Posts tagged as:

RIAA and file sharing

November 6 roundup

by Walter Olson on November 6, 2009

  • Shop worker prevails in U.K.: no need to pay music royalty fees for singing while stacking shelves [BBC]
  • Word arrives that Eric Turkewitz has been named a New York Super Lawyer, but he manages to control his enthusiasm [New York Personal Injury]
  • In which a columnist criticizes a post-election Tweet of mine, labels me “socially liberal libertarian” [Carney, DC Examiner; Roger Simon, "The Strange Case of NY-23"]
  • Plaintiff’s lawyers may bag $28 million in Wal-Mart wage/hour class actions [ABA Journal]
  • Contestant’s million-dollar suit against California pageant ends abruptly after surfacing of too-racy-to-post video [TMZ; irony-fraught background at Brayton and Good As You]
  • News bulletin: lawyers shouldn’t trade on inside information [Cunningham, Concur Op]
  • Possession, not just wrongful use: “L.A. Halloween Silly String Ban” [Volokh]
  • Video of man who runs giant soda pop store in L.A., includes his thoughts on recycling law and the way regulation often works to big businesses’ advantage against small [Boing Boing]

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August 18 roundup

by Walter Olson on August 18, 2009

  • Tiananmen Square events echo today in acrimonious defamation suit against filmmakers [Boston Globe]
  • Andrew Ferguson disrespectful toward David Kessler’s nanniferous book on obesity policy [Weekly Standard]
  • “Yes, People Dislike The RIAA Because Of Its Actions” [TechDirt]
  • The big difference race makes in medical school admissions [Discriminations, Mark Perry/Carpe Diem]
  • Texting, workplace flirtation and sexual harassment law [Forbes/MSNBC]
  • After real estate firm grabs and uses online pic, photographer finds satisfaction through small claims court [West Seattle Blog h/t @VBalasubramani]
  • Virginia: latest case seeking to open emotional-distress damages for death of pets gets help from former White House counsel Lanny Davis [WaPo, earlier]
  • Brazil police allege that host of true-crime TV series ordered killings to ensure good footage for the show [AP]

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August 10 roundup

by Walter Olson on August 10, 2009

  • Annals of legal marketing: law firm says its flyers offering to sue landlords over sexual assault on premises were left indiscriminately on car windshields, and it didn’t mean to target the woman who found it on hers and assumed it referred to her case [New Jersey Law Journal, Legal Blog Watch, Legal Ethics Forum]
  • “The Bankruptcy Files: Inside Michael Vick’s ‘Excessive’ Legal Bills” [AmLaw Daily]
  • Panel spanks U. of Illinois law school for admitting students at behest of politicos, but goes easy on the pols themselves [Ribstein, more, earlier here, here, here]
  • Youths who obtained big settlement in San Francisco Zoo tiger attack are having more encounters with the law [SF Chronicle, earlier]
  • Czech Republic: Suit by communist professor against critical students still in progress after 18 years [Volokh]
  • More thoughts on Florida lawmakers’ criminalization of purported gang signals, on MySpace and elsewhere [Citizen Media Law, earlier]
  • RIAA case: does the Constitution restrain unreasonable statutory damages? [Kennerly]
  • Eager law grad hoping to make a career of suing foodmakers over obesity [six years ago on Overlawyered]

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For sharing 24 songs [earlier]. A range of reactions: Ray Beckerman (believes case is headed for third trial), Max Kennerly (absurdly high damage awards happen more often when jury distrusts truthfulness of defendant), Amy Alkon (”Stealing from really, really rich people is still stealing”), Ron Coleman and more (case should prompt a reexamination of issue of statutory damages).

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May 12 roundup

by Walter Olson on May 12, 2009

  • Florida: “Law firm is found liable for injuries to client who fell off a chair” [WPBF via Bernabe]
  • Monsanto, known for hardball litigation over its patented seeds, might regret taking on duPont [AmLaw Litigation Daily, earlier here and here]
  • Kenyan man sues women’s rights activists for leading sex boycott that his wife joined [Daily Nation]
  • Notice a “sign this EFCA petition” message in your Twitter stream, about the controversial card-check union bill? Better check out its bona fides [Point of Law]
  • RIAA said it was going to stop filing new cases against music downloaders, but that might depend on what the definition of new cases is [Ars Technica, AmLaw Litigation Daily]
  • EEOC guidance warns employers about violating ADA in trying to cope with H1N1 flu virus in workplace [Daniel Schwartz, Workplace Prof Blog; related, earlier]
  • Cluelessness, more than censor’s urge, might explain that ghastly bill filed by Rep. Linda Sanchez to combat “cyberbullying” by throttling online speech [Jacob Sullum; earlier here, etc.]
  • Buxom British gals claim victory after Marks & Spencer rescinds $3 surcharge on larger-size bras [AP/Idaho Statesman, The Sun via Amy Alkon]

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Well, good luck with that.

Comrades of the recording industry! RIAA has overfulfilled glorious five-year lawsuit production plan! [Patrick/SSFC at Popehat]

Microblog 2008-12-25

by SSFC on December 25, 2008

You really shouldn’t be reading this.  You haven’t even played with the nice new toys Santa brought you.

Now go play with your toys.

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It might bring to an end the public relations nightmare of the Recording Industry Association of America, and it should certainly cut down on the number of future legal nightmares endured by bewildered parents, grandparents and other bystanders who’ve been getting sued because their kid used the family computer to visit a music-sharing service at 1 a.m. P.S.: CNet has a copy of the enforcement notice RIAA is planning to send to ISPs instead.

