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From what I gather, Rightscorp sent Cox a list of repeatedly infringing customers (presumably as IP addresses and time of infringement) and requested that those

From what I gather, Rightscorp sent Cox a list of repeatedly infringing customers (presumably as IP addresses and time of infringement) and requested that those Cox customers be notified that they should pay $20 per song or face lawsuits. Cox declined to notify the customers. There is no monitoring involved here, nor any technical difficulty for that matter : any ISP should know what customer owned which IP at a given point in time, and have contact information on file for that customer. The real question here is a legal one: is the list provided by Rightscorp really "identifying repeat infringers" in the sense of the DMCA (in which case, refusal to act would void the DMCA safe harbor for Cox)?

mattmanser 11y ago
Later on in the article Cox says it does process other companies requests, it's just Rightscorp that they have issue with because they don't provide enough proof and spam them with requests.
morsch 11y ago
any ISP should know what customer owned which IP at a given point in time Should they? Because as far as I can tell, there is no legal requirement to store this data in the US unless specifically compelled to do so by the government.[0] Is there anything DMCA/safe harbor-related that goes beyond these requirements? The parameters for mandatory data retention -- if, what, for how long -- are contested in the EU. ISPs should not store anything they aren't legally required to store; and arguably they must not store this kind of data where it is identifiable. [0] https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/us https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/us
- ensignavenger 11y ago
  I am in the process of starting a small, rural WISP, and I have absolutely no plans to store this data. As you said, I plan to store as little as possible about my customers.
  - celticninja 11y ago
    I think the smaller you are the less you need to store in terms of customer data, this is certainly the case in the EU/UK. The aim being to ensure that regulations are not too onerous on smaller organisations.
- anon4 11y ago
  Of all the data they could store about me, having a 6-month (or 12 or 24 etc) long cache of "account X had IP Y at time Z" sounds like the most benign. As long as that data is only given out in response to a court order, I don't have a problem with it. ISPs shouldn't be burdened with providing anonymity to their subscribers in the face of the law, even if said law has debatable utility.
  - AnthonyMouse 11y ago
    There are three states the law can have with respect to something like this: The ISP can be required to keep the information, prohibited from keeping it, or left to their own discretion. The default state is the third one.

mattmanser 11y ago

Later on in the article Cox says it does process other companies requests, it's just Rightscorp that they have issue with because they don't provide enough proof and spam them with requests.

morsch 11y ago

any ISP should know what customer owned which IP at a given point in time Should they? Because as far as I can tell, there is no legal requirement to store this data in the US unless specifically compelled to do so by the government.[0] Is there anything DMCA/safe harbor-related that goes beyond these requirements? The parameters for mandatory data retention -- if, what, for how long -- are contested in the EU. ISPs should not store anything they aren't legally required to store; and arguably they must not store this kind of data where it is identifiable. [0] https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/us https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/us

ensignavenger 11y ago
I am in the process of starting a small, rural WISP, and I have absolutely no plans to store this data. As you said, I plan to store as little as possible about my customers.
- celticninja 11y ago
  I think the smaller you are the less you need to store in terms of customer data, this is certainly the case in the EU/UK. The aim being to ensure that regulations are not too onerous on smaller organisations.
anon4 11y ago
Of all the data they could store about me, having a 6-month (or 12 or 24 etc) long cache of "account X had IP Y at time Z" sounds like the most benign. As long as that data is only given out in response to a court order, I don't have a problem with it. ISPs shouldn't be burdened with providing anonymity to their subscribers in the face of the law, even if said law has debatable utility.
- AnthonyMouse 11y ago
  There are three states the law can have with respect to something like this: The ISP can be required to keep the information, prohibited from keeping it, or left to their own discretion. The default state is the third one.