The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reportedly broke a court order after a federal judge told the RIAA specifically not to do something they were caught trying to do anyway.
As the Motown Records vs. John Doe legal case -- a case involving Motown, Universal Music and BMG against students at the University of Southern California -- heats up, the RIAA was given permission by District Court Judge Manuel Real to subpoena USC to receive names of students accused of file sharing.
The ruling told the RIAA that all collected information is "to be used for the sole purpose of obtaining injunctive relief pursuant to the complaint filed herein protecting plaintiff's right under the Copyright Act." In Layman's terms, the RIAA can help build its case against the file sharers, not try and negotiate settlements with them -- which reportedly is exactly what the RIAA is doing.
After filing John Doe suits against alleged file sharers, the RIAA attempts to avoid costly trials, instead seeking anywhere from $2,000 up to $8,000 -- or more -- as settlement money.
Judge Real has not issued a statement indicating what will happen to the RIAA for ignoring part of his ruling. Universities believe turning over student information to the RIAA or other industry groups may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
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Karma: 970 , Fri 19 Dec 2008 18:20
The judge should rule that the RIAA has no case as they tried to circumvent his order. Plantiffs should be found not guilty with prejudice (can be used against RIAA in future cases) and subject to costs
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Karma: 9220 , Fri 19 Dec 2008 19:20
Plus the RIAA should face a stiff fine and their involved personnel should face jail time for contempt of court.
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Karma: 2650 , Fri 19 Dec 2008 21:53
It would seem, based on their actions, that the RIAA isn't really interested in protecting the copyrights, but more in generating revenue. Therefore, if I were the judge, I would rule that the RIAA had acted in bad faith and they must therefore in the future show that a suspected copyright infringement had caused loss, infringement wihtout loss would no longer warrant a civil remedy, and any awards would be limited to actual losses.
If you are serious about protecting a copyright, so be it, protect it. But to play these games shows that they only really care about adding money to the coffers and don't want to take a chance on losing a ruling in court, which makes me wonder how strong their cases are. Maybe they are worried they'll get a jury trial one day and the jury will say "You want thousands of dollars for some songs this person downloaded that they could easily have recorded for free off the radio? That's ludicrous, go pound sand!" And then they wouldn't be able to brow beat others into big cash settlements. Weenies.
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Karma: 3340 , Fri 19 Dec 2008 23:06
I hope the judge throws out all of the RIAA cases due to their insubordination
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Karma: 51620 , Fri 19 Dec 2008 23:31
The RIAA has decided to stop suing individuals this week as it has proven ineffective and has become a public relations nightmare. They instead have cut deals with as yet un-named ISP's that will forward warnings to customers, hobbling their connections and finally cutting off their account if they continue. The ISPs are cooperating as many are working with music services anyway as partners.
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Karma: 33330 , Sat 20 Dec 2008 06:36
AFAIK, the "John Doe" lawsuits are illegal as hell, since the only time any kind of lawsuit similar to this is ever allowed is when someone desires to acquire a piece of land and it's impossible to determine from public record if there are any heirs to the land, hence the **** vs. 'The Unknown Heirs of so-and-so." It's been proven time and again the RIAA scoffs at rules of Civil Procedure of any kind and thumbs its nose at the law. If a regular Joe Blow plaintiff tried filing a lawsuit in such sloppy manners, each and every one would be thrown out without delay nor question.
