p2pnet.net News Special:- The RIAA is whining because it’s lawyers have come across yet another victim they haven’t been able to cow into instant submission, something that’s happening with distressing (for the RIAA) frequency, lately.

Owned by EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and last, and least, Warner Music (USA), the misnamed Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) thought it had Paul Wilke, a 52-year-old Illinois man, nailed.

They claim he’d illegally distributed copyrighted music over the Net, the same old song used on the 20,000 or so people, including young children, whom the labels call “criminals” and “thieves” for allegedly sharing music with each other online.

But these are are civil cases, attempts by the cartel’s RIAA to cast them as ‘criminal’ notwithstanding. And what’s at issue isn’t if someone’s broken a non-existent law – it’s whether or not they’ve infringed a copyright, which is a very long way from “criminal” or “illegal”.

OnWilke, unfortunately for the Big Four, the music they’re trying to say he illegally distributed was his own, bought and paid for. Moreover, he can prove it.

Here’s how Talez summed it up in a slashdot post:

• Defendant: I’m tired of this bullshit. Show me what you really have so we can get this over and done with.
• RIAA: Uhhh… shit. We don’t have a thing. Your honour could we please search everything the defendant owns in order to find something?

So Wilke, not about to cave and with whom p2pnet will be doing a Q&A, has retained Saper Law, a Chicago firm that’s typical of the new breed of young and technically competent lawyers who’ll be increasingly showing up in civil courts around the world, confidently taking on the labels with their embarassingly incompetent ‘experts,’ and run by technically ignorant senior executives.

Saper Law is headed up by Daliah Saper, Richard Gatz, Tamar Shiller, Saper, and not in the picture, Ha Nguyen and Jamie Walsh. And Saper definitely knows where it’s at having once worked as a commercial litigator negotiating settlements for people sued by the RIAA, back when the RIAA still actually negotiated, taking into account victim circumstances. “I did a lot of those,” Saper tells p2pnet. Nowadays, of course, ‘settlements’ are based on the statutory $750 per infringement, per song, which obviously means victims can potentially be clocked for staggering amounts.

Meanwhile, Saper won her JD from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she was a staff member on the Journal of Law Technology and Policy and president of the Intellectual Property Law Society. She’s worked with the civil rights Anti-Defamation League, and Playboy Enterprises where she was involved in maintaining and enforcing Playboy’s global trademark portfolio. A member of the Illinois Bar who speaks Hebrew and Farsi, she’s an active member of the Chicago Bar Association who also volunteers for Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Kartemquin Films, Chicago Filmmakers, Women in Film, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

She’s also had extensive overseas experience having studied at Fudan University in Shanghai and the City University School of Business in London, England.

Tamar Shiller

I study Yang style T’ai Chi, I play viola and piano, and sing in the Chicago Bar Association (Symphony &) Chorus.

Techie things – I have a background in computer science, have used computers since I was two (1982) and been online since I was 13 (1993 – when gopher was cool).

Law things – I’m completing my LL.M. in IP at John Marshall and completed a specialization in IP for my JD at Michigan State.

I was admitted to the Illinois and US District Court (Northern Illinois) bars.

Jaime Walsh

Jeez, I don’t think i’ve done anything cool since I’ve been in law school. I was a piano major, studied violin, played a little Irish fiddle after I graduated, do pilates, vegetarian, could eat tofu pad thai and sour gummy worms every day of my life, loyal cub fan, I love wine and Guinness…

Ha Nguyen

Aside from the stuff on the webpage (B.S. Chemistry) I’m an avid rock climber who’s climbed in places all over North America. In my spare time I’m a climbing instructor and route setter for a rock gym in Chicago. I also enjoy playing in various soccer, tennis, and beach volleyball leagues.

Richard Gatz

Hmmm …. I studied Japanese for five years even though I’m a white boy from Chicago. I’m three time intramural bench press champion. I love playing on my computer and I think I know more about cyberspace than the average 50 year attorney ….