p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- RIAA victim Jammie Thomas’ new lawyer, Kiwi K.A.D. Camara, has taken the bull by the horns, demanding all MediaSentry evidence be suppressed.

In a court document published by Recording Industry vs The People, he says it was scooped in, “violation of federal and state criminal statutes that prohibit wiretapping and require that private investigators be properly trained and licensed”.

MediaSentry is the discredited and disgraced ‘private eye’ fired by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA, and which has now turned up in Australia where it’s apparently working for the Hollywood studios.

It’s now owned by another online scalp-hunter, MediaDefender.

Evidence it procured on behalf of the Big 4 extortion unit is being used to ‘prove’  Thomas improperly shared copyrighted corporate ‘product’ online.

This is the second time Jammie will take on Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and their RIAA, said p2pnet following the news of the departure of her first lawyer, Brian Toder.

“First time around, she was ordered to pay Big Music almost a quarter of a million dollars in ‘damages’,” we said, going on »»»

But judge Michael Michael Davis, who heard the case, declared a mistrial after admitting  he’d committed a, “manifest error of law” when he told the jury the, “act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without licensefrom the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown”.

Now, on June 15, after the two sides failed to reach a settlement agreement, unless a lawyer with a social conscience steps forward to represent her pro bono, she’ll be standing against them alone.

“The recording industry’s only evidence that Jammie Thomas ever downloaded or shared music on KaZaA is the evidence that MediaSentry collected,” says Camara, continuing »»»

MediaSentry collected this evidence in violation of federal and state criminal statutes that prohibit wiretapping and require that private investigators be properly trained and licensed.

It collected this evidence at the direction and under the supervision of lawyers for the recording industry, including opposing counsel in this case.

These same lawyers have used MediaSentry evidence to fuel not only this prosecution, but also their entire five-year campaign against tens of thousands of individuals accused of sharing music online — a litigation campaign that has earned their recording-industry clients more than $100 million in settlements.

In orchestrating this campaign, built around illegally obtained evidence and targeted at individuals, most of whom faced millions of dollars of potential liability without the assistance of counsel, these lawyers, led by Matthew Oppenheim and Richard Gabriel, violated the ethical rules governing our profession on an unprecedented scale.

We respectfully request that this Court remedy this violation by suppressing all MediaSentry evidence in this case.

We submit that, in this case, the first in which the recording industry’s litigation campaign will be put on trial, the federal courts should make clear to the world that the kind of gross abuse of federal process that we have seen in the last seven years will never again be permitted.

If this Court grants our motion to suppress, we anticipate moving for a directed verdict for Jammie Thomas on all claims.

Citing violations of the Minnesota Private Detectives Act; the federal Pen Register and Trap and Trace Devices Act; and the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, the motion will be argued June 10, says RIvTP.

Definitely stay tuned.

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June, 2009