RIAA doesn’t like ‘expert’ motion
p2pnet.net news:- Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA is betting the ball game on MediaSentry, the oft-criticised p2p investigative tool used in many RIAA cases, and on Dr Doug Jacobson (right), an “expert” in computer forensics.
Marie Lindor, 57, is a self-confessed computer ignoramus who’s said by the RIAA to be a massive online distributor of copyrighted digital music files owned by the RIAA’s masters, the members of the big four music cartel.
“In truth, Mrs Lindor isn’t an online desperado,” said p2pnet yesterday. “She’s a nurse’s aide, a responsible position she’s held for the last 20 years,” going on:
To her, a chip is a French fry and a computer a mystery, and she could no more “distribute” a digitized music file than she could fly to the moon.
But that doesn’t play well in mainstream media stories or RIAA press releases and statements. So she’s painted as an example of the “criminal” p2p file sharers who are “devastating” the Big 4, EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US).
Anyone less likely to be an online distributor is hard to imagine.
She’s represented by Ray Beckerman whose Recording Industry vs The People blog has become an invaluable repository for RIAA case files, and who also represents RIAA victims. The Lindor case is one of the many he has online.
He recently asked that Jacobson be excluded because his deposition, taken by Beckerman, established the alleged RIAA expert’s trial testimony couldn’t meet the standards demanded to ensure the reliability of expert testimony.
Now RIAA lawyer Richard Gabriel is challenging the motion.
Says Gabriel, who works for Holmes Roberts & Owen, the RIAA’s current legal hired guns:
On August 7, 2004, MediaSentry discovered massive infringement occurring on a computer in defendant’s home and for which defendant is responsible. MediaSentry discovered this infringement by using Kazaa in the same way as any other user could do. Once connected to defendant’s computer, MediaSentry made copies of the computer screens showing defendant’s shared folder. It then downloaded a sampling of the sound recordings contained in defendant’s share folder, so the plaintiffs could verify that the recordings are what they purport to be, which plaintiffs subsequently did. Finally, MediaSentry copied text files that are found in defendant’s shared folder and the data files showing the communications between defendants computer and media sentries computer.
Once plaintiffs had collected the data described above, none of which involve any interpretation or opinion, they retained Dr Doug Jacobson, Ph.D., an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Iowa State University, with over 20 years of experience in the field of computer networking, security, and forensics, to interpret this [sic] data. In his expert report on declaration, Dr Jacobson describes the technologies involved in this case, included including how IP addresses are assigned and how peer-to-peer networks work. He further describes how the Kazaa file-sharing program works. Then he applies the settled and undisputed principles to the undisputed data collected to explain what those data mean.
The majority of judges who’ve been hearing RIAA cases across America have been distinguished as much by their lack of systems knowledge as their expertise in American law. If Jacobson is upheld as an expert witness, it’ll be interesting to see the reasons for that decision.
In the meanwhile, Beckerman has just revealed that well-known Dutch p2p expert Dr Johann Pouwelse will be giving evidence for Mrs Lindor.
As Recording Industry vs The People points out, “It was Prof. Pouwelse’s testimony in Foundation v. UPC Nederland in the Netherlands, analyzing the RIAA’s MediaSentry investigation, which caused the courts of that country to decline the request by the RIAA’s sister organization for the ISP’s in that country to turn over the names and addresses of their subscribers.”
Definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
one of the many – RIAA Responds to Lindor motion to exclude expert; says “everyone in his field proceeds the same way he did”, May 14, 2007
giving evidence – Pouwelse: witness in RIAA case, May 14, 2007
Recording Industry vs The People – Prof. Johan Pouwelse Agrees To Take on the RIAA’s Expert, May 14, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by goverment restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
