Setback For RIAA In Sweeping Lawsuits

pvt_medic writes "In a set back for the RIAA, last Friday a judge ruled that they have to file lawsuits individually. The judge's decision was that for each John Doe that the RIAA wanted identified they would have to file an individual lawsuit."

Comments

Re:No Reverse class action?

[jhylkema]

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Quoth the poster:

So class action suits don't work in reverse. A class can sue an entity, but not the other way around.

Not necessarily. Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP 23) governs class actions.

In a nutshell, the prerequisites are:

(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable,

(2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class,

(3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and

(4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.

Re:Now we just need....

[mad_dog3283]

No, that wouldn't work. In all of the letters sent by the RIAA's lawyers to those being sued, they said something along the lines of, "I affirm under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of $label." You are correct in that the RIAA does not own any copyrights, but they have been authorized to act on behalf of those who do.