RIAA May Be Violating a Court Order In California 339
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In one of its 'ex parte' cases seeking the names and addresses of 'John Does,' this one targeting students at the University of Southern California, the RIAA obtained an order granting discovery — but with a wrinkle. The judge's order (PDF) specified that the information obtained could not be used for any purpose other than obtaining injunctions against the students. Apparently the RIAA lawyers have ignored, or failed to understand, that limitation, as an LA lawyer has reported that the RIAA is busy calling up the USC students and their families and demanding monetary settlements."
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:5, Informative)
Invalidate the copyright? You must be thinking of trademarks. You can't invalidate a copyright by lack of defending it (or in this case, bad faith). If someone reproduces a book I've written for 10 years and I don't do anything, I can still sue them at anytime even if I was previously aware of the violation. You can't 'lose' a copyright.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:1, Informative)
You might want to look up the "doctrine of laches" before you make such an assertion.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:5, Informative)
Laches only applies to "equitable relief", ie, compensation. Basically, you can't let someone sell your stuff for 10 years (knowingly) and them hit them for all the money they've made distributing it since they started. However, it will not in any way invalidate your copyright. You can still stop them from redistributing your works, you just can't go after them for a zillion dollars.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:1, Informative)
First off, laches is an affirmative defense, and is not a get-out-of-jail-free card: compare it to fair use, another affirmative defense that many here on /. agree is fairly cumbersome to use and burdensome on the defendant. Secondly, laches has a certain component of pressing an unfair advantage gained by biding one's time.
Thirdly and most importantly, I am not a lawyer and I am not your lawyer. I don't even play one on TV. Don't take anything I ever say as legal advice.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:5, Informative)
And woo-hoo.... (Score:3, Informative)
...the RIAA will keep on ripping off artists and producing bland, over-compressed, payola-driven crap instead of music.
http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/print.html [salon.com]
http://www.beforethemusicdies.com/ [beforethemusicdies.com]
http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html [janisian.com]
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:5, Informative)
Protip for those of us a bit south of canada
Never buy music CDs. The MAFIAA gets a cut. Always buy "data" CDs. They're the same physical thing.
Re:This is an inaccurate article title (Score:5, Informative)
NYCL is a L (from NYC), and therefore is going to be careful what he says.
Unlike the L's the RIAA uses.
Re:This is an inaccurate article title (Score:3, Informative)
I think it's FAR better when Slashdot headlines are like this one - too many jump to conclusions that the articles don't support. It's unfortunate that Slashdot is resorting to sensational headlines to attract viewers. For me, when I find out that the headline and summary were wrong (always pointed out in the comments when so - don't even have to RTA :) ) I get quite annoyed. If the story actually matters, then there's no need to exaggerate with a sensational headline. If one finds him or her self tempted to exaggerate the headline, perhaps the story is not that interesting or important!
Sometimes corrections are posted, but the damage is already done.
For this specific case, as others pointed out, NYCL is being safe (and fair) in his wording. Even if it was made official by the judge ruling that they're violating the order, your proposed title would still not be the best. It would then be "Judge Finds RIAA in Violation of California Court Order" or something like that.
This is what Slashdot should be. We gladly get the news here a day or two after digg or wherever, because the editors are (supposed to be) here to ensure that we get the best news and that the facts are straight in the summary.
This ideal has, unfortunately, been slipping away recently. The exception is usually stories from NYCL, because he puts a lot of effort into making sure he gets everything right. In order to improve things, ideally we should all step up and start submitting better stuff. The problem is that many of us don't have time to prowl for stories - Slashdot aggregates all the best stuff for us already, and provides all kinds of insight and references through the comments, and that's why we like it. So I do appreciate those who put time into submitting stuff, I really do, because otherwise I'd have to find it myself. I just regret that it seems to be losing the focus it once had of news for nerds and stuff that matters. Too much focus on entertainment - that's done better on other sites already, we don't need it here.
Thanks for reading my rant!
Thanks for your kind words, penguinchris. One of the problems with headlines on Slashdot is that they have to be very short. I struggle with that on almost every submission. It would be much easier for submitters to provide accurate headlines if we had more space to work with.
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:3, Informative)
Not according to this [wikipedia.org]: "The levy applies to "blank audio recording media", such as CD-Rs."
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:1, Informative)
Yeah but don't the "music" CD-Rs have a flag bit set on them that tells standalone consumer grade CD recorders that "yes, this is a music CD" ? When they were new (and popular) I remember reading the manuals from some of these units and every single one said to use "music" CD-Rs instead of data CD-Rs for "compatibility" reasons. My first brush with DRM. Bleh.
P.S. the magic word? "seeding" - the best way to share music :)
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:5, Informative)
Never buy music CDs. The MAFIAA gets a cut.
True.
Always buy "data" CDs. They're the same physical thing.
Partly False. They have a header on them so that standalone CD recorders, like the Pioneer PDR-609 [pioneerelectronics.com] can recognize them, those recorders will not record on regular DATA CD-Rs.
Otherwise though, they are pretty much the same.
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, the EU is far ahead on this one. You pay the "music tax" for everything that could technically reproduce copyrighted content. Hard drives, USB sticks, fax machines, scanners, printers... if you can somehow, in theory, maybe, possibly copy something with it, you pay the leeches.
And we're not talking about pennies here either. The price for 4GB USB sticks doubled when they were recently included in the fold.
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:3, Informative)
All blank CD media in Canada are taxed, not just music CD-R's.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RIAA strikes again (Score:5, Informative)
You don't really understand how the legal system works, do you?
Most judges who even suspect you're working both sides of the aisle will toss you and your case out of court. You'll probably be fined for wasting the court's time. Not to mention that a lawyer who does as you suggest, and throws a case for the purpose of setting precedent will probably never be able to practice law in that jurisdiction ever again.
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:3, Informative)
The Canadian blank media tax does not apply [cpcc.ca] to hard drives, just to the following:
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:3, Informative)
You can't 'lose' a copyright.
I know it's GETTING there, but unless Disney have bought another law for Christmas, I don't think copyright is eternal yet.
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:2, Informative)
I live in The Netherlands and know this to be wrong. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] gives numbers on differences between EU member states. There is no 'one scheme' for the whole of the EU. This is something that falls under the say of sovereign countries themselves. I for one would like to keep it that way.
Re:And file sharers may be violating copyright law (Score:3, Informative)
The only "right" the Canadian blank media tax grants is the right to make copies of the media you already own, and only for personal use. Most Canadians would be surprised to learn they can't just do this without paying extra for it.
Wouldn't you be amazed to know we had this right years before the Righteous Inquisition Army of Autocrats demanded to be given a cut on all CD-Rs and hard drives sales?
Re:RIAA strikes again (Score:3, Informative)
D. The same way we dealt with Nero, Mussolini, and other tyrants..
Nero commited suicide.