Subject: [NEXTEL-1] RIAA's mistake highlights 802.11 vulnerability

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 17:38:22 -0400

RIAA's mistake highlights 802.11 vulnerability

The RIAA has dropped a suit against Newbury, Massachusetts sculptor Sarah Seabury
Ward. The RIAA has accused her of using Kazaa illicitly to download music from the
popular file sharing network. She had a solid defense: Kazaa runs only on Wintel
computers. She uses a Macintosh. Evan Cox of Covington & Burling said  that there
might have been an error when the local network provider gave the IP addresses to
the RIAA: "If any of those numbers are wrong or transposed, you're going to get
the wrong person." The mistake should be a warning to users of unsecured 802.11
networks. Given the current state of vendor-neutral security solutions for Wi-Fi
networks, it is possible for a file trader seeking to avoid legal action to attach
to a poorly secured network explicitly for the purpose of downloading illicit
music files. When the RIAA subpoenas ISP records, there will be no way for the ISP
to determine that a rogue wireless network client was responsible for the illicit
activity. Matthew S. Hamrick, an independent security expert, said: "This is going
to be a big mess... from a technology perspective, it's going to be awfully hard
for the RIAA to prove that if the people they're suing have wireless networks,
that it wasn't a rogue war-driver downloading songs using their [the suit
target's] wired network connection."

======================================================================================

Recording industry withdraws suit
Mistaken identity raises questions on legal strategy
By Chris Gaither, Globe Staff, 9/24/2003

The recording industry has withdrawn a
lawsuit against a Newbury woman because
it falsely accused her of illegally sharing music
-- possibly the first case of mistaken identity in
the battle against Internet file-traders.

Privacy advocates said the suit against
Sarah Seabury Ward, a sculptor who
said she has never downloaded or
digitally shared a song, revealed flaws
in the Recording Industry Association
of America's legal strategy. Ward was
caught up in a flood of 261 lawsuits
filed two weeks ago that targeted
people who, through software
programs like Kazaa, make
copyrighted songs available for others
to download over the Internet.

"When the RIAA announced they were
going on this litigation crusade, we
knew there was going to be someone
like Sarah Ward," said Cindy Cohn,
legal director for the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, an Internet privacy group
in San Francisco that has advised Ward
and others sued by the music industry.
"And we think were will be more."
The lawsuit claimed that Ward had illegally
shared more than 2,000 songs through Kazaa
and threatened to hold her liable for up to
$150,000 for each song. The plaintiffs were
Sony Music, BMG, Virgin, Interscope,
Atlantic, Warner Brothers, and Arista.

Among the songs she was accused of sharing: "I'm a Thug," by the rapper Trick
Daddy.
But Ward, 66, is a "computer neophyte" who never installed file-sharing software,
let alone downloaded hard-core rap about baggy jeans and gold teeth, according to
letters sent to the recording industry's agents by her lawyer, Jeffrey Beeler.
Other defendants have blamed their children for using file-sharing software, but
Ward has no children living with her, Beeler said.

Moreover, Ward uses a Macintosh computer at home. Kazaa runs only on Windows-based
personal computers.
Beeler complained to the RIAA, demanding an apology and "dismissal with prejudice"
of the lawsuit, which would prohibit future lawsuits against her. Foley Hoag, the
Boston firm representing the record labels, on Friday dropped the case, but
without prejudice.

"Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised
and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when
circumstances warrant," Colin J.  Zick, the Foley Hoag lawyer, wrote to Beeler.
The trade group released Zick's letter late yesterday and said it would have no
other comment.
It is unclear where the apparent mistake originated.

According to the lawsuit, recording industry investigators tracked the
file-sharing activities of a Kazaa user with the moniker Heath7 and found the
unique numeric identifier, known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, that was
assigned to the user by the Internet service provider at the time.

The recording industry then issued a subpoena to Comcast, the user's Internet
service provider, demanding the name, address, and e-mail address of the person
behind the IP address.

Evan Cox, a partner with Covington & Burling in San Francisco who is not involved
with the case, said the error most likely happened in one of two ways: Either
Comcast matched the wrong customer with the IP address, or the recording industry
requested information about the wrong IP address, which is usually more than nine
digits.

"If any of those [IP address] numbers are wrong or transposed, you're going to get
the wrong person," Cohn said.
Whatever the source of the apparent error, it illustrates how difficult it can be
to definitively match a person to an online screen name.

A Comcast spokeswoman, Sarah Eder, would not comment, citing customer privacy
concerns.  Comcast always notifies its customers after a subpoena compels the
company to release information about them, she said.
Mistakes are likely, given the number of cases the recording industry has filed,
Cox said. The industry's reputation could hang on how many mistakes surface.

"If there turns out to be a lot of them, it will cast some doubt on [the
industry's] evidence-gathering," he said. "They'll have to either strengthen their
efforts or back off."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has counseled about 30 of the 261 people sued,
Cohn said, adding that some have settled for fear of spending too much money
fighting powerful corporations.

Jonathan Zittrain, an associate professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School,
said the dismissal shows that the record companies may find it tough to prevail if
their lawsuits go to court. Their legal strategy assumes that most defendants will
settle rather than fight, and the lawsuits are so damaging to their public image
that they cannot afford protracted legal battles with alleged file-swappers, he
added.

"This is a very high-stakes strategy for the record companies," he said. "It's
either going to work in the short term, or they're
going to have to pull the plug on it."

Chris Gaither can be reached at [email-masked]. Hiawatha Bray of the Globe
staff contributed to this report.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/09/24/recording_industry_withdraws_suit/

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---

From: Rick Parrish <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 18:00:46 -0500

[email-masked] wrote:

Ward.

That's nuthin' ... see this article ...

RIAA Drops One Lawsuit, Faces One From
Kazaa

66-Year-Old Sculptor
Called 'Neophyte'

POSTED: 4:05 p.m. EDT
September 24, 2003

The
maker of the most popular file-sharing network is turning the tables on
record labels even as they have to drop a lawsuit against one suspected
music pirate.
Sharman Networks -- the company behind Kazaa -- is suing entertainment
companies for copyright infringement. The federal lawsuit filed this
week accuses the companies of
using unauthorized versions of Kazaa software in their efforts
to snoop
out users.

http://www.click2houston.com/technology/2508685/detail.html

-rick

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