The backlash against the RIAA's legal attempts to identify the people it believes are guilty of "substantial" illegal downloading continues. Last month one music fan questioned the RIAA's definition of what warranted "substantial". Now another defendant is claiming the trade organisation violated her constitutional rights by tracking her web activity and in doing so shouldn't be allowed to know her true identity. The woman, identified in court as "nycfashiongirl", is accused of making over 900 tracks available via the web. But she is blocking legal attempts to secure her identity from her ISP by claiming that - with no official connections to a law enforcement agency - the RIAA had no rights to track her online activity.
The RIAA, needless to say, is not impressed describing her argument as "surprisingly shallow". A spokesman for the trade body said her claims that by tracking her online activity the RIAA had violated her constitutional rights reflected "a fundamental misunderstanding of how the internet works".
Whether the court is impressed remains to be seen - but if any one of these identity defenders is successful it could start a barrage of expensive and time consuming legal activity by music fans to, if nothing else, prolong the RIAA's efforts in identifying "substantial" downloaders.