Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Friday June 26 2015, @08:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the cable-company-fights-for-your-rights dept.

Internet service provider Cox Communications has asked a court to order piracy litigator Rightscorp to hand over its tracking source code:

Piracy monetization firm Rightscorp has made quite a few headlines over the past year. The company sends infringement notices to Internet providers on behalf of various copyright holders, including Warner Bros. These notices include a settlement proposal offering alleged downloaders an option to pay off their "debt."

Not all ISPs are eager to forward these demands to their subscribers. Cox Communications, for example, labels Rightscorp's practices as an "extortion scheme" and refuses to cooperate. As a result, several copyright holders who work with Rightscorp decided to sue the Internet provider over its inaction late last year. Cox believes that this suit is an indirect way for Rightscorp to punish the company, as it explained to the court a few days ago (pdf). "Cox refused to participate in Rightscorp's extortion scheme," Cox informs the court, arguing that "Rightscorp retaliated with this lawsuit."

To mount a proper defense the Internet provider has demanded insight into the evidence gathering techniques employed by Rightscorp. Thus far, however, the company has failed to produce all requested information. "Now, Rightscorp refuses to produce key categories of documents related to its core activities. Rightscorp has not produced all of its source code modules used for detection of alleged infringements," Cox writes. The anti-piracy company maintains that it has already handed over all source code, but Cox says it can't locate certain elements and points out that Rightscorp has made misleading statements in the past. "Rightscorp has repeatedly represented that 'all the code' has been produced; yet, Cox's expert has identified multiple components missing from the code that Rightscorp has then belatedly produced," Cox explains. In addition, Cox tells the court that Rightscorp failed to produce other documents that deal with how the company approaches alleged copyright infringers. With various expert reports due soon, Cox has asked the court to issue an order compelling Rightscorp to immediately hand over all missing data and documents. While Cox does not state how it will use the source code, it's presumed that its experts will point out various flaws. For example, Rightscorp presumably lists repeated copyright infringers by IP-address, which is inaccurate since Cox regularly changes subscribers IPs.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday June 26 2015, @08:03PM

    by edIII (791) on Friday June 26 2015, @08:03PM (#201730)

    I'm sure they had to market the Catholic Inquisition some way too....

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2