Slashdot Mirror
Why the RIAA Doesn't Want Defendants Exonerated
RageAgainsttheBears writes "The RIAA is beginning to find itself in an awkward position. A few of its many, many lawsuits don't manage to end in success for the organization. Typically, when they decide a case isn't worth pursuing (due to targeting the wrong person or not having sufficient evidence), they simply move to drop the case. Counterclaims are usually dropped in turn, and everyone goes separate ways. But recently, judges have been deciding to allow the RIAA to drop the case, but still allowing the defendant's counterclaim through. According to the Ars Technica article: 'If Judge Miles-LaGrange issues a ruling exonerating Tallie Stubbs of infringement, it would be a worrisome trend for the RIAA. The music industry has become accustomed to having its way with those it accuses of file-sharing, quietly dropping cases it believes it can't win. It looks as though the courts may be ready to stop the record labels from just walking away from litigation when it doesn't like the direction it is taking and give defendants justice by fully exonerating them of any wrongdoing.'"
Surely in these cases the RIAA has admitted that they do not believe that they can secure a verdict against the defendant, so why should they be allowed to cease litigation while leaving the matter unsettled and the defendant out of pocket for legal and other expenses?
I hope this ensures that the RIAA ensures that in future cases they have valid and sufficient evidence to proceed rather than filing such frivolous suits that waste time and money for all concerned.
ah, mod points
What makes the lawsuits frivolous isn't that the offense (copyright infringement) does not exist or is not serious, but the lack of basic minimal efforts to determine that the targets of the lawsuit are in fact copyright infringers.
For example, dumping toxic waste in somebody's yard does happen sometimes and is genuinely dangerous when it does. However, that doesn't make somebody who files lawsuit after lawsuit with baseless allegations that his neigbor is dumping toxic waste in his yard any less guilty of wasting the courts' time with frivolous lawsuits.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
OK, /.'ers, since 99% of you AREN'T lawyers and don't know the first thing about law suits - while you have to do some due diligence before filing a lawsuit, you usually don't know the real facts until you are already partway into the case in a phase called "discovery," which is usually the most expensive part of the suit.
Under your torch-weilding system, I would have to root through your firewall logs BEFORE I filed a lawsuit, even though I may actually have a legitimate claim against you.
Yeah, that makes sense. /sarcasm.
-p-
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
You do not understand the words. If I kill someone, I am guilty of homicide. If I am linked to the act, I am charged or indicted. The outcome of the trial is that I am found guilty or not guilty. Being found guilty does not mean I killed someone. It means that I have been found guilty of the crime by a jury of my peers. If I am found not guilty, that does not mean I did not commit the crime. I could be guilty and be found not guilty because of the inability to produce credible evidence. And "innocent" has no legal meaning, though it is often used in place of "not guilty." Innocent means one did not do what they are accused of. That is a state of being that is irrelevant to the finding of the court.
There are common usages of the words and legal definitions of the words. If you are going to complain about someone's usage, you should at least differentiate between them.
Learn to love Alaska
And if you used a three strikes law for malpractice claims you can just add the words 'practicing for 10 years' to my previous statement about physicians. The average OB/Gyn has over a dozen suits in their practice lifetime (which starts at age 30 if you go straight through hs to college to med school to residency. Which means that is a suit every few years.) So if you actually want a doctor to deliver your baby, you might want to reconsider that statement.
No, it means that we will have less lawsuits period. If the cost of entering the game is higher then fewer people will play. However, who plays is largely determined by who has enough money to enter rather than who has s legitimate claim.
Nick