U.Maine Law Clinic Is First To Fight RIAA

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "'A student law clinic is about to cause a revolution' says p2pnet. For the first time in the history of the RIAA's ex parte litigation campaign against college students, a university law school's legal aid clinic has taken up the fight against the RIAA in defense of the university's students. Student attorneys at the University of Maine School of Law's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, under the supervision of law school prof Deirdre M. Smith, have moved to dismiss the RIAA's complaint in a Portland, Maine, case, Arista v. Does 1-27, on behalf of two University of Maine undergrads. Their recently filed reply brief (PDF) points to the US Supreme Court decision in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, and the subsequent California decision following Twombly, Interscope v. Rodriguez, which dismissed the RIAA's 'making available' complaint as mere 'conclusory,' 'boilerplate' 'speculation.'"

I Always Assumed

[Apple Acolyte]

it was a stupid idea to sue university students, especially universities with law schools.

Re:still stealing music?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"still stealing music?"

Still don't know what you're talking about? Fucking RIAA executives.

Except

[proudfoot]

Most schools with legal departments seem to have simply backed down. The RIAA still gets much of their purpose accomplished.

Re:I Always Assumed

[shykid]

The RIAA's ego has gotten overinflated because of how easily they're able to extort Joe Schmoe. I do believe they're in for a very rude awakening.

Say goodbye to student aid.

[Seumas]

I give this thing twelve months before the federal government stops allowing student loans and federal aid of any and all kinds from being spent on students and services for this school.

Legal WAR!

[rice_burners_suck]

You see, the RIAA could focus their efforts on developing innovative ways to market music. What if they could come up with something even more convenient and irresistible to millions of consumers than Apple's iTunes store? What if this innovative marketing brought in so much money that piracy would represent only an immaterial portion of their bottom line? They would look like heroes and every company would flock to imitate them.

But, you see, they fell into the trap of thinking that lawyers and litigation could solve their problems. They declared legal war on an entire population. Whenever there's a war, whether a legal one or a physical one, everyone knows how it begins, but nobody knows how it will end. Nazi Germany started war on the entire world, thinking they were big, mighty, and unstoppable. And what happened? In the end, there was devastating destruction throughout Europe, tens of millions of lives destroyed, and the country in the worst shape of all was Germany. Why?

screw em

[DigitalSkyline]

You know once somehting is publically broadcast there is no controlling it. Try as you might, the public domain is the public domain!

Re:From a Mainer's perspective...

[Anonymous Coward]

The RIAA and the big four need to get their collective heads out of each others asses, look around, and realize that the world and market place is changing before their now shit covered eyes. If they don't find a new way to make money, they will simply cease to exist.

Market forces at work. That's all it is. If they can't figure out a way to make money on a product that can be duplicated easily, they will simply disappear.

Re:From a Mainer's perspective...

[adona1]

The RIAA is simply protecting their rights.

And that is their biggest obstacle. They are protecting their bottom line and nothing else. However, if you listen to them, they consistently cry that they are trying to protect the artists, despite the fact that historically more money has been withheld or denied by record labels [wikipedia.org] than by our downloading. No matter how relevant the RIAA's claims may be, a campaign built upon deceit [arstechnica.com] only makes them look less deserving. A rock-solid way we can compensate the artists directly (and the labels reduced to being recording studios and nothing more) is the best outlook for the future, IMHO.

Re:From a Mainer's perspective...

[bigstrat2003]

Uh... it's a pretty obvious troll, given away by saying "if you couldn't get it for free, you'd be paying for it". We all know that isn't true for nearly all cases, although it may be true for some.

Re:The law school studen is as pragmatic as they c

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

I think it[...] would be a quite impressive credential indeed for a law student to take on a media cartel and win.

Indeed it would. I'm hoping that these fine up and coming legal scholars will have that credential on their resumes.

Re:From a Mainer's perspective...

[bigstrat2003]

Yes, true, and they still pay for music now. However, it isn't true (at least not absolutely true, as the AC was making it out to be) to say that if you can't get the music for free, you'll buy it. Some will, but some won't. In fact, I'd put my money on most people not buying music that they can't get for free, but that's debateable.

Anyway, it's not absolutely true that people will buy that which they can't get for free, thus the AC was deliberately lying (or stupid, take your pick), thus trolling. Thus, your original indignation was kinda pointless.

Re:This is not groundbreaking...

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

I think what p2pnet was referring to when it called it a "revolution" was the fact that this was the first time a university's law school legal clinic has gone to bat for the university's students, thus levelling the playing field a bit. A level playing field is the death knell of the RIAA's entire litigation campaign, which relies exclusively upon a massive economic imbalance in every case, to keep the defendants from correcting the RIAA's (a) false statements of fact, and (b) bizarre legal theories.

Re:hmm

[nomadic]

It was a nice brief, and this is not meant as a criticism of their abilities; for law students they're operating at a very high level. But now what? Even if the Court dismisses, the RIAA will file an amended complaint that meets the Twombly pleading standard (which with a little effort they could probably do, it isn't that much higher a standard than Conley). At that point your "attorneys" are a few months closer to graduation, and you're back where you started.

As unfair as the law is on this point, and as ridiculous and inept the RIAA has been in its lawsuits, it's fairly likely the students in question did violate copyright law, and it's quite likely if they did they'll be on the hook for significant money (the motion makes a constitutional argument that is not very convincing, with the sole case they cite not anywhere near on point). The students they represent are risking a lot.

Re:hmm

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

Even if the Court dismisses, the RIAA will file an amended complaint that meets the Twombly pleading standard (which with a little effort they could probably do, it isn't that much higher a standard than Conley).

I respectfully disagree. I have seen their new complaint. It suffers from the same infirmities as their original complaint. For an example, see the amended complaint in Interscope v. Rodriguez [blogspot.com]. I believe this new version likewise fails to state a claim for copyright infringement [blogspot.com] and is subject to dismissal.

There is a reason why no amount of amending can cure the RIAA's problem. It is that the RIAA simply does not have evidence of a copyright infringement by the defendant.

Re:still stealing music?

[Alsee]

Those willing to look to "indie" music ought to try putting "Creative Commons" MP3 download [google.com] into Google.

There are far too many sites to list. I happen to find a lot of music at Dance-Industries [dance-industries.com] to my taste, but somewhere in that Google list there's probably a Creative Commons site catering to almost any taste in music.

And better yet, set your Creative Commons music folder to share in some P2P program.

That is the most powerful way to torpedo the RIAA battlefleet. Well that, and of course actually creating/releasing more Creative Commons music yourself.

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