RIAA Backs Down On "Unlicensed Investigator"

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Texas grandmother Rhonda Crain got the RIAA to drop its monetary claims against her after she filed counterclaims against the record companies for using an investigator, MediaSentry, which is not licensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas. The RIAA elected to drop its claims rather than wait for the Judge to decide the validity of Ms. Crain's charges (PDF) that the plaintiff record companies were 'aware that the... private investigations company was unlicensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas specifically, and in other states as well... and understood that unlicensed and unlawful investigations would take place in order to provide evidence for this lawsuit, as well as thousands of others as part of a mass litigation campaign.' Similar questions about MediaSentry's unlicensed investigations were raised recently by the State Attorney General of Oregon in Arista v. Does 1-17"

An effective weapon for now...

[Chabil Ha']

...but the Borg will adapt.

House of Cards

[Cpt_Kirks]

Their whole house of cards is coming down.

Actually, it is more like one of those building implosions. It starts slow, then...

The RIAA is getting hit more and more lately. More judges are finding against them. More people fighting back. More states and schools refusing to play along. 2008 may be the year they give it up.

Maybe.

Re:More important question

[Maxo-Texas]

Riaa probably doesn't feel it is fair to have to obey all these different licensing restrictions. They probably want to use the results of the investigations as they choose since they paid good money for the results. Fortunately, they can only legally use investigators the way we can use songs and other copyrighted materials.

Ah.. it is so nice when the worm turns.

Re:House of Cards

[Malevolyn]

Old ladies are pwning noobs better than I can, these days.

Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry?

[A nonymous Coward]

Hence you should have no trouble calculating pi^(i*e) , right ?

Ask Sir Mathsalot, not me. I am but a knave.

A word to the wise

[Anonymous Coward]

Never enter in litigation against a stubborn senior citizen with too much time on his or her hands.

Re:Why try so hard to appeal to emotion?

[hedwards]

Mainly because it's a much more open and shut deal than a 20 something geek gets sued for downloading Celine Dion. Granted that should be illegal just on taste grounds, the later case is much more reasonable to bring to court than somebody that's barely computer literate and less likely to be able to fight back.

The grandmothers, deceased, teens and such are much better examples of the unreasonable nature of the lawsuits. A teenager is going to have to cough up his college money to pay, if he even have that to pay. And filing a counter suit/fighting it is unlikely to be a realistic option for them.

Re:Why try so hard to appeal to emotion?

[Anonymous Coward]

Taste issues notwithstanding, a "20 something geek downloading Celine Dion" case has prima-facie credibility problems to begin with.

Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry?

[sconeu]

So, after the flood, Noah tells all the animals to "be fruitful and multiply!"

He wanders around, and the rabbits are screwing like rabbits, the minks are screwing like minks, and the elephants are... well, doing whatever elephants do.

Then he comes and sees some snakes, and they're not doing the nasty. Noah asks them what's wrong, and they say "We're adders!"

So Noah goes away and thinks. He then comes back, cuts down a couple of trees, and makes picnic tables from the logs. He tells the snakes to hang out there, and goes away.

A few hours later, he comes back and sees that the snakes are getting it on, which just goes to prove...

Even adders can multiply using log tables!

Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry?

[QuietObserver]

Nope. e ** (pi * i) is -1. I'm not sure what pi ** (e * i) is.

For the record, pi^(e*i) is approximately -0.99955 + 0.02989i

For the further record, I found that using some complex math software I wrote in high school. :) (Why yes, I am a nerd... why do you ask?)

And e^(pi*i) is actually -1 + -0.000000000001267i, which is also not quite -1.

Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry?

[rubycodez]

...because IEEE finite precision floating specs supercede actual exact analytical mathematics in any slashdotter's reality

Oh, the Joy!

[Smordnys s'regrepsA]

I'm not sure what is more topical...

Effect an Effect [xkcd.com] or Eggs [xkcd.com]

Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry?

[ShiNoKaze]

You're missing the point. You see you're thinking logically and rationally, this is not conducive to you spending money. They pay for lots of press and hype and you buy hype. That's how it works. They tell you what to like, don't you understand? This thinking crap is getting in the way of their percentage return on investment numbers.

Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry?

[ConceptJunkie]

Actually, it would be $200,020.