were being turned over to music industry lawyers.

"This scares me so bad I never want to download anything again," said Boggs, 22. "I never thought this would happen. There are millions of people out there doing this."

In homes where parents or grandparents may not closely monitor the family's Internet use, the news could be especially surprising. A defendant's liability can depend on their age and whether anyone else knew about the music downloads.

Bob Barnes, a 50-year-old grandfather in Fresno, Calif., and the target of a subpoena, acknowledged sharing "several hundred" music files. He said he used the Internet to download hard-to-find recordings of European artists because he was unsatisfied with modern American artists and grew tired of buying CDs without the chance to listen to them first.

"If you don't like it, you can't take it back," said Barnes. Citing the numeric Internet addresses of music downloaders, the RIAA has said it can only track users by comparing those addresses against subscriber records held by Internet providers.

The RIAA's president was not sure what advice to offer those subpoenaed because he never imagined downloaders could be identified until Internet providers turned over subscriber records, as the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires.

"It's not a scenario we had truthfully envisaged," Sherman said. "If somebody wants to settle before a lawsuit is filed it would be fine to call us, but it's really not clear how we're going to perceive this."

The association has issued at least 911 subpoenas so far, according to court records. Lawyers have said they expect to file at least several hundred lawsuits within eight weeks, and copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song.

Tips for music fans to avoid trouble on the Internet:

It's almost impossible to check whether you are targeted for a lawsuit if you have copied music, but some Internet providers are notifying subscribers who are subjects of a subpoena. The Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco plans to publish information from subpoenas at www.eff.org to help computer users determine if they have been targeted.

If you are targeted, music lawyers may ignore you, send a warning or file a civil suit. The recording industry wants to deter downloaders and expects to file several hundred suits in the next eight weeks, but lawyers say they are willing to negotiate settlements.

The music industry is targeting Internet users sharing "substantial" collections of songs; it has not said how many might qualify for a suit but the minimum number appears to be a few hundred songs.

Once you download a copyright song, file-sharing software automatically makes it available for other Internet users to download, too. It is possible to reconfigure the software to allow downloads and prevent sharing files, although this undermines the concept of public file-sharing networks.

The Recording Industry Association of America has said it is targeting only Internet users in the United States.

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