By Eric Bangeman
"An anonymous George Washington University student targeted by the RIAA for file-sharing is seeking to have the subpoena served on his school quashed and the complaint dismissed. In his motion, the unnamed student raises a couple of issues that could become significant roadblocks for the RIAA in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing.
Throughout its legal campaign against file-sharing, the RIAA has relied on the Cable Communications Policy Act to obtain subscriber data from cable ISPs and DSL providers. Under the CCPA, cable companies are required to cough up the data when ordered to do so by a court. It has worked in the tens of thousands of cases filed by the recording industry against broadband users, and the RIAA has cited the CCPA as the basis for the ex parte subpoenas directed at college students.
There's one problem. Colleges aren't cable providers. Doe number three helpfully points that out to the judge, noting that the CCPA defines a cable operator as an entity that either provides cable service or manages and operates a cable system. "GWU is neither," argues Doe three."
