RIAA vs. Verizon, why do ISP's keep records?

[Chuckiechan]

Just what and why do they keep records of this sort anyway? Why should any ISP keep records of what customers are doing? I wouldn't!

[no1_vern]

Records are for billing, billing means money for the isp, money talks. I am not sure of all the things they track so I wont say anything about that.

Vern

[Chuckiechan]

I mean records of the stuff that subscribers are downloading. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work to me.

For legal reasons, I would imagine. If downloading/uploading certain stuff is illegal, then they need to be able to protect themselves when it comes to tracking down the culprit. If it can be traced to the ISP, then they want to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn't "them", but it was "you".

That's certainly part of the reason, anyway. The cynic in me says the are probably also building a database of browsing habits that they can sell to marketing agencies as well.

Cheers
Mick

[kenyg]

I don't think most ISP's keep records of what your downloading - but, the RIAA may know what IP address is downloading/sharing - but the IP may only come back to a verizon/bellsouth/comcast/cox block of addresses.

That's the fight - they want to force the ISP to turn over who had that IP on that day.

I suppose that's logged on the ISP end somewhere.

[muno]

I do not believe isps are allowed to log what you do (invading privacy), but I do believe they are forced to keep log of what ips are distributed to whom.

How long they keep the logs? I don't know.
-M