The RIAA’s Prince of Darkness
p2pnet news view RIAA | Freedom | P2P:-The RIAA’s ‘Prince of Darkness,’ Washington DC lawyer Matthew Jan Oppenheim of the Oppenheim ‘Group,’ “who controls and supervises all of the RIAA litigations against ordinary folks,” wants to intervene in the ‘probable cause’ hearing scheduled next week in Raleigh, North Carolina, against MediaSentry, says Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman.
MediaSentry is a tacky company which exists to provide questionable ‘evidence’ used by the RIAA, principally, as subpoena fodder.
“The hearing was convened by North Carolina’s Private Protective Services Board, after complaints were filed by a law firm representing a number of North Carolina State University students who had been targeted by the RIAA based on the unlicensed ‘investigation’ conducted by SafeNet,” says RIvTP.
“I guess the RIAA is worried. They should be.”
‘Only doing their jobs’
Oppenheim is also known as The Dentist from a case he was involved in long ago.
“We were unfortunate enough to have first-hand experience of Oppenheim’s temper tantrums and foul-mouthed threats when the RIAA sued our son Jesse Jordan back in April,” said Andy Jordan, going on »»»
Behind all the bluff and bluster, there apparently was a lot of piss-poor lawyering going on at the RIAA. It seemed to us that no one was really minding the store, no one paying attention to the details.
When Jesse went on CNN and told Bill Hemmer that the RIAA’s attempts at intimidation wouldn’t work and he expected to have his search engine back online within a few days, Oppenheim went ballistic and claimed that Jesse had violated the Injunction they had against him.
But the RIAA had no such injunction … what they had was a Dismissal agreement that clearly stated that Jesse could resume running his search engine, so long as he took reasonable steps to avoid infringing on their copyrights.
Aside from describing himself to Jesse as “a dentist you don’t ever want to have to visit again,” Oppenheim tried to have the court throw out the agreement and replace it with an injunction and a gag order, and even had the outside lawfirm they hired in Albany sign a letter to the judge claiming Jesse had “tricked” the RIAA’s lawyers into signing a Dismissal instead of the Injunction they intended to sign! To our relief, the Judge saw through the blatant lies and entered the Dismissal as initially submitted to the court.
Through the ordeal, a few of us got a shocking dose of Oppenheim’s foul temper and questionable judgement, and it seemed only a matter of time before another screw-up would cause him to lose his temper with the wrong person. That may have finally happened. In any case, the prediction of one of Jesse’s legal advisers is a bit closer to coming true; after one of Oppenheim’s X-rated outbursts, he said to Oppenheim, “Jesse will become a national hero, and you’ll be out in the street!”
A few days back I was talking to an ex-RIAA staffer who’s now a PR person for a major label. “The RIAA people aren’t so bad,” said this person, in effect.
“They’re only doing their jobs.”
It’s what they all say.
RIAA lie promoter Cary Sherman once lamented his employers are being demonised with “false and incendiary rhetoric” as he put it.
Terrorising innocent people for any reason, let alone for the sake corporate profits, can never be justified and ‘demonisation’ is just one of the fallouts.
RIAA Hanging Judge
The RIAA has a lot of experts who use the law to justify their disgusting actions which, in any civilised society, would themselves be declared illegal.
One such is the infamous RIAA Hanging Judge Richard Gabriel (right) who’s 
personally argued all of the RIAA’s main cases, including Elektra v Barker, Atlantic v Howell, Atlantic v Brennan, Capitol v Foster, Atlantic v Andersen, UMG v Lindor, and London-Sire v Doe.
When he tried the Jammie Thomas case, the only one among thousands of accusations which ever actually went before a jury, he was working directly under Oppenheim’s supervision.
The case was declared a mistrial.
The Fourth Amendment does not apply to the RIAA
One of his more memorable quotes was, the “Fourth Amendment does not apply to (the RIAA)” with respect to the sue ‘em all lawsuits launched by the Big Music cartel-owned RIAA against file sharers.
He used to work for the RIAA and he’s also been known to turn his hand to Hollywood’s MPAA.
How did Oppenheim earn his sobriquets?
He left the RIAA to work for Jenner & Block, another Big 4-favoured law firm and, “While we are disappointed that Matt is leaving, we are delighted that he will be joining the firm of Jenner & Block where we will continue to rely on him,” said RIAA president Cary Sherman at the time.
Truer words were never spoken.
The Dentist is never far away.
$8,000 in fines
The RIAA meanwhile continues to rack up its triumphs, such as the case involving Ciara Michelle Sauro, the 19-year-old Pittsburg transplant patient, says a recent p2pnet story.
Now, “Because she didn’t defend herself against a copyright lawsuit, a federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled she’s a music pirate, and that could cost the Sauros almost $8,000 in fines,” it quotes Pittsburg news channel WTAE.com as stating.
“I already have severe depression,” the story has Sauro saying. “I mean, it’s so hard to sit there and think that I have to get in trouble for something that I didn’t do. It’s not fair.”
But fairness isn’t a word the Big 4 or Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman, the two men who run their RIAA and who preumably instruct the likes of Oppenheim and Gabriel, understand.
Sauro is accused of of illegally sharing 10 songs online and, “You want to know the truth?” – says her mother, Lisa.
“I make $8.25 an hour. She can’t work. This child is very sick. I mean, what am I supposed to do?
“I just want them to know that I have to go through enough stress in my life with my sickness and my family, and I don’t think that they should go after people just because they want money for something that’s not even fair to us.”
Tell that to Oppenheim.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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December 8th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
This piece of crap of Matt is so obnoxious that he is going to get shoot soon.
What’s a monster!
December 8th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I object that, Your Honor!
If the hitman’s shooting is as good as your spelling, this will never happen.