A U.S. District Court Judge Tuesday ordered Verizon to turn over the name of one its subscribers who is accused by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) of copyright infringement to the tune of more than 600 songs a day.  

The order by Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was hailed by the RIAA as a victory for the record companies in their fight to control how music is downloaded from the Internet.

Verizon had refused to comply with a subpoena the RIAA had filed in July, asking for the name of the music fan. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copyright holders are allowed to request subpoenas for information on infringers without taking further legal action, such as filing a lawsuit.

Verizon argued that Internet service providers are exempt from those provisions of the DMCA. Sarah B. Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon, said the company will appeal the decision. The ruling has " troubling ramifications" for computer users, service providers and the Internet, she said in a statement. The ruling opens the door for anyone who makes a copyright infringement claim to gain access to private subscriber information, Deutsch added.

The RIAA also issued a statement attributed to its president, Cary Sherman, saying the industry group looks forward to contacting the Verizon subscriber "so we can let them know that what they are doing is illegal."

The RIAA filed a motion Aug. 20 in an attempt to enforce the subpoena against Verizon Internet Services.

In the motion, the group said it provided Verizon with a "list of literally hundreds of infringing works that were being offered for download by Verizon's subscriber and the identification of the specific location from which the alleged infringer was operating," in this case the IP address of the Verizon subscriber.

Verizon lawyers argued that the DMCA's subpoena section doesn't address the ISP, which didn't have the copyrighted songs stored on any of its computers. It only applies to the customer who owned the computers where the songs were stored. Several privacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have sided with Verizon in the case by focusing on the First Amendment right to anonymous speech.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.