RIAA Lied To Congress About New Filesharing Suits

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "On December 23, 2008, the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol sent a letter to the Judiciary and Commerce Committees of both the House and Senate, falsely representing to them that the RIAA 'discontinued initiating new lawsuits in August.' A copy of the letter is online (PDF). In fact, as many of you already know, the RIAA brought hundreds of new lawsuits since August. See, e.g., these 40 or so cases which just represent some of the cases brought in December." Maybe they're just taking a broad view of the world "initiate."

Somehow I doubt

[Anonymous Coward]

that this will result in any form of purgery charges for said lawyer, or any form of legal consequence.

The RIAA seems to enjoy making a mockery of the legal system and legal process.

Re:Somehow I doubt

[johanw]

They have learned a lot from their teachers in the scientology cult, and are now perfecting it. It's about time that China (I can see noone else with sufficient power) drops IP laws altogether and forces the rest of the world to just cope with it. At least they have a threat the US fears: if they dump all their US dollars the yearly US inflation will reach 4-digit numbers.

RIAA owns the Dept of Justice

[Anonymous Coward]

According to this [gizmodo.com] link on Gizmodo.

Re:Somehow I doubt

[Anonymous Coward]

if they dump all their US dollars the yearly US inflation will reach 4-digit numbers.

They can't start dumping anything because they have a shitload of dollars: If the dollar goes down, so does the Chinese economy. The same goes for most economies of course but China is by far more reliant on the dollar than others...

It's a trap

[Anonymous Coward]

They were probably trying to encourage more downloading = more people to sue for profit.

Re:Steal this song

[Anonymous Coward]

Your attitude to women as property may be the reason you're looking for sloppy seconds ;)

Yes, they discontinued...

[erroneus]

...then recontinued very shortly thereafter. I discontinue driving at every red light...

Re:Hmm

[commodore64_love]

As my brother would say, "I find that shocking." "Really?" "No."

RIAA should be prosecuted for perjury and contempt of Congress.

Th Information Prohibition 1996-2010

[kulakovich]

Never has there been such a parallel in our history. The Prohibition in the United States, from 1920 to 1933, and the Information Prohibition, 1996-2010.

A close second is the novel Dune and the parallel to the Clinton/Bush/Obama triumvirate.

Enjoy your history humans, you're living it.

~kulakovich

Re:Somehow I doubt

[Anonymous Coward]

If the dollar goes down, so does the Chinese economy. The same goes for most economies of course but China is by far more reliant on the dollar than others...

If China destroys the American dollar, they have a huge manufacturing base that will be happy to sell goods for Euros.

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[NicknamesAreStupid]

It is illegal for people who testify before Congress under oath to lie (perjury). However, there is no law against organizations misrepresenting themselves in such a way. Corporations do not take an oath, people do. Therefore, if you can construct an organization that can misrepresent itself through its people without those individuals who testify under oath actually testifying a known (to themselves) falsehood, then you have a legal loophole. You might think that in order to construct such an organization there must be a conscious and concerted effort among the leaders to create such a deception, but that is not necessarily true. If the charter of the company is in line with its need for self-preservation and sustained growth, you might envision how its "misguided" practices might ignore the rights of others and the laws that govern people. There are other remedies for corporations, but they are treated quite differently (and more differentially) than people. This may not seem right because it shouldn't be. However, half of all murders go unsolved, and that is not right but it is true.

Re:Steal this song

[agnosticanarch]

Or crucified.

Re:Nothing will be done to the RIAA

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

Who would you take a case to? The DOJ? Oh wait, the DOJ and the RIAA are basically clones now.

That is a problem, isn't it? That Mitch Bainwol's lawyers occupy key posts in the Justice Department.

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[noundi]

Hahaha you have to love that fucking thing, what's the point of asking someone anything unless you can assume they speak of the truth!? My point is, why the fuck is congress wasting their time with this bullshit? Why not automaticaly put everyone under oath? You'd get a lot more shit done, instead of trying to lead a society with facts based on bullshit. Defectivebydesign, y'know?

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm... the whole Yellow Cake [wikipedia.org] part of the story is an interesting one. Was it a "lie"? Did the US produce fake documents? Or where fake documents produced to mislead the US and they bought it? To actually try and claim Bush lied about the yellow cake you'll have to prove Bush knew the documents where fake but continued to try and pass them off as valid after the discover of them being identified as such.

Given there's a huge administration that were actually doing the grunt work, it'll be hard to prove. Particularly since people like you love to claim the incompetence and idiocy of Bush. So, what is it? Is he some brilliant master mind who's capable of a massive scheme that fooled millions of people world wide or is he a bumbling idiot who's strings where pulled by other people (typically pointed out to be Dick Cheney by your lot).

You can't have it both ways. Given the article linked to has a statement claiming they were incompetent, I'm guessing that's the occam's razor of this problem.

Re:Somehow I doubt

[Dan Ost]

It's not that they have any realistic chance of ever spending most of them for real products or services.

You mean, besides buying oil with it?

Re:Somehow I doubt

[adamchou]

China is by far more reliant on the dollar than others...

depending on how you define reliance, that would actually be wrong. Since 2005, the renmibi has been pegged to a basket of currencies [wikipedia.org]. There are however numerous other countries whose currencies are pegged to solely the USD [wikipedia.org] still.

but then again, in today's world economy, everyone is reliant upon the US economy

Re:Hmm

[EbeneezerSquid]

RIAA should be prosecuted for perjury and contempt of Congress.

That would require a Justice Department which is not on the RIAA's Payroll.

Don't ya love that CHANGE?

Re:And this is news???

[T Murphy]

The obviousness makes it no less important to report this. The day we just let it slide unnoticed is when we've truly given them free reign.