Bar FSF brief in Tenenbaum, demands RIAA
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- “We don’t make (much) music here at the Free Software Foundation, so it’s natural for people to wonder why the FSF has been standing up for individuals targeted by lawsuits launched by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),” said FSF operations manager John Sullivan (right) yesterday, going on:
“Most recently we filed an *amicus curiae* brief in the case of *Sony BMG Music Entertainment, et al. v. Joel Tenenbaum* showing the RIAA’s theory of statutory damage awards to be unconstitutional.”
Filing the brief isn’t the only FSF contribution, p2pnet noted, pointing out the foundation is also working with Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman on the expert witness fund, which has helped RIAA victim Jamie Thomas, among others.
But Hold On! says a panicky RIAA. We definitely don’t want the FSF chipping in!
Recording Industry vs The People puts it like this:
“In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the RIAA has filed papers opposing the Free Software Foundation’s motion for leave to file a revised amicus curiae brief.”
In an anonymous RIvTP comment, Anonymous says it like this »»»
Paraphrasing for those who don’t want to read the whole thing:
Your Honor, we’ve successfully misrepresented facts to pursuade several technology-ignorant judges in other jurisdictions that making available constitutes distribution. Since the FSF disagrees with us, wants to call us out on these self-serving shenanigans, and wants you to be less susceptible to being duped by us, they are biased liars and should be ignored.
Please also ignore their interpretation of a case that makes statutory damage minimums seem excessive; that case is irrelevant not because our claims are fair or based in any fact whatsoever, but because Congress was wise and unfailing when we successfully lobbied them to codify such numbers.
Also, since ‘potentially millions’ of distributions occurred, actual damages are ‘incalculable’, but we’re such nice people, we’re willing to settle for less than the statutory minimums, so the FSF shouldn’t even be bringing up the issue at all.”
Did I miss anything?
Nope.
May, 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.
