RIAA vs Jammie Thomas, from both sides
p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- Earlier, “Today is Day One for Minnesota mother of four Jammie Thomas-Rasset, accused by the corporate music industry of being a file sharing thief,” p2pnet posted, going on:
“She`s the only one of the thousands of innocent American name, women and even young children, similarly charged by sub-units of Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) and their RIAA, to have actually appeared in civil court proceedings.”
This is her second time around and, I`ve arrived at courtroom 15E, said Marc W. Bourgeois (right) on Twitter.
He’s covering the trial for Recording Industry vs The People.
No cell phones or cameras are allowed inside. Updates as time permits. #riaa
Here’s Marc »»»
1. Testimony in Capitol v. Thomas-Rasset will be taken until 5:30 or 6:00PM CDT today. #riaa31 minutes ago from Ping.fm
2. RT @semiaccurate #RIAA jury selection is an interesting demographic. 8 users of itunes 2 amazon 1 rhapsody 1 old CDs 1 yahoo music 1 syrius44 minutes ago from web
3. @vanvlack Just watching. Also guest-writing for a blog. I was at the first trial a few years ago.about 1 hour ago from web in reply to vanvlack
4. @RayBeckerman Go ahead. I don’t plan to use it for much else during the trial.about 1 hour ago from web in reply to RayBeckerman
5. Jury impaneled is eight women and two men ranging in age all the way from college sophomores to retirees. #riaaabout 1 hour ago from Ping.fm
6. Capitol v Thomas-Rasset – Morning 1: http://ping.fm/Ik1h6 #riaaabout 1 hour ago from Ping.fm
7. @RayBeckerman Correct. My phone must be turned off in the courtroom, but I can turn it on and use it outside.about 1 hour ago from web in reply to RayBeckerman
8. More jurors are familar with p2p technology or have used it than at the last trial. #riaaabout 2 hours ago from Ping.fm
9. Parties currently completing jury selection. It appears this jury will overall be younger that the last. #riaaabout 3 hours ago from Ping.fm
10. Jury selection about to begin, riaa makes attempt to bar aruments about validity of copyright based on work 4hire doctrine,denied #riaaabout 4 hours ago from Ping.fm
11. I’ve arrived at courtroom 15E. No cell phones or laptops are allowed inside. Updates as time permits. #riaaabout 6 hours ago from Ping.fm
Sue ‘em all marketing campaign
But Marc isn’t the only one covering what will culminate in one of, if not the, most important court decisions in the bizarre Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music sue ‘em all marketing campaign.
Also in room 15e is Ben Sheffner, a former copyright lawyer who, while he was an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers in the early 2000s, worked on Grokster litigation. Warner Bros Records was also one of his company’s clients, he blogs.
“It’s an important copyright trial that will inevitably be a symbol of the record labels’ litigation campaign against individual peer-to-peer infringers,” Ben, told p2pnet.
“I wanted to be on hand to provide accurate reporting, as I feel that much of the press and blog coverage of these issues is legally inaccurate and harshly biased against copyrights owners. Hopefully I can play a small part in setting the record straight.”
Below are Ben’s Twitter contributions »»»
1. Jammie Thomas trial: opening statements about to start.16 minutes ago from txt
2. Other jurors include: special ed teacher, retired nurse, public transit worker, retail sales clerk, pharmacist.about 1 hour ago from txt
3. Thomas jury chosen. 7W, 5M. 2 college students, 1 of whom used Limewire but quit “because I didn’t want to get caught and end up here.”about 1 hour ago from txt
4. All but a few jurors have never heard of case. A couple have seen or heard news reports, but don’t know any details.about 2 hours ago from txt
5. Thomas jury selection under way. Lots of iPod users. All say get music from iTunes. Judge says whole casde may take 2 weeks.about 2 hours ago from txt
6. Thomas defense: we’ll make motion on work for hire issue — won’t argue it to jury. Judge allows ?s on registration forms.about 4 hours ago from txt
Definitely stay tuned
June, 2009
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June 15th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
My site, Semiaccurate, is covering the trial as well. We are twittering under SemiAccurate as mentioned above. We hope to have people there every day, but can’t guarantee it, plus a roundup at the end of the day. We hope to provide more perspectives and maybe a bit of insight.
-Charlie
June 15th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Care to give us a link, Charlie?
June 15th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
The site is http://www.semiaccurate.com, but nothing there yet for the trial, just Inquirer leftovers (my previous site). Right now, it is just twitter, http://twitter.com/SemiAccurate. We will do daily wrapups starting as soon as we finish typing.
