The RIAA ghouls smelled blood
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- A verdict of $222,000.00 for infringement of 24 song files worth a total of $23.76?
In a case where there was zero evidence of the defendant having transferred any of those files?.
It is one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law.
If the judge doesn’t set aside the verdict sua sponte, I expect there to be motion practice to set aside the verdict, based on its obvious unconstitutionality and numerous other reasons, and if that fails I expect there to be a successful appeal.
It is an outrage, and I hope it is a wakeup call to the world that we all need to start supporting the defendants in these cases, and the attorneys who are sacrificing so much to represent them. And the support cannot be with words, it must be with check books.
And it cannot be next year, it must be now.
All the business people who make a living from the vibrancy, democracy, and freedom of expression which is the internet, need to get behind the RIAA’s victims.
If they do not, the world in which they hope to thrive and prosper will disappear rapidly.
The RIAA ghouls smelled blood in Duluth, and I guess they were right.
But it isn’t over ……
Ray Beckerman – Recording Industry vs The People
http://digg.com/music/The_RIAA_ghouls_smelled_blood
October 5th, 2007 at 9:59 am
One aspect of the case that I found interesting that hasn’t been commented on is an equal protection issue. The SC has ruled that punative damages must be in proportion to economic damages or else those punative damages are unconstitutional. By anaology, it seems to me that the economic damages in this case is the $24 and the punative damages are the 220K. If so, these damages alone are unconstitutional and using the SC own guidelines should be $240 or so. It seems very odd that when consumers sue corportations they are limited in the punative damages they recover but when corporations sue individuals there is no such limit.
Not a lawyer, just curious…
October 6th, 2007 at 11:24 am
There was no real defence. They called no expert witnesses, made no real case, they practicaly threw the thing away. Which is the only reason the RIAA proceeded with a jury trial, because they knew that the oposition were incapable of defending themselves due to the defence atorneys gross incompetence.
There would be no point in handing over cash to this woman unless she acutally has a lawyer with a clue for her appeal.
October 7th, 2007 at 4:07 am
The only way to deal with RIAA is to hnt them down and KILL THEM. A few hacked up bodies on hollywood streets might give them the message!