Copyright Law

University of Oregon's motion to quash is granted; Court will, however, permit subpoena of names and addresses

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

Thanks to Lory Lybeck and Eric Bangeman for bringing this to my attention.

In Arista v. Does 1-17, the "John Doe" case targeting students at the University of Oregon, the Court has granted the motion to quash made by the Oregon Attorney General on behalf of the University, agreeing that the subpoena as worded imposed an undue burden on the University by requiring it to produce "sufficient information to identify alleged infringers", which the Court agreed would have required the University to "conduct an investigation to determine whether persons associated with IP addresses or others infringed copyright protected sound recordings".

The Court allowed the RIAA, however, to serve a new subpoena which could demand the identities of "persons associated by dorm room occupancy or username with the 17 IP addresses listed in Attachment A to the first subpoena".

The Court also

-decided to "presume" that the RIAA's lawyers' misrepresentation that the University would have destroyed the data was an "honest mistake",
-denied the AG's request for discovery into the RIAA's investigative methods,
-rejected arguments made under state and federal privacy laws, and
-did not comment on the fact that the RIAA's investigators were unlicensed.

September 25, 2008, decision granting motion to quash, but authorizing second subpoena

[Ed. note. Is it just me, or does this decision make no sense whatsoever? The Judge recognizes that the RIAA's investigation is insufficient to actually point to a copyright infringer, and that the only way to determine that there was a copyright infringement is to conduct a further investigation....but is directing the University, anyway, to turn over names of people who the Court recognizes may be completely innocent? -R.B.]

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).