RIAA gang at the DoJ
p2pnet news view RIAA | Politics:- Things are looking pretty grim over in Obamaland, says Alan Wexelblat on Corante.
That’s because, “The new Obama administration is shaping up to be a disaster for Copyfighters everywhere,”" he says. “In particular the new Department of Justice is stacked with lawyers who’ve been on the wrong side of copyright and intellectual property lawsuits for the last eight years.”
He goes on »»»
First off, there’s the #3 man at Justice, Thomas Perrelli, accurately described by CNET as “beloved by the RIAA“. Not only has this guy been on the wrong side in the courtroom, he’s fingered as instrumental in convincing the Copyright Board to strangle Web radio in its crib by imposing impossible fee structures.
Then there’s Neil MacBride, who used to be the Business Software Alliance’s general counsel. The BSA, to its credit, hasn’t been suing teenagers. Generally their name is associated with large-scale raids on companies that are mass-producing illegal copies of software. Still, it’s an industry flak group.
Then there’s the #2 man, currently slated to be David Ogden. If that name only rings a faint bell it’s because you have to cast your mind back to Eldred v Ashcroft, the argument on whether retroactive copyright term extensions were legal. Sitting over there on Ashcroft’s side? That’s Mr. Odgen. For extra-bonus ick points, Ogden also was involved in defending the heinous COPA legislation, fortunately now dead and buried (but not forgotten).
The capper on this line-up of suspicious characters is Donald Verrilli, now up for Associate Deputy Attorney General. This specimen of legal acumen is front and center in the Cartel’s jihad, having appeared for Viacom when it sued YouTube, for the RIAA against Jammie Thomas, single mother. And if we peer back a little farther, we find Verrilli’s dirty fingerprints on MGM v Grokster.
Wexelblat quotes Julian Sanchez at Portfolio.com as believing they’ll, “all behave and recuse themselves properly and just because a lawyer consistently goes to bat for a certain kind of client doesn’t mean much about their professional views”.
And the same view has been expressed elsewhere.
But a much less sanguine Declan McCullagh at CNET, points out many of these cases are still ongoing (e.g. big lawsuits against YouTube) and further notes VP Joe Biden, “showed a great deal of hostility toward free use when he was in the Senate”.
Wexelblat says he’s on McCullagh’s side.
Meanwhile, unfortunately, the chances of Obama wanting to devote valuable head time to the copyright mess when he’s trying to deal with a nation on the verge of economic ruin, aren’t high.
Corante – RIAA Takes Over DOJ, February 6, 2009
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February 10th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Who-hoo, first comment!
1. Let’s have some perspective here, y’all:
The U.S. Economy is staggering drunkenly toward collapse (Corporate “Capitalism” busily Enronning us all into the ground).
The “War on Terror” is a colossal flop (yeah baby, significant chance for a nuclear/biological attack on United States soil by 2013 == win!)
Eight years of swaggering, punch-in-the-face “diplomacy” and (failed) attempts at nation-building coupled with a near-total disregard for human rights (Gitmo, anyone?) ensures that the word “Ugly” will probably precede the word “American” for a hell of a long time to come.
Dare I mention a significant proportion of the population’s unwillingness to vote for a guy based on HIS MIDDLE NAME?
The “War on Piracy” will go exactly the same way as the “War on Terror”/”War on Drugs”:
Namely, complete inability to actually do anything other than inconvenience a relatively small subset of the populace at any given time.
Hell, I personally think it’s a GOOD thing the RIAA and their dumb-as-dogshit cronies are blustering. I mean, think about it: if they’d actually taken the sensible approach back during the Napster era, then people would probably think “signing” with them was a good thing. THey’d probably still be seen as socially-relevant taste-makers/Trend-setters/whatever you call it.
If they’d played nice during the Napster era, most people would never have heard Valenti’s idiotic “Boston Strangler” quote.
Please remember: it’s NOT what “laws” are on the books that ultimately counts.
It’s which laws they can afford to “enforce”.
How much manpower do you REALLY think they have to devote to yet another “crusade” — let alone one explicitly dedicated to shoring up a bunch of morally-bankrupts, money-grubbing, multinational corporate megaliths. (Oh wait, scratch that — the banks and auto makers got their FIRST!)
Seriously, folks: the p2p “movement” is global, it’s pervasive, and further ham-fisted fumbling by the RIAA/their tool-puppets in Government can only serve to wake more people up.]
Examine Youtube:
You REALLY think DMCA takedown notices “stop” anything?
The thing may get taken down for a few days, but eventually twenty or thirty others upload it again.
This isn’t looking “pretty grim”: it’s just more waste-motion fighting a “war” that’s already been lost.
February 10th, 2009 at 10:03 am
not a bad point, really.
but angling towards inaction ‘hoping’ to overlooked is not the same as addressing the fundamental lack of valid intelligent laws concerning intellectual property. I can guarantee they will abuse the position of power, and I agree that as ineffectual as they may turn out, it still misses the point of shoving a white-hot poker up the MAFIAA’s anal orifice in order to ‘motivate’ them to expire.
imho
February 10th, 2009 at 10:04 am
.. ‘hoping’ to BE overlooked…
stw
March 25th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
“RIAA/their tool-puppets in Government can only serve to wake more people up”
Yep! Every day I convince more people to boycott completly the 7 major entairtainement companies! These parasites give me so many argument in this direction that it is not even funny! Thanks for your help RIAA/MPAA parasites!
March 25th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
With inaction come inocent victims. We have to actively eradicate the parasites.