Record industry demands help identifying Floridians

In September, a Floridian signed on to the Gnutella music-sharing service, offering to share songs by Avril Lavigne, 3 Doors Down and other musicians, all for free.

Now, the recording industry has demanded that Bright House Networks turn over the name, phone number, home address and e-mail address of the music swapper identified so far only by the impersonal Internet protocol address 68.200.60.85.

Residents from the Tampa Bay area are creeping into the cross-hairs of the Recording Industry Association of America, which has been on a campaign to stop unauthorized music-sharing by catching and suing practitioners across the country.

On Friday, the RIAA served 45 subpoenas on Bright House for the cable TV company's Internet customers in the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas. Bright House spokeswoman Linda Chambers said she believed the bulk of the subpoenas were for Orlando customers.

Verizon Communications, the bay area's leading phone company, has received more than 120 subpoenas from the RIAA nationally, and about 20 of those were served this month. Spokesman Bob Elek said he could not determine how many of those were in the bay area.

Both companies emphasized that they are doing the minimum required of them by law in identifying customers.

Bright House said it arranged for the subpoenas to be issued from U.S. District Court in Orlando, rather than in Washington, D.C., as the record industry had intended, so customers could appeal more conveniently.

And Verizon fought back against the recording association when it first requested the identity of a subscriber, appealing the subpoenas in federal court in Washington.

Bright House and Verizon also notify their customers that their information has been subpoenaed, giving the customers the opportunity to challenge the subpoena.

"Their attorney has to notify us of their intention to fight it, and after that it's a matter between that individual and the RIAA," Elek said. "There might have been one person who has done that."

Amanda Collins, spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the group has been targeting users who download a "substantial" number of songs illegally, an average of about 1,000 files. The users are sent a notification letter and allowed to approach RIAA about a settlement before a suit is filed. Users have 10 days from the date of the letter to contact the RIAA before a suit is filed.

Under the Copyright Act, the industry says a minimum of $750 can be awarded in damages for each illegally downloaded recording. To date, 156 settlements have been reached nationally.

- Benita Newton can be reached at bnewton@sptimes.com or 727 893-8318.

Here is an excerpt from a subpoena the Recording Industry Association of America issued to Bright House Networks in its effort to track down one Central Florida music swapper, as obtained from the U.S. District Court in Orlando:

68.200.60.85 on 9/1/03 at 03:51:35 (CDT)

The user at the above-identified IP address has offered for download through the online media distribution system known as Gnutella (LimeWire) copyrighted sound recordings owned by RIAA member record companies, including the following representative recordings:

3 Doors Down - Kryptonite

Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now

Andy Griggs - I Miss You The Most

Andy Griggs - You Made Me That Way

Avril Lavigne - Anything but Ordinary

Avril Lavigne - Things I'll Never Say

Brad Paisley - I'm Gonna Miss Her

A recent report by an independent research firm, NPD Group of Port Washington, N.Y., found that the threat of antipiracy lawsuits may be having an effect on those who download music. Here are some of the results:

1-million households deleted all the music files stored on their computers in July; 1.4-million more followed in August and about 500,000 more in September.

The number of songs downloaded fell 9 percent between August and September.

35-million to 40-million households still have about 250 songs on their hard drives.

Source: The NPD Group, which bases its projections on data gathered from 40,000 PC users who have volunteered for a research study; San Francisco Chronicle.