RIAA and Freedom of Speech
RIAA | P2P:- I owe a vote of thanks to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG and their RIAA.
Through them I’ve met a lot of terrific people from all walks of life.
Thanks to Net, no matter who we are or where we are, how much money we have or don’t have, whether we’re professors or people with no formal education, we can, and we do, easily talk with each other online.
Every minute of every day.
It’s called freedom of speech.
So what’s the phrase doing on an RIAA page? That’s like Jack the Ripper saying he likes women.
Live TV
The RIAA is desperately trying to worm its way out of a ruling by judge Nancy Gertner which would allow oral arguments in the Joel Tenenbaum vs the RIAA case to be streamed live online.
She found the RIAA opposition to narrow-stream the proceedings for later distribution across the Net “curious”. After all, their professed reason for bringing the cases is deterrence, “a strategy [which] effectively relies on the publicity arising from this litigation’,” she wrote, continuing »»»
At previous hearings and status conferences, the Plaintiffs have represented that they initiated these lawsuits not because they believe they will identify every person illegally downloading copyrighted material.
Rather, they believe that the lawsuits will deter the Defendants and the wider public from engaging in illegal file-sharing activities.
Their strategy effectively relies on the publicity resulting from this litigation …
And as Ray Beckerman points out on Recording Industry vs The People, “the organization is a strong advocate for ‘Freedom of Speech’.”
“If you don’t believe me, go here and see for yourself,” he suggests.
And Lo! – on the RIAA site under (you guessed it) Freedom of Speech we find »»»
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) takes an uncompromising stand against censorship and for the First Amendment rights of all artists to create freely. From the nation’s capital to state capitals across the country, RIAA works to stop unconstitutional action against the people who make the music of our times – and those who enjoy it.
If there’s anything the RIAA is wholeheartedly, 100%, carved in rock against, it’s freedom of any kind. And the only uncompromising stands it takes are against the same people who keep the big for record labels in business.
Hungering for more
It’s been labelled an extortion unit, and that’s the literal truth.
With Mitch Bainwol as the capofamiglia and Cary Sherman as his consigliere, the RIAA blackmails innocent people (not one of them with sufficient financial or legal resources to protect themselves) into paying thousands of dollars to buy it off.
And like other extortionists, there’s no guarantee it won’ t be hungering for more when it thinks the moment is ripe.
The RIAA is often compared to the Mafia. But there’s an importance difference. Mafia hoods don’t routinely prey on innocent women and children. They’d be killed if they did.
RIAA hoods do. All the time. And no one in law enforcement or government gives a damn.
Freedom of speech and the RIAA?
“The Associated Press and The New York Times, et al, have been used by the music industry as willing and free PR units through which to disseminate inaccurate and downright false claims,” said p2net last week, going on that 14 mainstream news organisations, including AP and the New York Times, “are urging a federal appeals court to allow online streaming of a hearing in a music downloading lawsuit the recording industry filed against a Boston University graduate student”.
The source? The Associated Press.
It went on »»»
The brief filed Thursday in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals argues that allowing webcasting of the Feb. 24 hearing is in the public interest, and is in keeping with camera access already granted in the courts.
The Recording Industry Association of America is appealing a Boston judge’s decision to allow the webcast, which it says goes against federal court guidelines on cameras and threatens its ability to get a fair trial.
“It is hard to imagine a hearing more deserving of public scrutiny through the same technological medium that is at the heart of this litigation,” the news organizations said in their brief to the appeals court.
Carte blanche to continue
Normally, one would think it’d be open and closed.
After all, America’s new president, Barack Obama, has been hailed by everyone everywhere as a man with a strong hand, noble principles and an overwhelming belief in fairness and equality for all.
Sadly, though, his convictions don’t include dealing with the anguish and pain the RIAA is causing the same people who voted him into the presidency.
To the contrary, he’s weakly given Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian) carte blanche to continue the blatant manipulation of American laws originally accorded to them under George W. Bush.
“Ominously, president Barack Obama’s shiny new White House is already starting to look like a corporate division, in some respects,” we said recently, continuing »»»
“For his vice president, Barack Obama chose Joe Biden (right), a senator with a long history of aiding the Recording Industry Association of America,” said CNET News recently.
“Then Obama picked the RIAA’s favorite lawyer, Tom Perrelli, for a top Justice Department post.
Then, as one of his first official actions as president, Obama, “selected the Business Software Alliance’s top antipiracy enforcer and general counsel, Neil MacBride, for a senior Justice Department post”.
MacBride was responsible for the BSA’s rat program which rewarded people for, “phoning in tips about suspected software piracy”.
Then yesterday, we learned Obama has appointed Donald Verrilli, the Jenner and Block RIAA lawyer who lost the Jammie Thomas case, the only one of the thousands of RIAA allegations of ‘illegal file sharing’ (there is no such crime) to have made it into a civil courtroom, and which is slated for retrial, as another (with Perrelli) associate deputy attorney general.
Next up will be the White House Copyright Czar and, “Please urge President Obama not to appoint a representative of the content cartel,” pleads Beckerman.
It would be like putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse, he says, adding:
“Please also make the White House is aware of Judge Davis’s remarks in Capitol v Thomas, calling for congressional reform to protect against outlandish verdicts against noncommercial users.”
Freedom of speech and the RIAA?
Don’t make us laugh.
Innocent until proven guilty?
Only for rapists and murderers.
People accused of copyright infringement are tried in the media and found guilty without ever going to court — unless they can somehow find enough money for adequate legal representation, which happens once in a blue moon, and only if they’re very lucky.
The RIAA offices are at 1025 F ST NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20004.
Its switchboard number is 202 775-0101.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
February , 2009
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.
February 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
10th floor they reside
Then better make sure that no daycare center is below them and then.
Well, I guess if google maps and the remarks for that address are an indicator…
February 6th, 2009 at 6:17 am
When this is all done, I suggest that all legal means possible be pursued against the current and former leaders of the RIAA to exact punishment upon them for their crimes. If they’ve greased the wheels too well to be pinned down for extortion, then they must be made to provide reparations for the harm they’ve caused, for each case the RIAA has brought. This will ruin them and their estates.
Be very fearful Carey Sherman. We shell be coming after you.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:04 am
When, in the course of investigating and punishing crimes against innocent civilians, the established legal means are not sufficient or capable of dispensing justice, then alternate actions must be utilized to their fullest extent to bring criminals to justice. The RIAA is a criminal organization hiding behind a thin veil of legality, and usurp the justice system to bring about their own ends.