Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

“Music industry to abandon mass suits”

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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5 Comments

  • Can I make a prediction on this one? This has probably been a healthy stream of revenue for the plaintiff firms. What are the initial settlement demands? $5K? That’s not a lot of money until you multiply it by the number of potential defendants. And if all you need is a call center, a direct-mail service, two or three associate attorneys, and a secretary, the business case is pretty strong that said firms are not going to let this one go away without a fight. They’ll start an off-shore record label or trust which invests in artists simply to keep the machine cranking. Some where, someone will rise to the challenge of keeping this beast alive. Wait and see.

  • This is a good move for the industry. And I agree with Todd Rogers that the plaintiffs’ lawyers should take a hit in fees. I worked on a few of these cases as a law clerk in E.D.N.C. and felt, despite the near undisputed liability of the John/Jane Doe defendants, that there had to have been a more efficient avenue to prosecute the claims of the RIAA. The repetitive nature of these suits (these cases indeed had morphed into one standard form – from the Linares Declaration, to the motion for expedited discovery) made this an efficient cash cow for the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

  • Time to fire up the ol’ P2P program again!

    • By Dave M

  • “The RIAA believes the new strategy will reach more people, which itself is a deterrent. ‘Part of the issue with infringement is for people to be aware that their actions are not anonymous,’ said Mitch Bainwol, the group’s chairman.”

    Unlike the serving of multi-million-dollar lawsuits the RIAA which identified individuals the RIAA claimed were responsible for file sharing. Is Mr. Bainwol really that stupid?

    • By srpinpgh

  • The RIAA has done one thing and one thing only, forced MORE people to refuse to do Business with their respective Companies. I am a member of SonyBMG and have NOT purchased any music or videos from them since they endorsed/joined the RIAA.

    I have also refused to purchase ANY music by any member of the RIAA. I don’t download, I own every piece of music on my computer, in my Ipod, and my home. But the RIAA’s actions are nothing more than gestapo tactics to attempt to support a flagging industry thats out of touch with the times.

    Failsauce with contempt for their customers to boot.

    Dragonwind