The hopes of media companies were dashed today when the Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which the privacy of ISP records is partially at stake. As things stand now, media organizations (record labels or the RIAA, for example), may file lawsuits against anonymous users of file-sharing networks. In a cumbersome process, the plaintiffs must request a court ruling to uncover the real-world identities of their targets. Verizon, a major Internet service provider, has been fighting to keep this system in place, against the alternative of being directly forced to divulge its subscriber information on demand of a litigator. Media companies say their hands are tied in protecting their property against file-sharing; privacy advocates say that some court process should exist between litigator and lawsuit target. Besides, they say, if the system were more streamlined, the court system would be swamped with cases that the media companies could bring too easily. The Supremes aren't interested.