The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a strongly worded opinion holding that the DMCA § 512(h) subpoenas used by the RIAA against Verizon and other ISPs are unlawful under DMCA. Verizon argued, and the Court agreed, that a court may only issue a § 512(h) subpoena when the subpoena contains within it a notification identifying material "to be removed or access to which is to be disabled." Since the material at issue is on P2P nets, it's not directly under Verizon's control, and Verizon can't "remove or [disable] access." Ergo, the subpoenas are incomplete and invalid.
Since the holding puts P2P users beyond the reach of § 512, it's a major blow to RIAA -- and a victory for privacy advocates against a major assault from a powerful interest. It's not really a victory for those seeking to open up copyright, since the holding's tightly constrained to the statute (Verizon had raised some very interesting Article III and First Amendment issues as well, which the court didn't reach).
What's next? Well, there may well be a push in Congress for revisions to DMCA. That's not all bad - we could do with some revisitation of DMCA -- and this time, consumer advocates will be in the room.
Worse, Ed Felten postulates that the copyholders may also seek to contract privately with ISPs for access to subscriber information. It would be fascinating to go through some major ISPs' Terms of Service and see how possible that is. But ISPs should be very very wary of these kinds of sub rosa dealings ... many consumers took their lumps when they learned that ISPs were giving up their data under subpoena. But learning that your ISP is voluntarily giving it up, to avoid a Capitol Hill fight looks like the kind of treachery that could lead to real outrage.