At first glance, Verizon Communications and Bright House Networks are responding similarly to subpoenas from the record industry demanding the identity of customers who allegedly shared copyrighted songs illegally over the Internet.
Both companies are complying with the subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America. Both say they are doing so reluctantly because of their commitment to customer privacy.
But Verizon has put its money where its principles are. After refusing to honor an RIAA subpoena last year, it was sued; the case remains tied up in the courts. Though Verizon is complying with the subpoenas in the meantime, spokesman Bob Elek said the New York company is ready to take its privacy battle to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
Bright House, a subsidiary of cable, newspaper and magazine company Advance/Newhouse Communications, has been less aggressive.
In an e-mail, spokeswoman Linda Chambers said that after "tough negotiations" the cable company convinced the RIAA to issue its subpoenas via federal court in Florida, rather than New York or Washington. That, she said, would make it more convenient for accused local customers to wage their own legal battle. "We take the privacy of our customers very seriously, and we go to great lengths to protect their privacy."
But Bright House won't go all the way to the courthouse itself.
"Others have challenged the issuing of these subpoenas," Chambers wrote, "and they have lost."
