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Napster Legal Battle Reaches from Beyond the Grave
neelm writes "The EFF is reporting that EMI and Universal Music Group may have been caught lying to the Department of Justice in the 2001 antitrust investigation involving MusicNet, and pressplay. The 2001 investigation found no evidence of illegal efforts to monopolize digital music distribution, but new evidence presented by Hummer Winblad and Bertelsman ("original napster" investors) in their on-going defense from the RIAA suggests otherwise. The judge ruled that the documents to be turned over were not protected by attorney-client privilege because '[the court] finds reasonable cause to believe that the attorney's services were utilized in furtherance of the ongoing unlawful scheme.'"
Here's hoping they skip the white-collar gig and go directly to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. Heck, obstruction of justice was enough to get Martha Stewart convicted.
Whoa. The RIAA might be lying. Let me sit down a minute and get my bearings.... This is pretty shocking. Give me a paper bag so I don't hyperventilate.
Hopefully this will turn up some damning evidence on RIAA, but I no longer get my hopes up about anything related to them. Even if this works as a defense the chances that the DOJ is going to reopen the monopoly investigation is probably nil.
The part that interested me is -
"that the RIAA companies forfeited their copyright claims thanks to their coordinated and illegal effort to monopolize digital music distribution"
What exactly do they mean by forfeiting copyright claims? Surely they don't mean that the members of RIAA would lose their copyright over their music? They've got senators that kill those sorts of laws don't they?
Look, I learned real young - don't cop to anything until you know what the other guy has on you. Never.
In effect, the fed has found a really neat way around that pesky fifth amendment. Just offer you immunity - even if you don't admit all of your crimes (and who would?), you may let slip evidence which will let them come get you, all the while screaming "Your fifth amendment rights were not abridged! You incriminated yourself!"
Ah, it's the old "tunnelling over a PPP connection on a Ouija board" trick.
The fact that companies even think this is ok to try is why I have no faith in our legal system.
These companies should have something severe as a punishment, like serious jailtime for the offenders and big fines for the corporation.
Although the current justice dept will probably just put them in the proverbial "time-out" then give them a cookie.
Make an example out of a couple of them.
The government should have the will to reject a corporation's charter for shit like this.
The judge has ordered UMG and EMI to hand over previously withheld documents relating to the DoJ investigation, overriding the attorney-client privilege because "the court
I suspect that right now some law firms are watching their reputations take a serious hit. The RIAA is on a rampage and at every turn they do even more damage to their reputation; this is going be another big black mark. If we wait long enough, they will destroy their own cause with all their dirty tactics and outright lies. I'm gonna get some popcorn -- this will be fun to watch.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
The investigation will result in a few token gesture penalities and business will continue as usual. Do you really think politicians are going to allow major donors to face serious punishment?
It's, presumably, a quote from the movie "Office Space" where the characters talk about how they'll be going to "pound-me-in-the-ass prison" after stealing something like $400,000 from the bank their company wrote software for.
You see, in America, anal rape in prison is considered funny and part of the punishment for whatever crime commited. I'm not entirely sure why anal rape is considered an acceptable part of prison and consensual anal sex is considered illegal (which is rather ironic - get convicted of having consensual anal sex, get sent to a prison where it's expected that you'll get anally raped).
But, it's just another part of America's messed up culture on sex - sex is OK as a punishment, but must be bad if it's consensual. See, 'cause enjoying things is bad, according to some interpretations of the Bible.
What's with geeks and "pound me in the ass"?
It's from the movie "Office Space". Sorry, but your fantasies about anal sex with geeks will have to go unfulfilled.
Trolling is a art,
The EFF is reporting that EMI and Universal Music Group may have been caught lying to the Department of Justice in the 2001 antitrust investigation involving MusicNet
Why does this not surprise me? Why do I automatically think nothing will happen under this administration? Why is the industry always complaining when sales are actually improving and boosting their stock value?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
sounds like a Douglas Adams character
No worries - the RIAA just needs to buy a law stating that, "Any activities by any RIAA affilliate shall not be considered in violation of any law."
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I think the problem is that we clearly have a system that is unworkable in the information age and instead of dealing with it, people sue, people complain, they cry "wahhh, how will I make money with my book", or "wahhh, how will I make money with my movie", or "think of the starving artists", or they want to "fix" it in some way - without accepting that by now copyrights are an all or nothing game.
In fact copyeight compromizes are the worst thing we could to. It's like the US conolists compromising with the Brits, it's like the slave states compromising with the free states. People who thought it was workable simply were in denial of the real world and real world forces that were in play.
Universal lawyer: This is not the evidence you're looking for.
Judge: This is not the evidence I'm looking for.
Universal lawyer: Universal did not lie to the DOJ.
Judge: Universal did not lie to the DOJ.
Universal lawyer: My client may pass.
Judge: Your client may pass.
Universal lawyer: Case closed.
Judge: (slam) Case closed.
Universal sub-exec: Wow. Is that the Force?
Universal lawyer: Kinda. Down here, we call it "money".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
last i checked... where is it considered illegal in the US? Just recently in Texas anti-sodomy laws were struck down.
Besides, if that were true, half of my porn collection - completely devoid of man-on-man action - would be illegal. Heck, even some of the girl-on-girl action would be illegal ;)
Excuse my speling.
Making The Bar Project
I bet the original poster uses the acronym IANAL a lot...
I thought this was a *BSD thread...
;)
The reactions here are pretty surprising. The plaintiffs may have lied?
This is Napster we're talking about -- a company that was based on a Big Lie; that they weren't aware that their service was used largely for piracy, or that they they weren't trying to make money off of the large demand for piracy. The "smoking gun" internal emails from Shawn Fanning acknowledging that Napster was essentially a piracy service certainly made that clear for anybody who wasn't able understand the blindingly obvious.
And now we have a case where one set of companies who happen to be members of the RIAA (UMG and EMI) are suing another company that happens to be an RIAA member (BMG) and suddenly lying is a bad thing? And UMG/EMI are the bad guys, and BMG is not, even though they all happen to be members of the RIAA?
My guess is that it's not that Slashdot's readership has suddenly found religion; rather, it's situational ethics at its most extreme. It's OK to lie if you're Shawn Fanning when you say things like "I didn't intend Napster to be used for piracy and we don't want Napster to be used for illegal purposes," since, after all, you're doing a great service for the world by letting teenagers everywhere get lots of free music. BMG gets a free pass here as well; despite the fact that they're a record company, they invested in Napster (see "lots of free music").
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
a) Given the equal or greater number of stories about the niceties offered to prisoners (video games, cable, etc) - depending on the prison the though of anal violation adds somewhat to the deterrence factor
b) People make fun of what they fear. Personally being analy violated is a rather fearsome prospect to me, but if it were brought up I'd probably joke about it. There are many similar jokes based on a similarly macabre sense of humour.