Help! RIAA begs victim’s lawyer
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- “The RIAA’s lawyers are a bit jumpy these days since their standard ‘making available‘ boilerplate was rejected by the Court in Interscope v Rodriguez,” says Ray Beckerman, representing RIAA victim Rae-Jay Schwartz.
“But,” he goes on, “I still never expected, when I initiated a dismissal motion in Elektra v Schwartz, that they’d be reaching out to me , of all people, for help.”
Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA and Holme Roberts & Owen lawyer Richard Gabriel (right) dearly wish the case they launched against New York mother Rae-Jay Schwartz, another of the 30,000 or so innocent victims the RIAA accuses of being copyright pirates and evil file sharers, would go away.
None of the cut-and-paste allegations hold water but the RIAA believes the publicity they bring will, one of these days, be enough to persuade billions of people from sharing music with each other online.
This isn’t happening, but the Big 4 members of the organise music cartel hope if they keep it up for long enough, eventually they’ll achieve results.
In the meanwhile people such as Rae-Jay, who’s desperately ill with multiple sclerosis, a condition of the central nervous system made much worse by undue pressure, are being put through the wringer.
What to do? What to do? – asked the lawyers at HRO, the legal firm currently fronting to the RIAA.
And unbelievably, they went looking to Ray Beckerman, who’s representing Rae-Jay, to help them out.
HRO’s Gabriel is front and centre in many of the most glaringly egregious cases and, in an, “effort to avoid unnecessary motions, practice, Plaintiff’s council contacted Defendant’s counsel to ask, specifically, what defendant alleges is lacking from Plaintiff’s Complaint to prompt the motion,” he says in a document addressed to judge David. G, Trager.
Unfortunately, Beckerman couldn’t do much. All he could say was:
Plaintiffs have no case whatsoever against Ms. Schwartz, and their case against her was frivolous in its inception. Accordingly, there are no facts they can allege that will satisfy the plausibility standard.
And when Gabriel pushed him further, Beckerman answered:
You have shown yourself to be an extremely clever lawyer, and would no doubt have no problem whatsoever drafting an appropriate pleading had you any facts or law upon which to base such a pleading.
The problem is that you do not have a case against Ms. Schwartz. There is, therefore, nothing you can truthfully allege that will satisfy the ‘plausibility’ pleading standard.
You would therefore to do well to dismiss the case with prejudice in order to avoid expanding even further yours and your clients’ exposure to attorneys fees, damages, and sanctions.
For your reference, attached is a copy of the decision in Morton v Seltzer, 336 Mont. 225, 154 P.3d 561 (2007), where a plaintiffs’ law firm was held liable to the defendant for damages for conduct quite similar to your conduct in the instant case.
Also, attached are copies of Capitol v. Foster,2007 WL 1028532 and 2007 WL 1223826, resulting in a $68,685.23 attorneys fee award against your clients based upon your firm’s pursuit of a case very similar to the instant case.
What lawyer in his right mind would go out of his way to help another lawyer who’s doing everything he can make the life of his desperately ill client even more miserable, all other considerations aside?
However, this seems to have escaped Gabriel who actually goes so far as to suggest the fact Beckerman refused to make his case for him is an indication of Rae-Jay’s guilt.
Will judge Trager have anything to say?
Perhaps, when he stops laughing ……..
Stay tuned.
(Revised @ 3:15 pm Pacific)
Also See:
making available – How to thwart the RIAA, September 12, 2007
desperately ill – The RIAA and Rae-Jay Schwartz, September 24, 2007
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October 1st, 2007 at 12:41 pm
ray is the man, what can i say?. i check his blog everyday.
October 1st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
LOL!! They are SO scared about being DROPPED by the music industry! The industry would do well to find some competent attornies to represent them in their witchhunt. But think about this: over the past five years, about…what…20,000 people have received letters? And assume USD$3,000 per letter…let’s see…ummm..that equals USD$60M (yes, sixty million dollars!) I think they can afford to lose a few cases with legal fee payments of $60k (yes, a thousand times less than what they made so far)…
October 1st, 2007 at 11:31 pm
“USD$3,000 per letter…let’s see…ummm..that equals USD$60M (yes, sixty million dollars!)”
No because less than 4000 people actually settled. (May be as little as 2000.) Most of them did not and they just droped most cases because they can not afford to sue 26,000 people. They pickup few cases for propaganda and they seem that they can not win even these one.
It is time to force them to return the money already extotrted befaore they fill for BK.
This is why we told EVERY ONE NO TO SETTLE! If you settle you lose money unessessary and you help these parasites to sue you!