In yet another travesty of justice that marks the DMCA, a report on CNET (also seen on other services) indicates that a Federal Judge has rules that Verizon's internet service will have to give up identifying information to the RIAA about a user who has been using the Kaaza service for music swapping.

In yet another blow to Internet Privacy and the free and unfettered access to the Internet, the court has used the second worst law passed in the last 20 years (no, the first worst wasn't the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, it was the USA Patriot Act) to force an ISP to identify their user to the RIAA for purposes of prosecution under the DMCA.

It appears that the justification is the DMCA itself, which has a fast-track provision for subpoenas.

Oddly enough, Verizon is operating in good faith here and with the backing of civil liberties groups by asking that the request be made through more normal lawsuit channels, which would probably result in them handing over the user information anyway, but with much more significant cost to the RIAA and more significant requirements for the justification of the charges.