p2pnet - rss feed: Cease & Desist, RIAA MediaSentry ordered
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Massachusetts state police have ordered MediaSentry, the unlicensed “investigator” for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA, to cease and desist, according to court papers filed by a Boston University student who’s asking the court to to quash an RIAA subpoena
MediaSentry perpetrates ’spoofing,’ a seedy practice used to try to trick people into downloading fake files, or to get information they later hope to use in P2P filesharing lawsuits,.as one of its special activities on behalf of the RIAA.
One of the first, if not the first, people to show MediaSentry in its true light was disabled Oregon mother Tanya Andersen who, with her lawyer, Lory Lybeck, sent RIAA attorneys scuttling off, their tails between their legs.
“Recently it has been discovered that as a part of this secret enterprise MediaSentry has for years conducted illegal, flawed and negligent investigations of many thousands of private United States citizens,” she said in a court document:, which goes on:
These illegal investigations are then used as the sole basis for pursuit of tens of thousands of lawsuits throughout the US.
Other attacks on the seriously discredited RIAA”investigator” include one by the Oregon attorney general, counterclaims in Florida and Texas, a class action in Oregon, and a motion to exclude filed in White Plains, New York, says Recording Industry vs The People.
Also See:
scuttling off - Tanya Andersen sues the RIAA, June 25, 2007
tails between their legs - New win for Tanya Andersen against RIAA, January 17, 2008
Oregon attorney general - RIAA may be spying on students: Oregon AG, November 29, 2007
Recording Industry vs The People - Boston University student files supplemental brief, notes that Massachusetts state police have issued “cease and desist” letter to MediaSentry, February 5, 2008
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February 5th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Offtopic, but not quite
Artists’ best interests? RIAA presses for lower royalties
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080205-riaa-dima-want-to-slash-songwriter-royalties-for-digital-music.html
February 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
MediaSentry continues its fruitless attempts to live down the embarrassment of seeing its private files splash everywhere online.
Huh, did i missed some leak
or did you confused MD with MS here
February 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Fixed. There’s so much corporate crap flying around I sometimes get it mixed up
Thanks, A_F
February 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
The RIAA and major labels have just about played this one out. Didn’t get very far as far as nationallywise as far as courts went until this came out. It’s a good thing too. Now they will attempt to press the ISPs to filter the net as another direction to get what they are after. They will have to trod lighter around the major megacorps in this one as they will be getting into deeper waters with others having as much weight to throw around as they do.
I think they have pretty much figured out they screwed the pooch with going after the college kids. Instead of forcing them to buy they have instead made noncustomers out of many of them for life. That means the college kids went from the very best of customers to not so hot customers to noncustomers.
The RIAA is the best bad publicity money can buy when it comes to the customer.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
At long fucking last - the RIAA and their cronies are beginning to get their just deserts. Can’t come soon enough.
I hope this ends in long jail sentences for extortion for the people at the top of all these corrupt organisations. Bastards.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
@freethinker
Another typical comment from cretins like you who don’t understand the music business and how it works. Because of the damage your sort are causing they are having to reduce the royalty rates to artists! I’m sure that was the very last thing they wanted to do.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
@Music Lover
I totally understand freethinker’s comments. it’s typical of the anger that’s being vented against a music industry whose antiquated business systems seem to go hand in hand with the kind of thinking trolls like you fart out.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:10 am
@Music Lover….why don’t you get your HEAD OUT OF THE SAND?
Maybe you can EXPLAIN how the RIAA has used Media Sentry for their investigations , which HAS NO PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR license! You actually want to call them legit? Not in Massachusetts thy are not! Sorry, you are wrong, period!
And they are not legit in a lot of other states as well. Maybe you ought to think about that, before you go spewing your idiotic ideas about how pure the music industry is!
Or maybe you can explain the fact that they sue people at the drop of a hat based on these clowns “investigations”. Investigations…..that I hope are thrown out of court because they used illegal methods of obtaining information in the first place!
I also hope they get their ass handed to them in court! Maybe this is just the start of a legal defense to bring these clowns down! If they are using an unlicensed investigator, then they should be forced to pay penalties!
If the RIAA break the law, then they should be held accountable. End of story.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:22 am
“the damage your sort are causing”
Yep! The boycott is working and yep we are causing a lot of damages and yep you have been warned but you decided to laught at our ultimatum when you started suing and extorting innocent people on top of corrupting our gouvernements and our justice system.
Are you ready to surender?
In any case I believe that we should finish you down since after five year of criminal activity you have totally lost your place in our societies.
We are the customers and we decide who get our money and who don’t. We decided once and for all that you don’t. Hopefully you will end up in the street.
Bye Bye parasite!
February 6th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
im just gonna take this to a whole ‘nother level….
but if i were a company investigating child pornography online and hosted an empty file named “child-porn.rar.torrent” and then proceeded and arrested and sued everyone who tried to download it for downloading child porn, do you think that would fly in courts? NO so why is RIAA getting away with it? lobbyists?
February 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Ok, Music Lover, the benefit of the doubt goes to you. Please, if you could, explain to me how a business should have the power to dictate to its sole supplier what it will pay for its critical raw materials? I understand how the music business works - for years the labels have been trying to reduce royalties to its suppliers. Heck, it’s just good business to reduce your costs. This would allow cheaper raw materials, contributes to the business’ bottom line, which in turn allows investment in more cheap raw materials. Until now, however, it’s been an elusive goal, because those pesky artists claim they need to make a living.
There is more money being spent today on entertainment than ever. But there’s more places to spend it. If I drop $400 on a PS3, and another couple hundred for games, my music budget will suffer. RIAA (along with Music Lover) seems to ignore this fact. The blame has shifted squarely onto the evil downloader. A typical RIAA lament over this is to point out how the artists are suffering.
The evil downloader has caused a major decline in revenues for artists (as the RIAA has argued). Solution - reduce royalties to artists.
What!!?
LABELS HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR YEARS TO REWRITE CONTRACTS TO ARTISTS AND REDUCE ROYALTY RATES. THE RIAA HAS CREATED AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO THIS. THEY CAN NOW REDUCE ROYALTY RATES TO ARTISTS, AND SHIFT THE BLAME TO ITS CONSUMERS. AND THE SICK THING IS, THEY’LL MOST LIKELY GET AWAY WITH IT.
And you know it, don’t you, “Music Lover”?
February 7th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
The RIAA can kiss my huge, hairy Scottish backside. Now that legal downloads have been included in the UK charts combined sales show a RISE in sales, music industry making millions too. Major artists in the UK are beginning to try and bypass the major record labels because of the unfair terms in their contracts, some have even take to strike action too and good luck to them.
The RIAA have been using illegal means to obtain evidence, they should be subject to the same laws as the rest of us and should face charges.