The Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the subpoena process the RIAA has been using to obtain the identities of suspected music pirates that trade copyrighted material through Peer 2 Peer networks. 

That process revolved around the organization subpoenaing information from Internet Service Providers to help identify customers. The trade group would first identify the IP address of a suspected pirate and subpoena the ISP to gain the identity of the user. IP addresses are used to identify individual machines connected to the Internet. A user is given a unique IP address when the log on to the net. It�s similar in some ways to a phone number. When a user sends out a request to a website, their IP address is includes so that the site can send back the information requested. 

When the RIAA subpoenaed Verizon Internet services, the service refused to comply because of privacy issues and this lawsuit resulted. With this ruling ISP�s like Verizon will no longer be required to turn over the names and addresses of customers tied to the IP addresses supplied by the RIAA, without the RIAA having to file lawsuits against the suspected file traders. 

To date the RIAA has filed 382 copyright-infringement lawsuits against suspected file traders, identifying the suspects with this process. The decision does not bar the trade organization from filing such lawsuits, however it will make it much more difficult for them to identify the suspects. But it will bar them from identifying suspects before filing suit and using their past practice of sending warning letters to suspects before taking the matter to court. 

"This decision is inconsistent with both the views of Congress and the findings of the district court," said Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA in a statement. "It unfortunately means we can no longer notify illegal file sharers before we file lawsuits against them to offer the opportunity to settle outside of litigation. Verizon is solely responsible for a legal process that will now be less sensitive to the interests of its subscribers who engage in illegal activity."

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