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December 5 roundup

by Walter Olson on December 5, 2008

  • You are cordially invited to a fishing expedition for lawsuits over energy drink/alcohol mixes. RSVP: Center for Science in the Public Interest [Balko, Reason "Hit and Run"]
  • Recent Overlawyered guestblogger Victoria Pynchon mediates an ADA claim against a Long Beach motel owner. Extortion? Fair compromise? Both? Neither? [Settle It Now, scroll]
  • 19-year-old Ciara Sauro of Pittsburgh is disabled, in medical debt, and waiting for transplant, crowning touch is the $8,000 default judgment RIAA got against her for downloading 10 songs [Ambrogi]
  • “It does not take a graduate degree to understand that it is unacceptable to hide evidence and lie in a deposition” — Seventh Circuit sanctions Amtrak worker for dodgery in workplace-injury suit [Ohio Employers' Law; Negrete v. Nat’l Railroad Pass, PDF]
  • New Richard Nixon tapes: “I can’t have a high-minded lawyer … I want a son-of-a-b—-.” [Althouse]
  • Aramark suit documents unsealed: girl paralyzed by drunk driver got $25 million in suit against New York Giants stadium beer vendor [AP/Vineland, N.J. Daily Journal, earlier]
  • New York high court bounces Alice Lawrence/Graubard Miller fee suit back to lower courts, says more info needed [NYLJ, earlier]
  • Couple claims retention of $1,075 rental security deposit was racially motivated, seeks $20 million [WV Record; Martinsburg, W.Va.]

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France’s counterpart to RIAA has been given a green light to sue four U.S. companies that develop peer-to-peer file-sharing applications. The applications make possible both lawful and unlawful methods of sharing copyrighted or uncopyrighted material. (”Record Labels to Sue Vuze, Limewire and SourceForge”, TorrentFreak, Nov. 14).

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November 18 roundup

by Walter Olson on November 18, 2008

  • Harvard’s Charles Nesson argues that Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 violates Constitution by letting civil lawyers for RIAA enforce a criminal law [AP/MSNBC, Elefant]
  • In some circles, bitter disappointment at reports that Obama camp probably won’t pursue Bush predecessors as war criminals [Paul Campos, Horton/Harper's; earlier]
  • Latest on wrangle over “exorbitant” fee: Alice Lawrence’s deposition-skipping before her death could endanger her estate’s claim against Graubard Miller law firm [NYLJ, earlier]
  • One benefit of role as law school mega-donor, as Mark Lanier is with Texas Tech, is that you get to rub (hunting-jacket) elbows with visiting Supreme Court justices [WSJ law blog]
  • Lou Dobbs and Phyllis Schlafly were among those who pushed bizarre theory of secret conspiracy to merge U.S. into “North American Union” with Canada and Mexico [John Hawkins]
  • Senate Dems plan to abolish secret ballot for installing unions in everyone else’s workplace, so how come they insist on one for themselves in deciding how to handle Joe Lieberman? [Dan Riehl via McArdle]
  • Congrats to historian Rick Brookhiser and City Journal editor Myron Magnet, among recipients of 2008 National Humanities Medal [White House release, Brian Anderson, NRO]
  • Jarek Molski, California entrepreneur of disabled-access complaints, loses bid for Supreme Court review of his designation as vexatious litigant [AP, Bashman]

Microblog 2008-11-08

by Walter Olson on November 8, 2008

“Well, that didn’t take long. One day after RealNetworks releases its DVD copying software, lawsuits are filed. Who’s right, who’s wrong, and where do movie fans fit in?” And are movie industry lawyers going to replace RIAA’s as a target at the center of customers’ dartboards? (Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld, Oct. 1). More: Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing on the peculiar press-anonymity of some of the lawyers (h/t commenter Orval).

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RIAA setback in Thomas trial

by Walter Olson on September 26, 2008

A judge threw out (PDF) the record industry’s $222,000 verdict against a Minnesota woman in her file-sharing trial, “saying it was based on the faulty ‘making available’ theory of distribution. [Jammie or Jammy] Thomas will face a new trial, in which the RIAA will have to prove actual distribution.” (Richard Koman, “RIAA loses $222K verdict against Jammy Thomas”, ZDNet, Sept. 25; earlier here and here). More: another part of the judge’s ruling, however, may be much more helpful to the record labels: distribution to the labels’ hired investigator can constitute infringement (Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch).

Attorney Ray Beckerman is “one of the nation’s few attorneys who defends accused file sharers” and runs a blog called Recording Industry vs The People that is often cited in coverage critical of Recording Industry Association of America and its massive litigation campaign. Now RIAA is seeking sanctions against Beckerman in a case in which he is defending Marie Lindor. Among its allegations (PDF): Beckerman “has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs.” And: “Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions.” Although RIAA is seeking to voluntarily dismiss its case against Lindor, it wants sanctions against her too, saying that she obstructed its attempts to ascertain whether she was responsible for file-sharing. (David Kravets, Wired/Threat Level, Sept. 17).

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September 11 roundup

by Walter Olson on September 11, 2008

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That seems to be one of the premises of a curious pamphlet — education? propaganda? — produced by the National Center for State Courts for student use (David Kravets, “Nonprofit Distributes File Sharing Propaganda to 50,000 U.S. Students”, Threat Level/Wired.com, Aug. 21).

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