According to an article in the Washington Post, Verizon has failed to receive a stay against a previous ruling that will require them to hand over the names of a couple of P2P file sharing users in the next 14 days.

The only hope for the preservation of the right of free exchange of data over P2P services is going to be a higher-court appeal.

Interesting in this article is a quote from the RIAA representative:

"If users of pirate peer-to-peer sites don't want to be identified, they should not break the law by illegally distributing music."

Unfortunately, what seems to elude the RIAA is that absolutely no judicial process resulted in their subpoena, they just asked for it using a form. As the Verizon representative said:

"It's virtually unprecedented in U.S. law that someone can use a form to find out your identity without any judicial process."

But, in the last days of a dying regime... um, record publishing industry ... any price is worth paying to keep their business running, one can only assume.