• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, December 1, 2008

In a blow to the record industry's anti-piracy lawsuits, a federal judge has ruled that Boston University need not disclose identities associated with IP addresses.

Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston quashed a subpoena for information about the IP addresses. "The university has adequately demonstrated that it is not able to identify the alleged infringers with a reasonable degree of technical certainty," she wrote. "As a result, the court finds that compliance with the subpoena as to the IP addresses represented by these defendants would expose innocent parties to intrusive discovery."

The Recording Industry Association of America, which has targeted nearly 30,000 individuals since 2003, typically brings cases after an investigator visits peer-to-peer sites and compiles IP addresses of alleged file-sharers. If the addresses are affiliated with schools, the organization subpoenas them for names of students affiliated with those IP addresses.

In this case, an investigator allegedly downloaded files from Gnutella around St. Patrick's Day in 2004. The Recording Industry Association of America filed suit and demanded that Boston University disclose information that would tie particular students to the IP addresses.

But the school argued that the students officially connected to the IP address weren't necessarily the alleged file-sharers. "As it is the practice of students in the dorm to leave computers plugged in (and) running, as well as to use any available computer in whatever room they happen to be in ... the probable number of individuals who came in contact with the computer is potentially quite high,"

The school also said that students were especially likely to be "partying and mixing freely with other students and friends, moving from dorm room to dorm room" because the incident occurred "during the busy and highly festive St. Patrick's Day weekend."

Other schools have made similar arguments, although with less success. But Gertner's ruling against the RIAA could give new ammunition to defense attorneys.

Already, lawyer Ray Beckerman--known for taking on the RIAA--is urging other attorneys to bring the Boston University case to other courts' attention. "The reason we believe this little, 4-sentence decision is so important is that if the principle it enunciates is followed consistently by Judge Gertner and by other judges, very few, if any, RIAA subpoenas will withstand a motion to quash going forward," he wrote on his widely read blog, Recording Industry vs. The People.