New York
– Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) is fighting requests to turn over the identities of some
1,000 subscribers alleged to have illegally downloaded films from BitTorrent,
arguing mainly that the task is too burdensome and could hamper its efforts to
comply with law enforcement requests, according to published reports.
A group
of independent film producers hired U.S. Copyright Group to file suit against
tens of thousands of alleged illegal movie downloaders, using the same tactic
from the recording industry’s legal campaign — namely, filing subpoenas with
ISPs to turn over the identities of suspected infringers based on their IP
addresses.
Time Warner Cable told the court that it doesn’t have the resources
to comply.
"Given its current staffing, it would take TWC nearly three
months of full-time work by TWC’s subpoena compliance group, and TWC would not
be able to respond to any other request, emergency or otherwise, from law
enforcement during this period," the company said.
"TWC has a
six-month retention period for its IP lookup logs, and by the time TWC could
turn to law enforcement requests, many of these requests could not be
answered."
The company said it can process, at most, 28 subpoena requests
per month.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that U.S. Copyright Group responded to
Time Warner Cable’s argument by saying the move "exposes [the company]
itself to a claim for contributory copyright infringement."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/wujrg
(Hollywood Reporter)
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/timewarner-subscriber
