p2pnet - rss feed: Good cops and bad cops
p2p news / p2pnet:- Keeping the ball rolling on Recording Industry vs The People, Ray Beckerman has a post slugged, Atlantic v. Huggins - Shook Hardy Bacon Moves for Admission Pro haec vice - Beldock Levine Hoffman Opposes.
Shook, Hardy Bacon made its bones working for Big Tobacco as it lied and connived its way around charges that its products kill people, turning them into addicts who continue to inhale super-heated smoke even though they know full well what the results could be.
Berckerman and colleagues Ty Rogers and Dan Singer are acting for Particia Santangelo, the New York mother who’s had the courage to take the record label cartel’s RIAA on in what may become the first of the sue ‘em all lawsuits to actually make it to a civil court.
Rogers is also representing Colin Huggins from whom label lawyers are demanding $4,500 by way of a settlement. If Huggins agrees to pay, the labels will leave him alone. For now. If he doesn’t, he’ll be threatened with being hauled into a civil court, although to date, that’s never happened because victims always ’settle’ rather than risk going up against Big Music with its bottomless pockets and legions of lawyers.
Rogers offered $750 but, “It is clear plaintiffs and/or their counsel are not negotiating in goodfaith,” says Rogers here.
Enter S, H&B.
“Normally, a lawyer must be admitted to practice in a court before he can appear in a litigation,” says Beckerman on the site. “Occasionally, an out-of-town lawyer will move to be admitted ‘pro haec vice’ - ie, for one particular case only.
“It is normally routine to consent to a motion to be admitted pro haec vice. In Elektra v Santangelo, Timothy Congrove of Shook Hardy & Bacon made such a motion, and Ms. Santangelo’s lawyers - Beldock Levine & Hoffman did not oppose the motion.
“In another case, however, this one pending in Brooklyn federal court - Atlantic Records v. Huggins - Beldock Levine & Hoffman has opposed Shook Hardy’s motion for one of its lawyers to be admitted pro haec vice, on the ground that Shook Hardy had been interfering with the settlement process and acting in bad faith.”
Frankly, we didn’t understand exactly what this meant so we asked EFF staff lawyer Jason Schultz.
“I have no first hand experience with these lawyers, but according to Ray’s papers, the RIAA has hired two sets of lawyers, one to be good cop and one to be bad,” Schultz told p2pnet.
“The official lawyers on the case (CLL) are the good cops - a well-respected copyright law firm that plays by the rules. The other set of lawyers from Kansas City (SHB) are playing the bad cops and stonewalling on settlement.
“Ray’s firm wants to keep the good lawyers in and the bad lawyers out of the courtroom in the hopes that with only the good lawyers in the case, some kind of reasonable settlement can be reached.
“Ray’s papers ask the Court to exclude the bad cops from being officially part of the case.”
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
See:-
lied and connived - RIAA writes to Judge McMahon, September 7, 2005
sue ‘em all - The ‘We’re Not Taking Any More’ club, September 17, 2005
settlement - File sharing, p2p criminals, March 12, 2005
