BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart (a/o February 10th):
1. “What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger),” Kelly Clarkson
2. “Set Fire to the Rain,” Adele
3. “Turn Me On,” David Guetta
4. “Rack City,” TYGA
5. “Good Feeling,” Flo Rida
6. “Smooth Criminal (Glee Cast Version),” Glee Cast
7. “Young, Wild & Free,” Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
8. “Domino ,” Jessie J
9. “Sexy and I Know It,” LMFAO
10. “Ass Back Home ,” Gym Class Heroes
Verizon will soon begin passing some not-so-friendly letters to its music-infringing customers, according to details now surfacing. But according to specifics confirmed Friday, the telecommunications company will not reveal the identity of its subscribers, nor will it take any punitive action for copyright violations.
The plan was first tipped by C|Net, and executives at Verizon soon confirmed an agreement to Digital Music News. Earlier, Verizon agreed to pass along notices from Disney, and now, the partner appears to be major labels as represented by the RIAA. "All that happens is that we pass the complaint along to the party," described Verizon executive Eric Rabe in a phone conversation Friday morning. The pass-along also appears to be a limited test, though quantities were not confirmed.
Additionally, Rabe was careful to point to a 'business as usual' arrangement. Instead of a groundbreaking agreement with the majors, Rabe noted that copyright owners occasionally request the pass-through of a warning letter, and Verizon typically complies. That includes Disney, which passed warning notices to Verizon customers starting in 2005, though Rabe would not name subsequent copyright owners. "It's not for us to disclose agreements, but there are a handful of others," said Rabe.
These are soft moves, and Rabe portrayed Verizon as a third-party simply passing the information along. If the copyright owner wants the identity of the customer, then a subpoena is required, a step that the RIAA has earlier pursued through aggressive, 'John Doe' actions against individuals.
And disconnections, graduated responses, or three-strikes approaches? This is nowhere near that level of enforcement response, though Rabe did leave the option open. "That would be a pretty egregious situation, but something we can do under our terms of service," Rabe continued, while also pointing to rare revocations for spammers and other criminal activity.
The RIAA declined to offer comment.
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