Judge Backpedals On Allowing Mass Infringement Lawsuits After Press Calls Attention To Her RIAA Lobbying Past

from the nicely-done dept

There was a lot of attention paid to Judge Beryl Howell's decision to allow some mass copyright infringement lawsuits to move forward with all the defendants lumped together (and her bizarre claim that this was to benefit the defendants). Soon after that, it came out that Howell had very recently been an RIAA lobbyist, which certainly called her objectivity on such cases into question. Even though neither of the cases she was working on involved the RIAA, the issues were clearly quite similar, and such a ruling would obviously benefit the RIAA should it decide to start suing people again. However, as many people submitted, Judge Howell appears to be backpedaling on those initial rulings and it may lead to the dismissal of most of the cases against the defendants listed. It's definitely speculation at this point, but people are wondering if the attention brought over her initial rulings may have resulted in these latest rulings. One key point is whether or not Howell recognized how these lawsuits really worked, and how they appeared to be more of a way to use the legal system to get people to pay up as part of a business model, rather than a real legal remedy. Perhaps drawing more attention to that resulted in her correcting her earlier ruling.

Filed Under: beryl howell, copyright, infringement, mass lawsuits

Judge Who Said Lumping Together Unrelated Copyright Cases Is Fine... Is A Former RIAA Lobbyist

from the aren't-you-supposed-to-recuse-yourself? dept

Last week, we noted that judge Beryl Howell seemed to go against numerous other rulings by mass copyright lawsuit filers in saying that it was just fine to lump all the defendants together, despite the fact that each one was totally unrelated to the others. She even went so far as to claim that this benefited the defendants. She also pointed out that this made it easier for the plaintiffs, and seemed particularly concerned that things be as easy as possible for those plaintiffs. As we noted, our legal system isn't supposed to work that way. The point was making sure that actual due process was allowed, and joining together totally unrelated cases went against that principle.

Of course, perhaps there's a reason why Howell wanted to make things easier for plaintiffs in mass copyright lawsuits. You see, as TorrentFreak points out, Judge Beryl Howell is a recent appointment to the bench, and prior to that worked as a lawyer for a law firm that did plenty of work for the RIAA, and Howell herself was a lobbyist for the RIAA. It also notes that she helped write the DMCA among other copyright expansion laws from the last decade and a half.

As TorrentFreak notes, this certainly seems like a conflict of interest.

Filed Under: beryl howell, copyright, judge, lobbying
Companies: riaa