Someone Finally Fighting Back Against RIAA Lawsuits In Court
from the about-time dept
Ever since the RIAA started filing lawsuits directly against people for sharing music online, we've wondered why no one fought back and took the case to court in the US. As the courts in Canada have noted, simply having the IP address of someone you believe to be sharing an unauthorized file isn't enough evidence to prove that person was file sharing. Earlier this year, a US judge, trying to clean up some of the details in the old, old, old Napster case, also specifically noted that making files available is not the equivalent of distributing -- which is what all the RIAA cases charge. However, when presented with the option of just sucking it up and paying $3,000 to $10,000 and going on with your life, or spending time in court, paying lawyers' fees and risking huge fines nearing a million dollars, the prudent choice for many is to simply take the deal. It's almost a form of legalized extortion. Doing the right thing is almost always going to be more expensive and more painful than just giving in. However, Broadband Reports points to the case of one woman who is fighting back and says she's willing to go to court to fight the charges the RIAA has filed against her, because they're not right. She points out that she had never even heard of Kazaa. The details suggest that perhaps a friend of one of her kids was responsible for the file sharing -- but, that certainly suggests that the RIAA got the wrong person. While the internet account may be in this woman's name, the burden should be on the RIAA to prove who did the actual sharing -- not who owns the account. It's the same reason why they can't sue an ISP for someone doing unauthorized file sharing on their system. Meanwhile, the quotes in the article show that, once again, the RIAA (and the reporter) don't even seem to understand the issues being discussed. They repeatedly refer to "illegal downloading," when that isn't even what the RIAA has been filing lawsuits over. They're suing over uploading or sharing -- not downloading. Yet all of the quotes from the RIAA avoid the actual issues raised by this case (how do they prove the woman actually did infringe on their copyrights), and pops out the soundbites about how downloading is evil. In the past, unfortunately, when these types of cases have come up, the RIAA has simply dropped the case and moved on. Hopefully, they won't be allowed to do that in this case -- and will be forced to show how they can get actual evidence that the person they're accusing uploaded an unauthorized file to someone else.
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Finally
I remember of a story about a lawyer in California who was disbarred after setting up a scheme where-by he threatened to litigate against hundreds of local mom and pop type shops over various minor and often obscure violations. In one case, he threatened several manicure shops for using the same fingernail polish brush on more than one customer.
He was making tons of money offering settlements because litigation is intimidating and often these small shops didn't have the resources to persue a potentially expensive and lengthy judicial process.
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Re: Finally
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about time
this is extortion and should not be allowed. the losing money that they claim is bullshit - they still are making gobs of money and meanwhile the people who steal their music will always find a way to steal their music no matter what.
the only people that pay are the people who are honest and don't try to hide from them.
it is about time all this nonsense comes to an end and gets them where it hurts - the pocket. I hope she goes after them and bars them from doing this crap to honest people.
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Re: about time
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Re: about time
How about everyone at TechDirt *and* /. donate $5?
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Re: about time
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RIAA and filesharing
http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html
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Re: RIAA and filesharing
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The RIAA sueing targets are not the people
I believe RIAA should lay off on companies if not also the people who are hosting such sharing. Sharing is not actually illegal, from my point of view. It's more of a trade. Like cards. People in the households, spend already enough money to have the service provided to them. (Technically, that's just to get on the highway of Internet.) If downloading child pornography is wrong, why should music? Artists take the risk and I believe they should be thankful that they are popular today. Otherwise, why would we not love their music if we can't hear it ourselves and then be the judge of that? If we love the songs so much, we can go and get the cd if that be it the case, but why spend 14-22 dollars on a CD with just one song you like, when you can get that one song that someone is basically 'sharing' it with you? It's almost like saying we couldn't record songs from the radio onto a tape because that's 'stealing', when we did it all the time?
If they want to sue someone, sue the person who invented the recordable DVD's and CD's.
Thank you.
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Who?
My question is: When the RIAA sues someone, and settles with a fee, does it go back to the original artist, I mean, the one who had their music stolen? I strongly doubt it. It just goes back to the RIAA, so they can sue others and as they put it "foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality". That sounds a lot to me like they are going to sue the shit out of anybody they can to turn a profit, on the behalf of these other people, that have rightful claim to the moneys.
And how can they sue someone for "file-sharing" if they as a whole are not the ones with the purported damages? Shouldn't each individual recording artist or company with the rights be suing? Maybe I missed something.........Lost in Florida
-foofdawg
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lastest LAWSUIT
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the above post
Basic premise of the above post was "isn't it terrible the RIAA is suing PEOPLE...they should be allowed to sue the P2P sites themselves" (which the RIAA originally wanted........
Be careful................
Oh as a side note, jam.rr.com has NO LIST for a GSaulters@jam.rr.com registered with them on their member listing..........
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clothes
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RIAA PHONE NUMBER
(913)-234-8181
Distribute this number and call them.
Tell them how you feel.
People that work for the RIAA are scumbags.
Get a real job like the rest of us and stop raping the small guy.
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Lawsuits
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Re: Finally
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Re: RIAA PHONE NUMBER
And I am Calling and Calling and calling and calling and caliing and they had enought of me but I am still calling! When In am not calling I setup one of my computer to keep calling and calling and calling using the fax modem
I do alot of crank call! It is a lot of fun What's a life! More and more people are calling!
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Re: The RIAA sueing targets are not the people
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