-Charlie
June 15th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
http://www.semiaccurate.com will have a round up at the end of each day – feet on the ground permitting. And yes, often the blogging and reporting is biased. This is an area of law that was settled and now we’re looking at disruptive technology. There are two sides here. Somehow, that is why we’re in court. No one’s hands are clean but society has a need for adjudication and looking at the facts in a realistic sense in relationship to the law. Sometimes people need to bend, sometimes the law needs updating and clarifying. That’s why we’re in court. Duh.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Better yet,
@RW what land of fantasy do you come from?
As much as several “clueless people” have tried to propagate a lie to try to extort money from their customers with half-truths and outright swindles (DRM, saying the tracks shared is directly linked to loss of CD sales).
What is absurd about his whole case, is that it is based on semi-legal tactics by companies like Mediacentry and RIAA lawyers who try to gain personal information and cash by threats of litigation. I still can not fathom how thick you would need to be (as a judge) to not take the RIAA and MPAA for what they really are: racketeering thugs.
So please feel free to waddle back to your fantasy land, where the evil Wizard reigns over the lowly public, and anyone who speaks against him is ratted out and turned into stone.
Just my two cents
June 15th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
” No oneâs hands are clean but society has a need for adjudication and looking at the facts in a realistic sense in relationship to the law. ”
That’s not true in all cases, and that’s part of the problem.
Many of those extorted didn’t engage in any file sharing whatsoever.
The granny with no computer ?
The dead person ?
The printer ?
I am glad you are trying to look at this objectively, but it would be more productive if everyone stopped assuming
that all of those sued actually engaged in any filesharing activity.
Those that settled, even though they did nothing, did so out of fear of exactly what is being done to Jammie.
The playing field is ridiculously uneven, so the completely innocent as well as those that do use one of
the targeted p2p clients are equally victimized.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Some interesting observations about the RIAA “evidence” as noted by
poster Eric at Ray Beckermans Blog ….
” Evidence #6 “Screenshots of defendants shared folder”
Hahahahahahahahahaha
How do they manage to screw these things up that badly. This is clearly a screenshot of the plaintiffs/MS computer after searching on the username that is in theory linked to defendant. It is most defiantly *NOT* a screenshot of the defendant’s computer’s shared folder.
Either the evidence should be thrown out and rule 11 sanctions applied … or.. the defendant should use them to their advantage. I think the jury might be interested in the status bar text “Not sharing any files”
Oops ”
Pay particular notice to the reference of the status bar text.
NOT sharing any files.
So, what exactly is she guilty of then ?
They are not suing her for downloading, they stopped that a while ago because that strategy was flawed,
so they are saying she was ‘Distributing copyrighted files’.
How is this done when the evidence clearly shows she was NOT sharing ?
here is the link to the post on rays blog, with the links to the referenced ‘evidence’
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2009/06/riaa-makes-numerous-in-limine-motions.html
June 16th, 2009 at 4:04 am
Please! Someone bring a audio recoder to the court! Please!
You can post it on internet via Tor. They will be never able to catch you!
PLEASE!
June 16th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Let’s find out what these etertainement parasites have done this time to rigg the trial again. I am sure they did something. The question is will it be enought? In any case they are making the rope to hang themselves because ever they lose as they should or they will be in the classic situation of no justice no peace.
If I was them I would prefer to lose but I guess I have a brain;
They don’t. They carry a big piece of nasty lead instead.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:17 am
This is my wife so obviously I am paying close attention to everything thats going on. We both have our hopes set high in that finally the RIAA thuggery will end. Their campaign to sue innocent people and instill fear in the hearts of people around the world is pathetic and that our justice system allows this infuriates me. They have no idea how many families lives that they are ruining. Jammie has a job like every other normal person and has to be away from work for this pathetic extortion attempt by the big labels. We are a family of 6 living on one income so this is really hurting our family. All those people that say she should have to pay are ignorant, I have read so many posts where people do not know the facts and flame her. To those who support shutting down this campaign our family thanks you deeply. I do beleive that pirates should be stopped and always have, but the tactics the RIAA are using, seeking out so many innocents, HAS TO STOP!!!
June 16th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
If more people were in a position to challenge this extortion, it would give the MAFIAA a much bigger headache, and probably wear a hole in their mission so fast.
That’s probably why they’re doing everything they can to beat Jammie to the ground.
She represents a much bigger picture these thugs don’t want the courts to recognize.
…And she’s basically doing this ALONE.
They know if they lose, there will be a avalanche of new challenges that will make the courts examine the need for new precedents in the laws themselves. As it stands, it “looks” better when they’re suing one woman out of existence, than it would if half of the file-sharing community were up for the same damages.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
“They know if they lose, there will be a avalanche of new challenges that will make the courts examine the need for new precedents in the laws themselves.”
Exactly, that’s why they’re guaranteed to win, of course. They’ve got Obama in their pocket and have all their top cronies at the top of the government. They’ll apply every dirty and corrupt trick in the book to win this – they’ll pay enough money to the right people to guarantee a win. You mark my words.
They can’t fail.