Only 5 years ago, Directv had some 35000 such federal suits contending that an individual bought a perfectly legal smart card programmer then asserted that the smart card programmer might have been used to reprogram a smart card. Then the reprogrammed smart card might have been used to view television programming with out having paid. So clearly, anyone with the money can make up anything which might have happened. Then Force litigation costs so high the person defending chooses to settle or go broke long before any trial. If you page through the federal PACER records, you can find where directv cases were closed via default judgment for $200,000 and $300,000 in THOUSANDS of cases which judgments are still in force today. Default judgments because people simply didn’t have the money for exaggerated litigation costs let alone ever have a trial they wanted. Then the settlements bar individuals asking for a criminal complaint or asking that charges be brought for criminal Felony Violations. These settlements, many of which were court ordered, which took the rights of the individual from exercising rights for criminal investigation where violations occurred. So at least in these cases, our courts have accepted settlements which prevent the victim of a fraudulent lawsuit from requesting a criminal investigation. While Joel’s cases may be Civil in nature, there are cases out there where evidence has been tampered with. Where the court complaint says the person has not paid when they may well have the receipt showing they paid. In the Directv cases, Directv said they first obtained there evidence from one place in 1998. Then in another suit they say they got there supposed evidence from that same place in the fall of 2000. Then in another case they state they got the evidence from that same place in 2002. While obtaining evidence in 1998, changing of dates permitted the statute of limitations to change to include more and more people. In the end, you obtain your evidence in 1998 and sue individuals 7 years later. Then the defendant is barred from asking for criminal investigation through private settlement. With the endorsement by a Federal court I might add. Personally, having watch our system of justice permit that I can extend no credability to Justice the next time I am a Juror or a witness. To permit these acts are themselves criminal.

in my line of business i fire my associates within a minute finding out if they go behind my back and talk about not agreeing with me and the decisions being made, the ones that stand up and tells me to my face they don’t agree and comes up with ideas,solutions and other creative thinking i promote and take good care off. but i also take good care of my customers since they are the reason i have a job.

They’re not all filthy bastards. There are also a number of people on the list who believe as you and I and others do. They’re the minority, but they’re not silent. And I think co-founder Jim Griffin’s attack on me [ http://www.p2pnet.net/story/26046 ] shows exactly what the labels and their employees are made of, and not in a good way.

Cheers!

You actually spend some of your valuable time on a listserve trying to communicate with these filthy bastards?

Or did I read this wrong?

But in seriousness, time and again the RIAA seems not to realize that every attempt of theirs is doing the exact opposite of what they’re trying to achieve. More than one person I know has started boycotting content published by it’s supporting labels because of it’s behaviours. Hopefully at some point it will get the message.