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Recording-industry subpoenas spark online-privacy debate.(Recording Industry Association of America v. Jane Doe (a.k.a. nycfashiongirl))

Article Excerpt
Exactly who is "nycfashiongirl"? One could assume that she is a girl, that she lives in New York City, and that she follows fashion. Some reports reveal that she enjoys a varied mix of popular music by artists such as the Rolling Stones, U2, and Michael Jackson; in addition, she apparently feels some kind of connection to movies with fairy-tale endings. She is also a "shoplifter," according to the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA).

Nycfashiongirl's musical and movie tastes are public knowledge because they have been entered into evidence as part of RIAA's aggressive and well-publicized campaign against online music piracy, or "shoplifting," as the association calls it. In early September, RIAA filed 261 lawsuits, claiming that each individual named has engaged in at least 1,000 instances of copyright infringement--a violation that carries a maximum penalty of $150,000 per instance. Nycfashiongirl is not among those being sued, but the fact that she is not goes to the heart of a heated debate about privacy and the Internet: RIAA may know that nycfashiongirl likes Pretty Woman, but they don't know her name.

For the defendant in Recording Industry Association of America v. Jane Doe (a.k.a. nycfashiongirl), the case concerns the constitutionality of a private party's access to her personal information, but for RIAA, the case is all about declining music sales.

RIAA has alleged that nycfashiongirl, a member of the KaZaA file-sharing network, illegally shared hundreds of copyrighted works. In July, the association issued a subpoena to her Internet service provider (ISP), Verizon Internet Services, asking for her real name. Once Verizon notified its subscriber of the subpoena,...

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