p2pnet - rss feed: The EFF backs RIAA victim Leadbetter
p2pnet news view | RIAA news:- The RIAA should pay for Dawn Leadbetter’s two-year legal ordeal, “fighting a baseless file-sharing lawsuit,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
Quite right, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
The RIAA should pay for all the legal battles being fought by all the American mothers being falsely sued as “massive” online distributors of copyrighted music files.
And the same should apply to the fathers, brothers, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers and even dead people who’ve been wrongly sued by the RIAA, short for Recording Industry Association of America which is more than a little ironic given only one of the companies behind the corporate music extortion organisation is based in the US, and even that’s run by a Canadian.
Tormented for years
EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US), the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel, are suing their own customers in a fruitless bid to force them to buy overpriced corporate product.
Dawnell Leadbetter is accused of illegally downloading copyrighted music and the EFF says it and attorney Derek Newman of Newman & Newman LLP have just filed amicus brief in the US District Court in Seattle to support Leadbetter.
Together with Patti Santangelo, Tanya Andersen, Leadbetter was one of the first American mothers to openly refuse to take any more from the Big 4, also suing Comcast for disclosing her name and contact information to the RIAA. And she’s incurred significant attorney’s fees, says the EFF.
The same applies to all the other estimated thirty thousand or so RIAA victims, of course.
It takes an immense amount of courage and resolve for someone with little or no legal or financial resources to stand up to the multi-billion-dollar music label bullies, but more and more people are following the example set by the three single mums who’ve been tormented for years while the children of powerful big music executives have been let off scot-free.
The ‘bright line’ of ‘moral responsibility’
During an interview, “We asked Edgar Bronfman, the head of the world’s fourth largest music company, at the Reuters Summit whether any of his seven kids stole music,” said Reuters, and, “I’m fairly certain that they have, and I’m fairly certain that they’ve suffered the consequences,” Bronfman stated, going on:
‘I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music. Frankly, right is right and wrong is wrong, particularly when a parent is talking to a child. A bright line around moral responsibility is very important. I can assure you they no longer do that.’
The clip at the top is from a photograph in the Reuters story showing Bronfman (left) chatting to Adam Pasick.
What did the “bright line” involve? Whatever that was, it certainly had nothing to do with moral responsibility and, “I think I’ll keep that within the family,” evaded Bronfman, the Canadian who heads cartel member Warner Music.
One thing is 100%, solid gold, carved-in-rock certain, though. Neither he nor his children will ever be sued, or loudly and publicly harassed by the RIAA for copyright infringement.
Innocent victims are too scared
“The RIAA’s settlement offers are usually less that [sic] what it would cost to defend yourself, so it’s a big commitment to hire a lawyer to clear your name,” says EFF lawyer Jason Schultz, going on:
The industry uses questionable investigative methods tactics to find its targets, and then often employs erroneous legal theories in its quest for settlement monies. In Ms. Leadbetter’s case, the suit against her included accusations of ’secondary liability’ - putting her on the hook for anything that happened on her Internet account, whether she knew about it or not.
The RIAA knows that this legal theory is wrong. But if innocent victims are too scared to hire an attorney and fight back, the public could suffer under the misconception that these bogus theories are legitimate. Awarding attorney’s fees to Ms. Leadbetter helps protect everyone’s rights under copyright law.
But this is nothing new and in fact with the active participation of the mainstream media, the public have been fed lies, misinformation, disinformation and half-truths since 2003 when the RIAA started its sue ‘em all marketing campaign.
It has, moreover, taken far too long for active high-level support to be sparked up on behalf of victims such as Santangelo, one of the first people to stand up to the big four, and Andersen who, with her ten-year-old daughter, Kylee, has for three years been constantly harassed by the RIAA and illegal investigators working for online bounty hunter MediaSentry.
Meanwhile, not one of the men, women and even young children sued by the RIAA has ever appeared before a judge or jury, or been found guilty of anything, let alone the non-existent crime of file sharing.
Highly paid RIAA spin doctors such as Cary Sherman and Mitch Bainwol have gulled the mainstream media into repeating untrue corporate music industry assertions that when files are shared online, sales are lost.
In fact, it’s far more likely that music shared from the independent music sites and P2P networks have a viral marketing effect, to the benefit of the labels and the artists they’re supposed to be supporting.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Also See:
EFF - RIAA Should Pay for Single Mom’s Two-Year Ordeal, July 6, 2007
Dawnell Leadbetter - The ‘We’re Not Taking Any More’ club, September 17, 2005
estimated thirty thousand - Ohio U failing students in RIAA attacks, May 25, 2007
Reuters - The most dangerous download of all, December 1, 2006
online bounty hunter MediaSentry - Tanya Andersen sues the RIAA, June 25, 2007
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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!
July 13th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Music Wants To Be Free.