the RIAA of course!

from Insight on the News: Arresting Kids for Downloading Music
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[QUOTE]But it also raises a series of privacy questions concerning those who successfully have been sued by RIAA. For example, how was RIAA able to learn the identity of the anonymous downloader? Did it hack into people's computers or did the file-sharing network freely provide the names? No one is providing any answers.
RIAA has gone so far as to bust a 12-year-old pirate who "illegally" downloaded 1,000 songs, and forced a struggling mother to pay $2,000 for alleged illegal downloading by one of her children an act of the sort the recording industry claims has led to the loss of billions of dollars in lost revenues. [QUOTE]

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Judge: RIAA can unmask file swappers
Last modified: July 27, 2004, 4:41 PM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

update

A federal judge has handed a preliminary victory to the recording industry by granting its request to unmask anonymous file swappers accused of copyright infringement.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ruled Monday that Cablevision, which provides broadband Internet access in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, can be required to divulge the identities of its subscribers sued over copyright violations.

This ruling is the latest decision to clarify what legal methods copyright holders may use when hunting down people who are trading files on peer-to-peer networks. Courts have spent the last few years grappling with how to reconcile Americans' right to be anonymous with the entertainment industry's own right to sue people who violate copyright law.




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