RIAA’s Cary Sherman is ’surprised’
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- In another blinding example of RIAA mis- and disinformation, Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, says he’s, “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial”.
He was talking about the case slated to wind up today.
In it, Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas says she’s completely innocent of accusations that she’s a massive online distributor of copyrighted music.
The absolute last thing Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) wanted was for it to actually reach the courts.
They tried to get Thomas to ’settle’ but she instead decided to use the equivalent of the amount they tried to extort from her to hire lawyer Brian Toder.
The object of the RIAA exercise is to fire off subpoenas to as many people as possible using spurious information supplied by discredited companies such as Media Sentry, which is front and centre in the Thomas trial.
The labels can then use the ever-cooperative mainstream media to give the totally false impression that numerous trials have been successfully concluded and the thousands of people have been found guilty of copyright infringement when in fact Thomas’ case is the first to reach the civil courts.
Notwithstanding, Sherman professes he’s surprised it’s taken this long.
After four years, “it’s become business as usual, nobody really thinks about it,” Associated Press has him saying.
“This case has put it back in the news. Win or lose, people will understand that we are out there trying to protect our rights.”
But the bitter truth of the matter is, he’s right in one sense: nobody really thinks about it as they harass and victimise helpless people who have no hope of finding the legal and financial resources to properly defend themselves —- people like Rae-Jay Schwartz, bound to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, the terrible central nervous disease which is made worse by pressure.
The RIAA teams know that full well, but they won’t leave her alone.
And indeed, win or lose, it doesn’t matter to the Big 4 or the RIAA. Because bottom line, it doesn’t matter what anyone says - judges included.
They’ll keep on hammering away and suing their own customers until they’re absolutely forced to stop not by public opinion or by court decisions, but by their shareholders.
Usually, it can be said that members of the legal fraternity are the only ones to win.
In this case, however, even the RIAA loses and the only people to come out of it with fat smiles on their faces are the lawyers acting for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Any idea when this case will be over?
October 4th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
About Sherman’s Statement.
I would like Mr. Sherman to know that I have been thinking about it these lawsuits everyday for the past three years and if he thinks its ” Business as Usual” to sue unkowing children and parents and grandparents he has a serious problem. I will pray that IF this type of business practice is ‘USUAL’ that someone somewhere shuts it down real soon.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
“Any idea when this case will be over?”
This is not just the case that is going to be over really soon but the 4 majors and the entire perverted music industry.
They deserve every single bullet that will hit them next.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Very good site! I like it! Thanks!