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Lawsuit Against RIAA Tries To Stop Them All
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Apr 01, 2008 08:35 AM
from the like-the-one-ring-but-a-lawsuit dept.
from the like-the-one-ring-but-a-lawsuit dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Tanya Anderson has filed an amended complaint against the RIAA. One of the more interesting provisions in it is in the 18th claim, which seeks to stop the RIAA from 'continuing to engage in criminal investigation of private American citizens', no doubt referring to the unlicensed MediaSentry investigations. If granted, that could shut down the RIAA lawsuits entirely. Naturally, the RIAA doesn't like this at all. First, they got the judge to agree that the original complaint was too light on the details, so it was amended. Now the RIAA complains that it's too long, because it's 108 pages filled with the RIAA's dirty laundry. You may remember this as the countersuit to the lawsuit where RIAA lawyers tried to grill a 10-year-old girl, only later to drop their case for lack of evidence and have the mother sue them for malicious prosecution."
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RIAA Going After a 10-Year-Old Girl 510 comments
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The latest target of the RIAA's ire is a 10-year-old girl in Oregon, who was 7 when the alleged infringement occurred, and whose disabled mother lives on Social Security. In Atlantic v. Andersen, an Oregon case that was widely reported in 2005 when the defendant counterclaimed against the RIAA under Oregon's RICO statute and other laws, the defendant's mother sought to limit the RIAA's deposition of the child to telephone or video-conference. The RIAA has refused, insisting on being able to grill the little girl in person. Here are court documents (PDF)."
[+]
Is RIAA's MediaSentry Illegal in Your State? 200 comments
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Is Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG 'investigator' MediaSentry operating illegally in your state?. The Massachusetts State police has already banned the company, and it's been accused of operating without a license in Oregon, Florida, Texas, and New York. Similar charges have now been leveled the organization in Michigan. Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth, in response to a complaint, has confirmed that MediaSentry is not licensed in Michigan, and referred the complainant to the local prosecutor."
Firehose:Lawsuit Against RIAA Tries to Stop Them All by Anonymous Coward
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Tubes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Tubes (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Tubes (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
I don't get it... (Score:3, Funny)
For that matter...where are any April Fools articles?? I hope they're still gonna do them....
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Tubes (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Tubes (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Tubes (Score:5, Insightful)
...
Oh wait...
That's iTunes...
Parent
Doubt that's even possible. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Doubt that's even possible. (Score:5, Informative)
It's called Vexatious Litigation [wikipedia.org]
Parent
Re:Doubt that's even possible. (Score:5, Informative)
Thing is, some of the cases the RIAA has filed do have legal basis (these are the ones you don't hear about in the media and are settled out of court quickly), and while some of the most egregious examples might approach might approach vexatious litigation, I doubt you'll find a judge to agree that all of them do.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Convicted Fellons have had many of their rights revoked and they still are allowed to use/abuse the legal system, But for them it comes to a boy who cries wolf then they may lose that additional right.
But for even gready and evil orginizations who technically ha
Cannibals! (Score:5, Funny)
be sure to read the update at the bottom. (Score:5, Informative)
damn right. (Score:5, Interesting)
And I right that this is one of those situations that she was one of the few people who had a chance of doing this as she already had them in court and could add it in as an amendment?
If Joe Public tried this they would probably be able to block it before they got to court, no?
I just love the irony that they originally tried to block the complaint because it was not detailed enough, and that backfired when it came back as 100+ pages of **AA damming dirty laundry in their faces. Heh Heh.
The first thing a court does... (Score:3, Interesting)
The first thing a judge does is strip your case down to its essemtials.
The broader the reach and more fanciful your demands, the more quickly they disappear from view.
- - and never faster then when you try to persuade a court to make policy decisions in criminal law when they are hearing a civil case.
I see no constitutional barriers to the launch of a private criminal investigation. There was, after all, no such thing as a paid, professional, police force in the U.S. before 1845. Police History [realpolice.net]
The Pinkerton Detective - "The eye that never sleeps" - dates from 1850.
Message from music-listening public (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope the countersuits hold water (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I really hope she wins this (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell me again why this doesn't affect you. The *AA have shown again and again that the facts of the case really don't matter -- espescially when it comes to the method they use for identifying litigants, IP addresses. If your ISP has floating IP addresses, then this could easily become your problem.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
>> of most ISPs, IP addresses are dynamic and do not stay fixed on a particular PC;
>> I'm sure even the most basic of ISP logs would clearly show this.
And yet, the *AA have attempted to show that this doesn't matter at countless colleges and universities by forcing the burden of proof upon these institutions. "We know you have a thief among you, find them for us" is not how a case should be built.
>> th
Re:I really hope she wins this (Score:5, Insightful)
Several studies have shown that if "everyone" stole music, then CD sales would escalate higher than ever. I know that sounds strange, but here's how it works:
- A person downloads songs for free.
- He/she likes the songs.
- He/she buys several CDs of that same artist, because they enjoy his or her work.
- The result is a several sales that would not have occured otherwise.
BEFORE: The person bought $0.00 worth of CDs.
NOW: The person bought $30-40 worth of CDs.
NET IMPACT: More money for the company and the artist. Stealing music helps sell more product by introducing people to new artists they had never heard before.
Parent
Re:I really hope she wins this (Score:4, Informative)
Not the OP, however: I understand the incredulity, but here's one study I was given in a telecommunications economics class. (The link from my school's website appears to be gone, but based on filename this is the same PDF I saw):
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf [unc.edu]
A quick excerpt from the abstract:
The basic conclusion, if I remember correctly, was: The top 1% of artists in terms of popularity lose sales due to pirated songs, and the rest actually see their sales increase with piracy. Obviously you can fact-check this yourself to see if my recollection is correct.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I really hope she wins this (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Spend a lot of time and money to fight to prove your innocence. If you are not successful, the fines will drive you into permanent bankruptcy. (If the legal fees don't do that first.)
2. Accept the RIAA's settlement offer to make it all go away. NOTE: Part of the settlement offer is admitting that you are a pirate even if you aren't one. But at least you won't face a long court battle and possible bankruptcy.
Most people chose Option #2 since it is the quicker and easier way to make it all go away. With recent RIAA court losses, though, it seems that more people are willing to try for Option #1. That's a good thing too. The last thing the RIAA wants is to actually fight these cases in court. They just want quick settlements so they can move on to the next victim... er, evil, bloodsucking pirate.
Parent
Re:I really hope she wins this (Score:5, Funny)
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