p2pnet news view MPAA | RIAA News:- Speaking of entertainment cartel phk-ups, with the Big 4’s RIAA to the fore, Brainz.com has an interesting post.

It’s slugged The 14 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits Filed by the RIAA and the MPAA.

“Nine years ago the RIAA won a groundbreaking suit against Napster.com in what would become the beginning of a nearly decade-long flood of litigation”, it says, going on »»»

The incident seemed to be a tipping point for the Entertainment Industry, as both the RIAA and MPAA up until then had enjoyed little success in stemming the piracy movement which was growing at exponential rates across the world. Peer-sharing, while still relatively new at the time, looked like it would be snuffed out in the legal battles to come; the populace that had taken to services like Napster were too afraid to continue for fear of being sued.

“… the populace that had taken to services like Napster were too afraid to continue for fear of being sued”?

Not really. In fact, not even nearly. File sharers totally ignored the RIAA and its efforts and file sharing became firmly established not only in the US, but around the world.

It also cites Jammie Thomas, but fails to mention her case is being re-heard (or, just as important) that she’s currently looking for a lawyer to help her stand against Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.

But this doesn’t detract from the line-up of RIAA/MPAA farces and disasters with, unsurprisingly, RIAA phk-ups occupying most of the post.

The case of Vietnam helicopter pilot Larry Scantlebury is Number One.

He died from brain aneurysm but, “rather than do the decent thing – drop the specious case – the Big Four are giving Scantlebury’s children 60 days to mourn, after which they want RIAA lawyers to grill them,”  p2pnet posted, naming Warner Bros Records Inc, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Inc, BMG Music, Arista Records LLC, Capitol Records, Inc, and Atlantic Recording Corporation.

Next up is  Fred Lawrence, the then 67-year-old grandfather sued by Hollywood’s MPAA.

“True to form, they contacted him demanding $4,000 with the threat that if they didn’t get paid, he’d be facing a lawsuit,” says Brainz, and, “when Mr. Lawrence flatly refused to pay them he found himself facing a potential $600,000 in damages. As it turns out, his 12-year-old grandson had downloaded the movies for no particular reason, since they already owned three of the four offending titles.”

Then comes 65-year-old grandmother Sarah Ward, sued by Big Music for supposedly sharing copyrighted music using Kazaa.

The trouble was, she owned a Mac computer which couldn’t run Sharman Networks’ Kazaa, with which she supposedly shared files.

She “rarely used the computer for anything more than checking her e-mail, or the weather, and enjoyed listening to celtic or folk music,” says the story. But that didn’t stop the RIAA from claiming she’d illegally trafficked in “several million dollars worth of music”.

Brainz goes on to cite Lola Scruse, a 66-year-old grandmother of three who was on dialysis.

“She lived off of Social Security checks, and she didn’t know much of anything about computers or the internet other than the fact that she owned one and paid for the other,” says the story, continuing »»»

Her grandchildren would use her computer when they were over to visit. Lola was informed by the Court that she owed $6,000 for 872 songs that she had downloaded illegally, and that she had already lost the case due to default judgement since she never responded to the initial lawsuit. She was already handling monstrous medical bills for the dialysis, and now with this figure added, she was quite upset. Lola`s since been more mindful of what her grandchildren are doing on her computer, and the RIAA has since targeted more grandmothers who don`t respond to strange court documents about things they don`t understand.

Then there was Berry the Hobo.

Chaz Berry fell on hard times, and became one of New York City’s thousands of homeless people,” says Brainz

He was going about his business in early 2007, presumably just being homeless, when he found out that he was being sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement. Apparently, the Industry lawyers had found that they couldn’t locate Mr. Berry, and were aware that he was in fact homeless. That didn’t stop the process server from adhering the summons to the door of his former apartment. They reported to the Court that they had “made every effort” to locate Mr. Berry, and requested default judgement in the case. After much legal ado, the case was dropped against Mr. Berry, and the RIAA barely escaped the courtroom without sanctions on their legal team.

Also included in the write-up are: Tanya Anderson; Rhonda Crain; Brianna LaHara; the Ghost of Gertrude Walton; Joel Tenenbaum;  The Pirate Bay; Real Networks; and, Shawn Hogan.

And these are only 14 instances.

As far as we know, there’s never been estimate of how many people have been victimised by the MPAA.

But  approximately 40,000 people have been targeted by the Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music extortion unit, leaving 30,806 other cases to be detailed.

JN

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to the fore – The Days of Wine and Napster, May 19, 2009