Litigant Drops Appeal of Birch Federal Data Privacy Case Victory
Atlanta, Ga. – August 18, 2015 – Birch Communications, Inc., (“Birch”) a leading nationwide provider of communications, network and cloud services to small, mid-sized, enterprise and wholesale businesses, announced today that a favorable ruling by the U.S. District Court in which a copyright litigant sought to use Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) subpoenas to obtain information about its customers’ online activities has become final. This significant ruling affirms Birch’s position as the industry leader in protecting its clients’ private, confidential communications.
Rightscorp, a firm that represents assorted copyright holders, had served its subpoena to gain access to Birch’s customer information in an effort to identify customers claimed to have infringed its clients’ copyrighted content. Rightscorp had served similar subpoenas on dozens of other Internet Service Providers.
Acting on its customers’ behalf, Birch argued Rightscorp was merely on a fishing expedition–that it was not legally required to divulge the information–and the Court agreed. The DMCA did not provide any basis to require an Internet Service Provider in Birch’s position to open its files to private litigants.
Rightscorp dropped its appeal of the May 2015 decision and the Court issued an entry of dismissal in the case.
“Birch scrutinizes every demand from both private parties and the government, complying only with properly served subpoenas, warrants and court orders, refusing to comply with demands such as those served by Rightscorp, and always maintaining an eye toward protecting our customers’ interests,” said Christopher Bunce, Birch Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “In comparison, the big phone companies have been subject to an ongoing federal investigation, reported in the national press, revealing a clear lack of concern for customer privacy as they improperly divulged private communications to government agencies for several years.”
“While the actions of some of our competitors have called into question customer confidence in light of recent findings in an ongoing federal data privacy investigation, the final decision in the federal case against Rightscorp underscores Birch’s ongoing, steadfast observance of the strictest standards in protecting the interests of our customers,” said Birch President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Oddo. “This puts Birch in a unique position in the telecommunications industry as a company that businesses and consumers truly can rely on for the protection of their critical data.”
About Birch Communications
Birch Communications, Inc. is a leading communications, network, cloud and IT solutions provider. Recognized for exceptional customer experience, Birch delivers compelling solutions that assist small, mid-sized, enterprise and wholesale businesses to increase their productivity. Its industry-leading product portfolio is available nationwide and includes Metro-Fiber, Metro-Ethernet, unified communications (UC), hosted phone systems, hosted data centers, and hosted file storage services. For more information, visit birch.com.
Media Contact:
Tim Phelps
Director of Marketing Communications
Birch Communications, Inc.
816-300-1456
tim.phelps@birch.com
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